THERE'S A BETTER SOLUTION TO MARIJUANA BAN

I must object to Ms. Stanford's Dec. 16 letter for several reasons
("Keep fighting marijuana laws"). Regardless of what the San Diego
County Board of Supervisors does or doesn't do, young people will
experiment with marijuana and other kinds of stimulation, legal or
not, because they are young people and crave adventure. It would
presumably be less expensive to obey state law and print ID cards for
medically certified patients than to pay legal fees to appeal an
ill-designed measure that has been rejected twice by a Superior Court
judge.

Not all users of marijuana "bring their marijuana use into their adult
life." I cannot even guess at the number of useful, functioning adults
I have known who have experimented with marijuana as teenagers.

Adults who are suffering from the effects of chemotherapy, from
painful injuries, burns, surgeries and chemicals to reduce the
sufferings of AIDS have found marijuana use most beneficial to their
lives. My father was 78 when he became an occasional user. He died of
cancer at 79. What kind of inhumane society are we when we deny people
in their late years the ameliorating effects of a natural substance on
some half-baked moral pretense? The county supervisors are wrong, Ms.
Stanford is wrong and the federal government is wrong.

David Drielsma

Cardiff