END OF PROHIBITION IS MODEL FOR ENDING WAR ON DRUGS

What an enlightened insight into the lost war on drugs by Tony
Newman's "Can juries turn the tide on marijuana?" (Opinion, Jan. 5).
This, by refusing to convict on low-level pot charges is the key.
This does not apply to those that are violent drug offenders.

Tony referenced prohibition and neighbors refusing to convict
neighbors for drinking violations, which was a felony during the 1920s.

After prohibition, alcohol was legal. To sell alcohol, you had to pay
for a license and you had to pay taxes. What a novel idea, seeing
everything that has been done concerning the war on drugs has only
filled our prisons with low-level drug offenders.

It's something Attorney General Bill Schuette should reconsider,
considering Michigan economic condition.

Among the reasons Prohibition was repealed in 1933 were the impact
that it would have on jobs and economic growth during the Depression.

Repercussions: breweries reopened, non-violent alcohol offenders were
released from prison, jobs were created, the tax base expanded, and
the biggest extra on repealing Prohibition was that violence
associated with it vanished. We could learn a lesson here.

James DiVietri

Lansing