CHANGE STATE'S MARIJUANA LAWS

State law continues to incarcerate individuals who use, possess,
cultivate or distribute marijuana, even if the marijuana is for
personal use by adults.

Incarceration of nonviolent individuals not only wastes taxpayer
money, it overcrowds prisons so much that violent criminals are often
allowed to go free when they are eligible for parole.

Also, look at law-abiding taxpayers, people who had jobs and families
who have been torn apart because they used marijuana and were caught.
They might have used it to help fight pain and emotional distress,
where pills couldn't do what marijuana can. Right now these nonviolent
people sit in prison.

Worst of all, cancer and AIDS patients who use medical marijuana with
their doctors' approval are subject to all of these state penalties.

Marijuana causes less harm to both individuals and society than
alcohol or tobacco -- and yet responsible adult drinkers and smokers
are not punished by the state in any way. Drug-free zones within the
state force marijuana offenders into long mandatory sentences. A
person who uses marijuana in his or her home should not be subject to
a year in prison because that home is near a school or other drug-free
zone.

Our state government should use tax money to prosecute violent crime,
not punish marijuana users. The legislature has a chance to change
this state policy -- but this year, again, they failed to do so.

Without a legal, regulated market for marijuana, drug dealers have no
reason not to target children or to sell contaminated and dangerous
samples. If marijuana were treated more like alcohol, for example,
children would have a harder time obtaining it.

Walter Hollis

Hoopeston