LEGALIZE MARIJUANA, LEARN FROM PROHIBITION

Thank you for publishing Leonard Pitts Jr.'s column "Legalize
Marijuana, Treat, Don't Punish" on July 20.

In our failed "War on Drugs" we have indeed spent billions, ruined
millions of lives, jailed a very unequal number of blacks and, most
important of all, given the criminal world an enormous source of
revenue. All because human nature wants what it wants and no amount of
punishment will change that reality, as we should have learned by the
failure of Prohibition.

If marijuana could be regulated in the same way as liquor, the
benefits would be huge. The money flowing into the drug cartels, etc.,
would cease, causing an immediate drop in the crime rate. Instead, the
tax on legal marijuana could pay for treatment, not expensive jail
time, for non-violent persons. As for those who view all addicts as
moral failures, let those who are totally free of any sin, cast the
first stone.

Zelia Abbot, West Hartford