MARIJUANA, CRIME AND MASS OUTBREAKS OF MELLOWNESS

To the editor:

Thanks for your stance on the legalization of marijuana and for
printing the Other Voices "Rebuttal to 'Pot Shop Debate is a Case of
Smoke and Mirrors,'" demonstrating how hysterically funny an argument
can be when unrestrained by the need to make sense.

For example: "Let's face it. They can't control it now and that's one
reason it's illegal."

The author goes on to suggest a return to the medieval practice of
cutting off parts of criminals' bodies -- in the case of pot smokers,
I assume, their lips.

Two decades in law enforcement taught me that marijuana didn't make
people beat their spouses, drive recklessly, or rob liquor stores.
What marijuana did cause were mass outbreaks of uncontrolled mellowness.

Crime I witnessed with marijuana derived entirely from its status as
an illegal substance: Violent field ripoffs, drug deals gone bad, and the like.

However, my experience made me deathly afraid of methamphetamine and
its associates. We need to circle our wagons and spend our limited
resources trying to root out this drug.

It makes people violent, unreliable, and prone to lie, cheat, steal,
and even kill to stay on it. It destroys people's health, family
life, and ability to work.

Jordan Fisher Smith is a Nevada City resident.