TOP CASH CROP

Regarding your editorial ("A faltering bid to legalize marijuana"), no
matter how clever one can write, cannabis not a gateway drug, and
that's according to drug rehabilitation experts and the National
Institute on Drug Abuse.

The war on drugs is not merely a boondoggle, it's a failed policy
leading to over 750,000 arrests in this country each year for smoking
a little harmless weed.

U.S. cannabis revenues topped $110 billion last year, making it the
largest cash crop in the country. In a nation that values markets and
democracy equally, it seems hypocritical to outlaw something most
Americans have voted for with their pocketbooks and wallets.

John Thomas Ellis,

Kentfield, Cal.

- -Mr. Ellis is a columnist and media critic for The West Coast Leaf.