DECRIMINALIZE IT

It's time to stop caging responsible adults for using the relatively
safe God-given plant cannabis ("Committee hears marijuana bill," March
26, p. 3). Cannabis is less harmful and addictive than coffee, hasn't
killed one person in more than 5,000 documented years of use -
compared to cigarettes, which kill more than 1,000 Americans daily -
and even government studies discredit the so called gateway theory. It
is unreasonable and unacceptable for the government to continue
classifying the plant as a Schedule I substance along with heroin
while methamphetamine is only a Schedule II substance. In fact, its
misclassification may create more of a gateway drug problem when youth
try cannabis and think heroin and meth must not be a big deal either.
Logically, telling the truth about cannabis would lower heroin addiction.

Stan White

Dillon, Colo.