ADDICTION ARGUMENT IS JUST FEAR-MONGERING OVER POT INITIATIVE

Columnist Marcos Breton proposes that a significant portion of the 3.3
million Californians who use marijuana are addicted to pot ("Pot
people are in denial about Prop. 19"; Our Region, Sept. 29). He bases
this supposition on the following premise: "Answer this question: If
you had to stop smoking marijuana forever, could you? My guess is that
many couldn't quit if they tried."

To which I'd reply, "So what?"

No doubt some people may have difficulty arbitrarily halting an
activity particularly a fairly innocuous one like consuming cannabis
that provides them pleasure. Most Americans would have trouble giving
up a scoop of ice cream after dinner, surfing the Internet, having
sexual relations with their partner, or any number of similarly
pleasurable behaviors or indulgences. Does that make them addicted?
Does Breton really believe that society would be better off outlawing
television because tens of millions of Americans enjoy tuning in week
after week to "Dancing With the Stars"?

Further, if given the option, most adults would likely have a much
harder time withdrawing from television or ice cream than they would
pot. Tens of millions of Americans have voluntarily ceased their use
of cannabis, including (by his own admission) columnist Breton.
According to the federal government's survey data, nearly one out of
two Americans has experimented with weed at some point in their lives.
Yet only about 10 percent say that they've used cannabis in the past
year and only 6 percent of the population define themselves as
consumers in the past month. In short, many people try pot, but very
few keep on using it. After all, does anyone really think that
President Barack Obama still "joneses" for an occasional toke?

That said, all of us are probably aware of someone who we believed
smoked too much pot. But there is certainly a difference between doing
something too much and being clinically addicted. Are marathoners
addicted to running? Would Breton argue that Oakland A's ticket
holders are addicted to baseball?

Breton's fear-mongering aside, Californians have no legitimate reason
not to embrace Proposition 19 this November. It recognizes the reality
that millions of Californians consume cannabis privately and
responsibly, and acknowledges that it makes no sense to continue to
spend limited law enforcement resources to target and prosecute them.
Let's stop stigmatizing and criminalizing those adults who make the
objectively safer decision to consume marijuana instead of alcohol or
tobacco.