PUT REEFER MADNESS IN THE PAST

RE: LINDA Williamson, "Legalizing pot is not a good idea." We as smokers of
taste and moderation found more than a few unsettling statements in your
Comment on Aug. 8th. Linda points to one 1994 study which found 276 drivers
killed in accidents had used pot. What study? Where? Alberta? Canada? And
we're curious, what were the drunk-driving fatalities for that same year?

Since you yourself can't be bothered with marijuana culture, your assertion
that booze "makes for more convivial conversation" than marijuana seems
baseless. Some of the most intelligent, educated people we've met abstain
from alcohol yet choose to partake in reefer smoking. Linda writes that we
are not sure what we're smoking.

Even if legalization is a pipedream, decriminalization would at least allow
us to grow and regulate our own if we choose to. Linda said "this stuff
can have you practically hallucinating after a couple tokes." Sigmund Freud
once said something similar. Of course, he was a cokehead. Linda does make
some good points but we'll never get to the root of this debate until we
all openly and honestly look at both sides of the coin. It's time to put
the reefer madness stigma where it belongs - in the past.

Kevin Gibson and Rick Burnett

(Fans of Cheech and Chong, are we?)