RELAXING RULES ON POT UNWISE

In response to "Filner and colleagues seek shift on medical
marijuana" (Nov. 3): As the mother of a teenager, I applaud the
recent action by the U.S. attorneys and the Obama administration to
bring the full measure of enforcement against the illegal
mass-distribution centers throughout California that profit from the
outright sale of marijuana. Their enforcement has not been aimed at
seriously ill individual users of marijuana, but has rightly targeted
domestic drug cartels operating major marijuana retail centers. In
the short term, these dispensaries are a threat to public health and
safety by acting as a magnet for crime due to easy access to large
amounts of drugs, cash and guns (as so often reported in the U-T). In
the long-term they send the wrong message to our teens that marijuana
is neither harmful nor illegal.

Evelyn Hogan, La Mesa