DECRIMINALIZING DOPE OPENS DOOR TO A PLAGUE

I agree with Joe Bertram on many subjects, but not on decriminalizing
marijuana (Viewpoint, Nov. 19). Marijuana is not harmless, nor
nonaddictive. Today's pot is a potent drug and its use leads to
mental, emotional and social impairments, especially in younger,
developing minds.

Pot rivals tobacco and alcohol as a gateway drug. Virtually every
addict here in Hawaii says their drug use started with alcohol and
pot. Do we need another legal or quasi-legal - decriminalized - drug
in our society?

Consider the fallout from two legal ones. Tobacco use causes 420,000 deaths
annually, an unending holocaust we've been unable to end 40 years after the
first Surgeon General's report on tobacco. Why can't we stamp out this
genocidal plague? Simple: tobacco is legal and highly addictive. The
detrimental effects of our other addictive, legal drug - alcohol - are well
documented and absolutely disastrous.

Marijuana is addictive, psychologically and emotionally. Make it legal
or decriminalized and the same types of dependence, mental impairment
and addiction will occur. Decriminalization of marijuana puts our
society on an extremely dangerous, slippery slope. If it's
decriminalized, how much can I have? A half-ounce? A half-pound?
Whatever the amount, some will use pot as barter for other drugs -
ice, cocaine, heroin - and the entire illegal drug economy flourishes.

Decriminalizing pot is a disastrous, half-baked wrong idea. We don't
need another legal/quasi-legal, brain-impairing, dependence-producing
drug in our society. And to all the recreational pot users, inhaling
anything other than fresh air is really bad for your physical and
mental health.

Jerome Kellner

Wailuku