SMOKING POT IN THE MELTING POT

Thank you for your fair reporting on Michigan's medical marijuana law
("For medicinal purposes only," Sunday Read, June 14). Fairness and
honesty are rarely seen concerning this issue, and more than 70 years
of propaganda prove it.

Michigan's new law enjoyed tremendous support at the polls and from
the broadest spectrum of ideologies and ages imaginable. Marijuana is
an effective treatment for many ailments. It is, furthermore, a far
safer alternative to the highly addictive, harmful and often deadly
pharmaceutical-grade drugs routinely overprescribed. (I would be amiss
not to point out that a lack of health care coverage is a moot point
in this case.)

As a fiscal conservative, I am baffled by the fact that a nation of
capitalists continues to spend such an enormous amount of money and
effort trying to defy the laws of supply and demand. We have succeeded
where generations of alchemists failed - by turning a plant into gold.
We reject the lessons learned from Prohibition, which didn't work and
never will, regardless of how much money we waste trying to prove otherwise.

There is no question that Michigan's law will work out. The only real
issues so far have been with our law enforcement leaders' reluctance
to let go of those things on which they have built their empires - the
"crises" that exist only as a method of stuffing their coffers at the
expense of taxpayers.

Many social conservatives reluctantly but routinely admit that
marijuana is so readily available that this law will not affect the
supply in any measurable amount. Anyone who wants marijuana can get it
with very little effort. The sooner we admit that, the better off
we'll all be. I'm happy that Michigan can be a leader in this effort.
Common sense sometimes does prevail.

DAVID LIGHT

Saginaw, Mich.