LETTER OF THE WEEK

MARIJUANA PROHIBITION IS A WASTE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESOURCES

By Anthony Maenza

Michael Hiltzik criticizes the methods used to estimate California's
marijuana crop, but he never gives the value of or even mentions
California's biggest legal crop. This leaves readers in the dark.
How are we expected to make a comparison? We are still left wondering
if pot is, in fact, the biggest cash crop.

There are not "reasonable arguments on both sides" of the debate of
whether to legalize marijuana. There is nothing reasonable about
prohibition; it squanders finite resources, creates drug cartels and
overcrowds prisons. And in an allegedly free country, there is
nothing reasonable about having to ask the government's permission to
use a substance that -- at worst -- only hurts oneself.

Anthony Maenza

Oceanside

Pubdate: Sun, 26 Apr 2009

Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09.n446.a06.html