LETTER OF THE WEEK

TIME TO END TWO MARIJUANA FICTIONS

By Norman Michael Harman

George F. Will is right ["Rocky Mountain high," op-ed, Nov. 29]: The
medical marijuana movement is partly a fiction, a stand-in for
legalization. This is not to say that marijuana does not relieve a
wide range of ailments. It does. But if Mr. Will and Colorado
Attorney General John Suthers believe that medical marijuana will
cause people to lose faith in the legal system and "care less as law
itself loses its dignity," they are living in their own fictional world.

The fact that tens of millions of Americans use marijuana -- for
medical purposes or otherwise -- is testament to the disrespect for
some laws that marijuana prohibition engenders. This disrespect
didn't start with the medical marijuana reforms; it has been going on
since the misinformation and outright lies that were used to drum up
support for marijuana prohibition were accepted by a gullible
Congress in the 1930s.

It's time to rectify both fictions -- medical marijuana and
prohibition -- through full legalization.

Norman Michael Harman

Harpers Ferry, W.Va.

Pubdate: Sun, 6 Dec 2009

Source: Washington Post (DC)

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n1063/a06.html