SUPPORT FOR LEGISLATURE'S PROPOSAL ON POT The thunderers want to continue threatening jail as the best way to keep people off marijuana ("Pot possession decriminalization bill approved by Legislative Panel," Feb. 16) even though it is clear that current criminal penalties for possessing marijuana reduce neither supply nor demand. Anyone who wants it can get it. Close to 50 percent of Massachusetts voters over the age of 18 have tried it at least once in their lifetime. Most never try any other illicit drug, almost all are good people and some are politicians. Since 2000, by substantial margins voters in three state senate and 23 state representative districts, including Norwell in 2002, supported making marijuana possession a civil violation and not a crime. The voters recognize the criminal justice system is not the place to express disapproval. They understand that parents are the best anti-drug. Parent-imposed punishments and voluntary counseling are more likely to rehabilitate the child than state-imposed punishments. When they do not, the police or parents of a child below the age of 17 may petition the Juvenile Court that the child is in need of services. The Court can then use the coercive power of the state to help the parents and child. Legalizing, taxing and regulating this agricultural commodity used in the past month by about a tenth of Massachusetts' adult population, while prohibiting it to children as we do tobacco and alcohol, is the best policy consistent with securing the Constitution's promised blessings of liberty. Until the federal prohibition is relaxed, the decriminalization proposed is fiscally responsible, humane and sensible. Steven S. Epstein, Esq. Georgetown, MA
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