EXPERT REGULATORS

To the editor:

Some 70 years ago, every physician with a $1 narcotics license could
prescribe marijuana. Then marijuana was made illegal and its use became
a symbol of rebellion for the youngsters and a justification for
continuous expansion of federal drug control efforts. Rising prices
resulted in corruption and abuses at all levels of government.

Whether use of marijuana can be of benefit to a person who is ill can be
best determined by the user and not some distant senator. But the people
we send to Washington quickly decide that they know what each person
needs and how to protect us from ourselves and they have unlimited
numbers of paid consultants and the world's largest propaganda machine
to endorse their opinions.

These same people in the Senate and House regulate such things as the
number of days a woman should be allowed to spend in a hospital after
childbirth, the amount of water we use to flush a toilet, the guns we
can have in our homes, and the pills to be used for birth control. There
is more of this expert help on the way, for the Congress is still in
session.

Our entrenched senators and representatives will continue to talk of
investigations, commissions and reforms while they vote for more
intrusive regulations, tolerating the inevitable abuses of power. The
only possible remedy to the situation is a reduction in the taxes we
pay, forcing cuts in the size and scope of government.

Herbert Steinbeck, Henderson