THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE LEGALIZING POT

Like many other recent contributors to the E-R, Martha Claudio
(letters, Wednesday) points to the problems associated with alcohol's
prohibition during the early 20th century to support the argument for
lifting legal restrictions on marijuana. Her logic seems to be that
since alcohol's downside (in her view) evaporated once the law was
changed, the same thing can be expected to happen once we legalize
pot.

The fallacy in this viewpoint is that while the problems associated
with alcohol changed after 1933, they most certainly did not diminish,
and very likely have become much worse. Just as those early feminist
prohibitionists might have predicted, families have been fractured,
jobs lost and futures destroyed. The death and injury toll from
traffic accidents, overdoses, date rapes, plus domestic and street
violence, much of it fueled by the liberal availability of alcohol,
continues unabated.

It is difficult to imagine how we make this situation better by
opening the door wider to another addictive substance that affects
brain function so profoundly. Marijuana has been known to mankind for
thousands of years, yet very few societies have chosen to embrace it,
and most successful civilizations have sought to keep this toxic
substance at bay and on the margins. Before we march off lemming-like
to a golden future of pot for all, we ought to try to find out why.

Carl Ochsner, Chico