HARMFUL CONSEQUENCE OF MARIJUANA: ARREST

In regard to your Aug. 31 editorial "The Grass Is Always Greener":

This hasn't been a good summer for pot prohibitionists. The Supreme Court
ruled that cops can't use thermal imagers without a search warrant; Canada
legalized medical marijuana; Portugal decriminalized possession; a Jamaican
commission recommended allowing private use and a national poll reported
more than one-third of Americans support full legalization.

Now, to top it off, we have Afroman with a "monster music hit" so cleverly
pro-marijuana that the editors of The Wall Street Journal believe it to be
an "inside joke" appealing to the millions damaged by smoking pot.

But unless you count getting arrested for marijuana -- something that has,
indeed, damaged millions of Americans -- there are fewer harmful
consequences associated with pot than virtually any other drug, including
(especially) alcohol and tobacco. At least that's been the conclusion of
every major government commission that studied marijuana over the past century.

Marijuana smokers know this from personal experience. So marijuana smokers
relish "Because I Got High" because it ridicules the idea you can't be a
productive citizen and smoke pot. Wake up, editors. This song is poking fun
at you and you take it seriously -- which makes the Afroman phenomenon even
more deliciously hilarious.

Paul H. Kuhn Jr. Nashville, Tenn.