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Editor: The Sun-Star is right: It's time for a serious discussion of
whether marijuana prohibition makes any sense (editorial, Tuesday).

Our current laws give us the worst of all possible worlds: A drug
that's widely used and almost universally available, but without any
of the common-sense controls that legal regulation allows us to apply
to alcohol and tobacco.

Marijuana is California's top cash crop. Isn't it time we brought it
out of the shadows and under reasonable controls?

And while it's true that $1 billion wouldn't solve the state budget
crisis, it could save the jobs of an awful lot of teachers. It makes
no sense to let this very large industry be tax-exempt in the name of
failed policies.

BRUCE MIRKEN

director of communications Marijuana Policy Project

San Francisco