KEEP POT FROM STREETS, WORKPLACES BUT LET ALASKANS USE IT AT HOME

It was recently announced that the marijuana industry now grosses $35
billion a year, making it the largest cash crop, not just for some
states, but for the entire nation. All tax free, of course. This is an
example of de facto government price supports gone awry. You and I are
still paying through the nose to maintain these supports. Marijuana
laws are often the first introduction of children to life on the wrong
side of the law and the mystique that entails. Prohibition brought us
the violence of organized gangsters. Today we have the violence of
disorganized gangsters. How much of that is funded by marijuana profits?

It is time that we regulate cannabis in the same way we regulate the
more familiar drug with the much higher death toll -- ethyl alcohol.
Keep it out of the workplace and off the highways, and allow people
freedom in the privacy of their own homes. When even the conservative
Voice of the Times can see the need for a change ("War on drugs is
simply not working," Dec. 22), it is clearly time.

Tim Coahran

Anchorage