LEGALIZING POT WOULD REDUCE CHILDREN"S ACCESS

Regarding your article about the parents of Genevieve Pauser reflecting on
how she ended up involved with a murder, "'This can't be happening" (March 26).

Mrs. Pauser speculates it was her daughter's marijuana use that led to her
downfall. I would counter that it is failed drug policies that allow
substances like marijuana to be available to children. Regulation of
alcohol and tobacco helps keep these substances, arguably much more
dangerous than marijuana, out of the hands of children.

But drug dealers do not card children who want to buy pot. Pot is easy for
children to obtain, much easier than alcohol or cigarettes.

Marijuana prohibition has turned a humble weed into something more valuable
than gold, and it is marijuana prohibition that creates the incentive for
robberies like the one Pauser was involved in.

The Dutch essentially have had legal marijuana since 1976. By allowing
regulated and taxed use of cannabis by adults, Dutch drug policies focus
resources on treatment and prevention of the use of harder drugs.

The fact that Dutch adults and children use much less marijuana than
Americans is an indicator that non-coercive social norms are far more
effective than prohibition, which replaces personal responsibility with
government paternalism.

Marijuana prohibition is clearly harming our community. It is time to study
new approaches, like the Dutch model, that have the potential to make our
community safer while reducing substance abuse. Four murders in five years
only reiterates the fact that marijuana prohibition is nothing more than a
counterproductive fraud.

Gary Storck, Madison