The letters to the editor and the commercials on TV during the
campaign would have had you believe that people supporting the
legalization of hemp would distribute it to children and allow people
to use it on the job. Alcohol and cigarettes are both legal and I have
never heard of any distribution programs at the local schools. There
are laws and company policies which restrict the use of these legal
substances.

I am a person who believes strongly in privacy and individuals'
rights. What adults choose to do to themselves is their business as
long as it does not infringe on the rights of others. Why is it that
society feels that drugs with as many detrimental effects as alcohol
and cigarettes should be legal and marijuana should be illegal? Is
this not a violation of people's constitutional equality?

People, educate yourselves on marijuana by reading the government
commissioned Warren Report, the Shafer Commission report, the 1982
studies by the IOM and the WHO, and the 1976 Marijuana and Health
Report, just to mention a few. Many of these reports have concluded
that arresting and incarcerating the young is more harmful to them
than marijuana use. Read "Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts" by Lynn
Zimmer, Ph.D. and John P. Morgan, M.D.

Laws are made to protect us from others. What we choose to do to
ourselves should be governed only by ourselves. Even God gave me the
freedom to choose for myself.

Denise Van Dam