NEWS' PICTURE OF TOKERS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

As the saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words." The picture
accompanying Dave Kopel's column in the May 20 Sunday Denver Post is very
telling. Kopel ("Editorial wrong on marijuana") tells us why those who use
medical marijuana can continue to do so despite a recent Supreme Court
ruling, while the two young ladies in the picture partake with impunity at
a recent protest outside the Capitol.

They both appear to be on their last legs, obviously near death, driven to
using an illegal drug to ease their horrible pain and suffering. Likewise
for the poor fellow with the carefully spiked hair and the "Fly High"
shirt. The dozen or so others in the picture appear to be in equally bad
shape, their emaciated bodies sporting sunglasses, tank tops and backward
ball caps.

Sarcasm aside, what the picture tells us is what many of us have known all
along: the effort to legalize marijuana for medicinal use is backed in
large part by social malcontents who feel they have a right to get high
whenever and wherever they want.

These people want us to think they are protectors of individual freedom.
Americans enjoy more personal freedom than the vast majority of people on
this planet. If the pot-smoking whiners were really concerned about
people's rights, they would set aside their addictive recreational habits
and do something about the places in the world where there are real
concerns about freedom -- like the villages in South and Central America
where poor farmers grow the pot they are smoking.

Steve Laudeman

Denver