'POT' COULD BE CONTROLED

Re Robert Huffstetler's May 29 letter, "Marijuana laws are unfair":
Marijuana laws have always been unfair and far too criminalized.
Huffstetler makes a good point: "Never forget that we have the best
government that money can buy." After the stiff penalties are summed
in a marijuana possession case, amounts can reach as high as $20,000
in some states.

Where does this money go? As long as marijuana is illegal, the
government can keep making these unrealistic amounts of money and it
doesn't have to control production legally.

Money is put back into our "war on drugs" by buying drug-sniffing
dogs that some of the time are more unreliable than reliable, and by
training more corrupt officials who seize the booty and in turn sell
or use the drugs themselves. Laws need to change, but as letter
writer Jack Page of Little Rock recently stated, the people are
"apathetic and find comfort in their ignorance."

Even the Canadian Centre of Substance Abuse, three years ago,
recommended that the severity of punishment for a cannabis possession
charge should be reduced.

It's time to start fighting real crime and outlaw aspects of our
lives that actually harm our health instead of arresting people for
possession of the only illegal naturally growing weed [while]
allowing them to slowly kill themselves as long as they're 21. As
Robert also stated, people will misuse and abuse anything; if
marijuana were legal, our government could have a real way to control
its production.