STORY SHOWS NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF POT USE

Our nation has been horrified by the story of Phillip Garrido, who is
accused of kidnapping an 11-year-old girl, raping and imprisoning her
for 18 years and fathering two children with her. Now comes news that
Garrido has a long history of marijuana and other drug use. Another
poster boy for pot use.

Who could have predicted these latest revelations? Virtually anyone
who knows scientific facts about marijuana - like pot use impairs
development of the frontal lobe of the brain, the center of logic,
planning and reason, and the seat of morality, will and spirituality.

Garrido, in a letter seeking a sentence reduction in another case,
said that marijuana and other drugs were to blame for his sexual
misbehavior. Garrido sounds just like Maui offenders who are
convicted of crimes who refuse to accept responsibility, saying
instead that drugs made them do it. This sniveling defense has been
recommended by attorneys of almost every criminal defendant for the
past 20 years here: Do not admit guilt, take no responsibility
whatsoever, apologize and tell the court that drugs made you do it.

The sound you may hear now is Maui's abysmally misguided pot
advocates defending their favorite herb with lies, half-truths,
anecdotal nonsense and fictional folklore. Pay no attention to them.
No to pot and no to unquestionably the biggest gateway drug to pot - tobacco.

Jerome Kellner

Wailuku