IMPERFECT, BUT IT CAN BE FIXED

Your concerns about Proposition 19 are misplaced ("No on Prop. 19," Sept. 16).

Prop. 19 offers the major benefit of ending the bankrupt regime of
marijuana prohibition and allowing it to be legally regulated and taxed.

Though Prop. 19 may arguably have a few problems, as you point out,
it sensibly provides that the Legislature can fix these by adopting
further legislation - unlike too many other initiatives, which don't
allow such modification. For instance, you rightly question the lack
of uniform statewide controls over distribution and taxation, but
this is a problem that the Legislature can and should readily address
should Prop 19. pass (in fact, such legislation is already being drafted).

As for the clause protecting workers against discrimination in the
workplace, what's your problem? Do you really think that workers
should be fired for off-the-job use of marijuana that does not impair
job performance? Urine testing is an inaccurate, biased, invasive,
widely abused technology that has no more place in a free country
than our current drug laws.

Dale Gieringer, director, California NORML

(National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), San Francisco