REPEAL MARIJUANA PROHIBITION

An open letter to our elected representatives regarding marijuana legalization:

A recent column in the Wall Street Journal (Weekend Edition, April
26) made the case for marijuana decriminalization leading to
legalization. (There was also a column offering an opposing position on drugs.)

Also recently, the University of Colorado was the site for a National
Forum on Marijuana sponsored by the student organization NORML. I
attended some of those sessions.

On April 20, there was the non-sanctioned, non-violent,
civil-disobedient 4/20 cannabis celebration on the CU campus that I
observed. An estimated 10,000 people attended.

Marijuana is wrongly listed as a Schedule 1 drug -- that it is highly
addictive and has no medical use.

Clearly this classification is wrong.

Given the widespread and routine use of marijuana by large segments
of the public, the acknowledged use of it by prominent public
officials and its relatively safe profile (certainly as compared to
tobacco and alcohol), it is absolutely astounding to me that
marijuana prohibition continues.

That in a time of huge budget deficits we are wasting money enforcing
this marijuana prohibition, arresting and imprisoning non-violent
marijuana users at great cost and increasing violent drug-related
crime by artificially increasing the profitability of the marijuana
industry is simply unconscionable.

I strongly urge that you work to decriminalize and then legalize marijuana.

Having on the books a law that is routinely ignored and only
selectively enforced is a prescription for disrespect for all laws.

It's time to repeal marijuana prohibition.

Lee Gilbert

Boulder