ALCOHOL KILLING MANY MORE AMERICANS THAN MARIJUANA

To the Editor:

I read your editorial on Gov. Johnson's interview with Playboy Magazine.
Your remark about President Carter's defeat, which implied that he lost the
election due to his interview with Playboy, is not very good reporting. I
hope you have not forgotten the October surprise.

The governor's desire to look into the laws, especially those dealing with
marijuana, is laudatory not damnable. If you still believe that the war on
drugs is honest or has any affect on the drug trade, look around you.

Ask yourself if drugs are still available? Ask yourself if the drug war is
successful keeping drugs from children? Ask any high school kid.

In the past 10 years, one and one-half million Americans have died from the
effects of alcohol. In those same 10 years, no one - not one, zip - has died
from the weed.

Would we not be better off to take booze from the hands of fools who are
drinking themselves to death and give them all the pot they can smoke? Look
how many lives we could save.

Jose Hopwood- Quantico, Md.