ARE MORALS WORTH MONEY?

In response to "We'll pay for hemp vote" (Letters, Nov. 10):

I agree that people are going to smoke marijuana regardless, but how
does that make it OK? I am not sure which plant Jerika Ezell has been
living under, but all this fuss about legalizing hemp and marijuana in
Alaska is false. Federal law says marijuana is illegal and we as a
state cannot go above that. The only thing Proposition 5 would have
done is decriminalize marijuana. So it would still be illegal in the
eyes of the law, but we just wouldn't do anything about it. What kind
of message would that send?

Does Jerika also realize that if Proposition 5 had been approved, the
federal government would have taken away our funding for whatever it
felt necessary? Probably those streets she wanted to fix. I would like
to hear her concerns then. Sure, there are other problems we face, but
that doesn't make an illegal drug any less of one. So my question to
her is this: Exactly when did we decide to lose our morals in order to
save money?

- -- Jena-Lee Wright, Anchorage