MARIJUANA ISN'T EVIL

Cannabis should be legal and taxable for its many medical,
recreational and industrial uses.

While marijuana isn't harmless, as the Office of National Drug
Control Policy tells us, we all thought it was, it's easily the
least harmful recreational drug, legal or not. It's also much safer,
more affordable, and has fewer side affects than "more effective" --
not necessarily better -- medications, many of which are highly
toxic and addictive.

It's virtually impossible to die of a cannabis overdose; alcohol
poisoning alone kills over 100,000 Americans annually--about 20
times as many as all illegal drugs combined. Unlike alcohol and
tobacco, cannabis isn't physically addictive and doesn't kill brain
cells. Tobacco is radioactive and as addictive as heroin; alcohol is
the No. 1 date rape and "gateway" drug.

Why waste billions of dollars and arrest hundreds of thousands of
non-violent people for a drug one of the Drug Enforcement Agency's
own judges called "one of the safest therapeutically active
substances known to man"? Legalizing marijuana would actually make
it harder for minors to purchase than it is now -- drug
dealers seldom ask to see ID.

Pete Haahr

Endicott