EDUCATION IS KEY

Kudos to Stanley Torres for having the integrity and courage to stand
up and point out the utter folly of marijuana prohibition, which was
foisted on Saipan and the rest of the world by overzealous American
bureaucrats.

To anyone who genuinely believes that prohibiting marijuana is an
effective way to keep it away from teens, have a look at the U.S.
government's own data for (illegal) marijuana and (legal) tobacco.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the percentage of
12th-graders who said they used marijuana in the last year has
fluctuated wildly between 20 percent and 50 percent, with a figure of
32.8 percent for 2009.

Meanwhile, cigarette use by teens has fallen steadily. In 1975, 40
percent of high school seniors said they had smoked cigarettes in the
last month. By 2009, this number had dropped to 20.1 percent. This was
accomplished without prohibiting tobacco, but by putting strict rules
on cigarette advertising and educating teens about the serious health
risks of smoking.

If people want to protect teens from pot, they should stop wasting
money arresting adults who prefer smoking pot to getting drunk (a real
public health threat) and put that money into anti-drug education and
treatment.

Anders Froehlich via e-mail