IN A DAZE OVER POT LEGALIZATION

According to someone's poll, the majority of Californians favor
recreational use of marijuana.

The United States is the only country in the world that requires the
maker of an otherwise legal product not to advertise its product. No
Winston Cup racing in the USA! Furthermore, cigarette manufacturers
are forced by the government to spend money to discourage the
purchase of their product. The government prohibits smoking in bars,
public buildings, parks and the like.

Yet, even with this hard line on cigarette smoking, we approved the
smoking of marijuana, an addictive drug, for "medical reasons."

We treat marijuana as some magical drug and as though there were no
other drugs already on the market to treat the users' ailments. We
don't require medical marijuana to be purchased through a pharmacist
but allow some hole-in-the wall shop that gets it from
some backyard producer to sell it.

Now we are going to vote on and possibly approve the recreational
use of marijuana smoking so our politicians can tax its use.

Our society is so befuddled and confused in its thinking.

Cigarette smoking and marijuana smoking are bad for us. To legalize
marijuana for recreational use will simply create a whole new set of
problems for our society.

Terry Spears

Stockton