POT A GATEWAY TO WHAT?

Marijuana is called a gateway drug, an accusation never
scientifically confirmed, suggesting the use of pot inevitably leads
users toward more addictive substances. Illegal pot only links users
to criminals promoting more addictive illegal substances ["Incidents
cited to show pot dangers," Local, Oct. 11].

If marijuana is a gateway, it's in exactly the sense described by the
historian Ken Burns in the TV series Prohibition and portrayed in the
TV series Boardwalk Empire. As with alcohol in the 1920s, illegal
marijuana is a gateway to a society in contempt of law and a world in
which public officials become targets for large-scale corruption.

The coalition against ending of prohibition of alcohol, the criminals
and well-meaning clergy, sound the same today as then. Prohibition
ended because of the appeal of tax revenues from legal sales and law
enforcement economies during a Depression. Aren't we there now?

Norman J. Harris M.D.

TUSTIN