SHERIFF'S MARIJUANA ARGUMENT

Keith Royal used his starfish analogy to show how the drug war, even
though it's a losing venture, is somehow making a positive
difference. He then used the word illegal six times in one sentence
to show us his disgust for growers of marijuana.

However, Royal has missed the most important point: Marijuana and
alcohol are simply drugs and, if anything, alcohol is the more
dangerous of the two. It is the drug laws which separate them.

Make beer and wine illegal and you'll have the same problems we have
today with marijuana. We don't have to speculate; this country did
make alcohol illegal during Prohibition and it was a miserable
failure. The murder rate went up 70 percent during Prohibition and
then returned to normal afterward.

Prohibition drove alcohol underground, fostered police corruption and
funneled great fortunes to gangsters. I guess we don't learn our
lessons because this is exactly what is happening with marijuana
today. Look across the border to Mexico with its daily drug war
casualties to see how bad it might get here. Unless ... unless we
read our history and finally learn our lesson.

Charley Hooper

Grass Valley