MARIJUANA: KEEP DRUG ILLEGAL

Jon Beydler's opinion (July 16) that marijuana should be legalized is
a great example of self absorption. If legalized, who would you
rather have driving your child's school bus, ambulance, fire truck,
cab, personal car, etc.? A person who is high on "legal" hallucinate
marijuana or non-user of marijuana? I would rather keep it illegal
and fight the drug dealers and smugglers along with forcing the
marijuana user to pay the high price to get the illegal drug. The
article is a sad example of where some of our society is heading --
the wrong way.

As stated on facts about marijuana at www.marijuana-info.org: "Not
surprisingly, marijuana intoxication can cause distorted perceptions,
impaired coordination, difficulty in thinking and problem solving,
and problems with learning and memory. Research has shown that
marijuana's adverse impact on learning and memory can last for days
or weeks after the acute effects of the drug wear off. As a result,
someone who smokes marijuana every day may be functioning at a
suboptimal intellectual level all of the time."

Dennis Riswold, Chandler