POT SHOULD BE TAXED & REGULATED LIKE ALCOHOL

Editor, Manteca Bulletin,

Excess is death and moderation is life. Really Dennis, your
anti-Berkeley bias (Dennis Wyatt's July 10 column: "Hey man, like tax
me, like a lot, like now") is shooting your professional journalistic
integrity right out of the saddle! Is this not a free society?

Nothing that isn't overtly dangerous should be made arbitrarily
illegal. No commonly used herb, commodity or comestible should be
denied to any free adult in America. We are free to choose, as
individual adults, what, how much and how often we may indulge in.
After all it's not marijuana that's harmful per se; but the habitual
over-use of it can have a dulling effect on the mind. Just like
alcohol, marijuana should be regulated and taxed because, unlike
alcohol, there are no documented incidents of death caused by
marijuana use. That's right, zero direct fatalities!

Just because we don't want children using it does not mean that
adults should be barred from it. The same is true of a number of
things including tobacco, prescription drugs and alcohol. When are
we as a society going to learn to be responsible for ourselves?

If we ask the government to delve into areas which are by rights
personal choices; we are opening the door to arbitrary prohibition on
a broader scale. And prohibition does not work in a free society.
The only way government prohibition could work is if our freedoms
were rescinded, repealed or at least substantially reduced! And I
don't think anybody wants that.

Raise your children by setting a good example; teach them well; and
above all, don't cast blame on inanimate objects, substances or
disparate groups of peoples! As Shakespeare said, the fault lies
within us all; that's the way we're made. We each have to learn to
choose wisely in a free society. Freedom carries with it
responsibility; if children aren't taught this, they grow into
irresponsibly excessive adults.

Steven J. Catalano

Manteca

July 10, 2009