MARIJUANA SUPPORT

Kathleen Parker's account of rapidly growing citizen support for
legalized marijuana was excellent but didn't touch on three points
important to Texans (Page B9, Wednesday).

The DEA has estimated that marijuana accounts for well over half of
cartel sales. Legal marijuana would slash the chaos on our border and
the impact of cartel operations in some 200 U.S. cities and in over 60
of our national parks.

For over 30 years some 85 percent of 12th graders have reported
marijuana is "easy to get" and over a million teens sell it. Sale to
licensed adults would greatly reduce casual teen access to drugs and
involvement with criminals.

At the other end of the spectrum, polls show that a large majority of
Texans already favor medical use of marijuana yet our representatives
have failed us.

The recent White House declaration that the federal government would
honor state laws has removed the most common objection. It is also
absurd that medical use of cocaine and morphine (essentially heroin)
is allowed but some representatives claim marijuana is "too dangerous"
for doctors to control in the interests of the suffering. Voters
should demand change.

Jerry Epstein, Houston