REEFER MADNESS NOT BEHIND VOTE

As someone who has worked in youth health issues for sometime, I
think it is very important to refute points made in Andy McIntosh's
article "Reefer madness mentality persists" (The Californian, May 21).

Mr. McIntosh wants us to believe that a movie released 75 years ago,
which I have never seen, nor has anyone I know, is the reason the
push to legalize marijuana (Proposition 19) lost at the ballot box
last November. Not likely.

The voters of California, after reading both sides of the argument to
legalize marijuana, came to the logical conclusion that California
won't be better off with more people walking, working, playing and
driving stoned.

California families rightfully supported the defeat of legalizing
marijuana because according to the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, marijuana is the No. 1 addiction for 65 percent or
greater of teens in drug rehab (in San Diego County, the percentage
is even higher, at 73 percent).

In addition, marijuana smoking is destructive to the maturing
adolescent brain by delaying the acquisition of social skills,
altering brain circuits, causing short-term memory loss and
contributing to amotivational syndrome.

As an example of what would happen if California legalized marijuana,
we should look to Alaska's failed marijuana legalization experiment.
The state of Alaska did what the California pro-pot lobby is pushing
and legalized marijuana use; but after several reports found that
Alaska's 12- to 17-year-olds used marijuana at more than twice the
national average for their age group, Alaska's residents voted in
1990 to repeal the legalization of marijuana.

Mr. McIntosh also buys into this old myth that law enforcement is
anti-legalization of marijuana because they want to maintain their
job security. This is irrational and wrong. A recent KBPS report
found that inmates in our state's prisons incarcerated for marijuana
charges alone ---- and that's all marijuana charges: possession,
transport and sale ---- make up less than 1 percent of the prison population.

All this being said, Mr. McIntosh would want us to believe that
marijuana is harmless and that it would be cheaper and easier just to
let a whole generation deal with life's difficulties by passing them a joint.

That is not leadership, that is not responsibility, nor an acceptable solution.