IT'S TIME WE LEGALIZE MARIJUANA

Kudos to Dan MacArthur for his excellent column, Oct. 12, on the
subject of banning medical marijuana operations in Fort Collins. I
find it deeply disturbing that the Concerned Citizens of Fort Collins
seem so concerned about marijuana and have so little concern about
the effects of alcohol on our young. Every day in the Coloradoan or
the Denver Post, we read accounts of fatal accidents involving teens
who were drinking, but rarely is the cause marijuana.

As MacArthur pointed out, prohibition is "an exercise in futility."
It is time to legalize pot, and do away with the hypocrisy of
"medical marijuana." We in this country spend billions of dollars
annually chasing and incarcerating people whose only crime was
smoking pot. Driving the weed underground will only serve to further
exacerbate the jail capacity problem we already have. It is ironic
that we can look forward, should the ban pass, to further strains on
our jails just at the same time we are being asked to renew a tax to
fund these same jails.

For the record, I do not smoke pot, I have never smoked pot and have
no interest in or intention of smoking it.

Howard Spivak,