WHY NOT LEGALIZE POT?

Perhaps the most encouraging statistics I've read this year were those in
the USA TODAY/CNN/ Gallup Poll on Friday showing that 34% of surveyed
Americans favor the legalization of marijuana ("Marijuana attains record
support," News).

Opposition was greatest among the elderly, regular churchgoers and Republicans.

As a retired business executive who smoked marijuana during the 1960's and
1970's and experimented with a few other drugs as well as alcohol and
tobacco, I would relish the legalization of marijuana--with the same age
restrictions as alcohol and tobacco--as it has been and remains my drug of
choice.

Of the many people I know who continue to use marijuana, I am not aware of
any who have "graduated" to so-called hard drugs. It remains hypocritical
to allow alcohol and tobacco to be consumed and not marijuana.

Terry Friedlander
Ketchum, Idaho