RESPECT UP IN SMOKE

While sentencing pot-grower Matthew Bottorff, Circuit Judge Glenn Hara was
reported to have lectured the defendant (Tribune-Herald, Sept. 25).

"What bothers me about marijuana," says the judge, "is not so much
marijuana itself. I'm not saying that marijuana necessarily,
chemically, leads to other drugs. It psychologically leads to
disregard of marijuana laws, which leads to disregard of other laws
concerning drugs."

Your honor, I'm bothered by the very same thing. The fact that I could
be arrested for enjoying a plant that makes me a little more peaceful
and easygoing, and therefore more likely to respect law and order,
makes me lose all sorts of respect for drug laws.

What I am hearing from our legal system is marijuana is illegal, a
"detrimental drug." Yet alcohol ruins far more lives than pot.
Pot-smokers aren't prone to irrational acts of antisocial violence.
Perhaps that is why it's illegal; we can't have a country full of
pacifists if we want to win the war in Afghanistan.

Please, let us raise a little consciousness here. If you want to ruin
someone's life for growing pot, don't blame it on the pot. Blame it on
your own legal system. Poverty, hard knocks and ignorance will always
plague us, and so we will always attempt to sweeten life by imbibing
intoxicants, be they legal or otherwise.

Too bad the good herb is illegal. These judges could change all that,
but they merely maintain the status quo, crucifying one good soul
after another

Amelia Raymond

Papaikou