WHY IS TOBACCO LEGAL AND MARIJUANA ILLEGAL?

I'VE NOTICED more than once your editor suggesting that it would be
naive and impossible to outlaw tobacco and expect that people would
respect any such law. I've also noticed the editor's conservative
opinion on the topic of marijuana legalization.

Most of the early 20th century anti-marijuana propaganda has been
proven to be lies created by racists who blamed Mexican immigrants for
all the economic problems of the time. It is incredibly hypocritical
of both the U.S. and Canadian governments to declare marijuana
dangerous to one's health and therefore illegal yet acknowledge
tobacco's danger to health and continue to allow the public to legally
consume a proven lethal substance.

How is danger to the public defined? Surely the thousands of deaths
attributed to tobacco and none by marijuana would logically beg the
question, why is tobacco legal and marijuana illegal?

Fred Pakkala

(They are both dangerous.)