BAD DOUBLE STANDARD

A person who drinks is portrayed as the personable Joe Six-Pack, a
good ol' potential voter. The pot smoker is still unjustly vilified.

Pot and alcohol alter brain chemistry, but when a pot smoker abuses
the drug, he will eat more than his share of pizza, and fall asleep
earlier than planned. The alcohol consumer may become violent, riot in
the streets of Chico and fight with the officers who show up to keep
the peace.

A person wanting to enjoy pot has to call it medication, and sometimes
it is. Many medical-pot users have tried other pharmaceutical remedies
and found the side effects to be unacceptable. Many use pot
responsibly, just like Joe S. uses his beer.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, overdose
deaths from pharmaceutical pain killers reached 7,500 in 2004. It was
determined that most of the deaths were not accidents but from abuse
of the drugs.

The CDC also reports that 75,766 deaths were attributed to excessive
alcohol use in 2001 alone. In that same year there were 331 alcohol
deaths from overdose. No overdose death has ever been recorded for
pot.

The problem is not that pot is kind of legal, but that it is still
mostly illegal. Overturning [Prop] 215 would keep the price high and
our national forests full of armed Mexican cartels. Small
entrepreneurs will still have crops out back that attract thieves as
they always have. I don't recommend pot, alcohol, prohibition or
backyard pot gardens.

Don Fultz

Oroville