FAVORING MEDICINAL POT, 'NATURAL HERB,' JUSTIFIED

Gallantly brave state Rep. Joe Bertram is justified in opposing
(Viewpoint, Nov. 19) "Operation Weed Killer."

In 1975 the Ford administration issued a white paper which addressed
national concerns on the ever-growing drug use. It was decided that
only the highly addictive drugs should be focused on, excusing
marijuana as a minor concern for tax reasons.

In the late '80s, under Reagan, enforcement of all drug laws was upped
in hopes of stopping or limiting recreational use. Much to Reagan's
dismay, though, his efforts did little to reduce the amount of illegal
substances on the street, and the funding to enforce these new
policies was almost $2 billion a year.

I agree that certain drugs should still continue to be criminalized,
but marijuana is not in the same class as lethal drugs such as crystal
methamphetamine. Instead of using tax dollars to find ways of spinning
marijuana use as as severely detriment to the American way of life,
why not simply legalize it and save people from spending money on
enforcement that, statistically, the population doesn't want.

Marijuana is a natural herb that relieves people of pain without the
ghastly side effects that other drugs on the market have. I support
our state representative on that issue and I'm sure many would and
should support him in his future decisions in this regard.

Trevor Hamilton

Makawao