DON'T LOOK THE OTHER WAY ON POT

Dear Editor:

After my letter to the editor regarding Sheriff Braudis' retirement
was printed, I read with interest Rick Leonard's candidacy
announcement for the position. I'm pleased that he at least thinks
there are times and places when drug investigations and tougher
enforcement are warranted, but I strongly disagree with his statement
that marijuana has been "de facto legalized in Colorado."

Mr. Leonard has just admitted that the folks who criticize the
medical marijuana law because it's a "smokescreen" to legalize weed
are right. Marijuana was not legalized, medical marijuana was, and
only at the state level, and the law is already being "bent" and
misapplied. Now we're seeing stories about kids facing criminal
charges for selling their parents' "medical marijuana" at school, and
about dispensaries creating high-crime areas as they become burglary
targets. Is this your idea of how to reduce the crime rate, Mr. Leonard?

If you read my previous letter, you'd realize that if you want to
enable a kid to throw the rest of his life away, don't enforce the
minimum drinking age, look the other way on drug offenses, and make
marijuana legal.

Anyone who thinks marijuana is harmless, and isn't a gateway drug, is
either delusional, grossly uninformed, or a user himself who doesn't
want to give it up. It's time we woke up to the fact that we have a
serious substance abuse problem to solve, and rationalizing it,
ignoring it, or enabling it will all come at the cost of our
children's futures, some sooner and some later.

Kevin Stephenson

Glenwood Springs