MASS. VOTERS GOT IT RIGHT ON 2008 BALLOT QUESTION

THE GLOBE editorial staff seems to feel that they know better than the
voters when it comes to drugs ("Ruling on marijuana searches leaves
behind a strange odor," Editorial, April 25).

Speaking of "an ill-considered 2008 state ballot question
decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana," the Globe says that we
got it wrong, and that the smell of pot is still an indication of a
potential crime worthy of a police stop and search.

Then, reaching for the last refuge of the illogical, the editorial
points out that one person searched under the pretext of pot smell was
carrying cocaine - a fact, not a correlation.

Along with the majority of voters, I voted to decriminalize marijuana
after careful consideration, and it was an easy decision.

Criminalizing drugs has filled our prisons with nonviolent offenders;
cost hundreds of millions of dollars a year in Massachusetts for
police, prosecutors, courts, and prisons; ruined neighborhoods, and
generally set law enforcement against our communities.

Better to let people smoke and deal with the health consequences, than
enforce a failed prohibition or use it to enforce other equally
illogical drug laws.

Jonathan A. Bower

Wayland