PARENTS SHOULD BE HONEST WITH THEIR KIDS ABOUT POT

Katherine Lanpher completely misses the point in ``Baby boomers who fail to
warn kids about drugs feel squeamish, not guilty'' (Silicon Valley Life,
May 26). The reason adults don't talk to their kids about drugs is that
kids know more about drugs than their parents. For example, kids know
marijuana is less harmful than alcohol or cigarettes. Do parents know this?
They did when they smoked pot. What happened to their long-term memory? Too
many years of marijuana abstinence ``for the good of the children'' has,
perhaps, addled their brains.

Meanwhile, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America (using our tax dollars)
has scared parents into believing that the pot they smoked back in the '60s
was somehow different than the pot their kids use today (it may have been
weaker, but we smoked more). DARE teaches parents about the mythical
gateway theory (in fact, four out of five pot smokers never go on to even
try harder drugs). And let's not forget William Bennett's mantra,
``Marijuana is immoral. Marijuana is wrong.''

What's immoral is parents not finding out the facts about drugs rather than
accepting the pap from the various institutions that make their living
creating and then fighting the War on Drugs. What's wrong is lying to kids
about marijuana. When they find out how safe and enjoyable pot is, why
should they listen to us when we try to tell them that PCP, airplane glue
and other nasty drugs are, indeed, nasty?

Kids are smart, but if you treat them like idiots, they'll do dumb things.

Peter McWilliams
Los Angeles

Checked-by: Richard Lake