SUPPORT POLICE, NOT A MOVE TO LEGALIZE

Editor, the Times:

In his letter "Becoming obvious there's no winning our drug war",
written by Daniel Hettler in the Oct. 22 edition of your paper,
Hettler states in part, "If everyone could grow their own marijuana
legally, we would have no gangs. No, people are not going to give up
smoking pot, we all need a puff to handle the insanity of these drug
wars."

Hettler seems to be saying that smoking pot will help our problems go
away. What happens when the "high" goes away? Is not the problem still
there?

It is reported that at the informative justice forum on Oct.19 retired
judge Wallace Craig stated, "any ideas of legalizing marijuana as a
way to stem the tide of money to gangs was ludicrous". My question is,
"why legalize a dangerous, harmful, possibly addictive drug?"

If marijuana was to be legalized and in 20 years is proven to have
serious detrimental health effects, will not the government be open to
lawsuit? What happened in the tobacco industry? What will happen in
the future?

Why am I so concerned about the dangerous drug marijuana?

Members of the Institute for Social Research (ISR) have found in their
research substance abuse is still common at age 35, UM study finds.
The odds of smoking at the age of 35 were more than 12 times higher
for participants who used cigarettes during the month prior to thier
twelfth grade survey than for those who had never smoked by their
senior year.

Should we not support our police in trying to control this harmful
drug?

Eric Myrholm

Abbotsford