MARIJUANA PUNISHMENT DOES NOT FIT 'CRIME'

To the Editor of THE EAGLE:-

In response to Joe Buffis' Aug. 27 letter "Let Capeless get dealers of
streets": First, it is not priceless to send people to prison for two
years, it costs the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the
taxpayers of this county truly resent this, not to mention the cost of
retrials. Second, during the U.S. prohibition on alcohol between 1919 and
1933, tens of thousands of people were imprisoned every year for liquor
offenses while Americans drank more liquor than ever.

Marijuana is considered a soft drug, does not lead to hard drugs, and
unlike hard drugs has been proven countless times that is not physically
addictive to the extent of alcohol. The paper is full of people arrested
for DUI, third offense, fourth offense, etc.

Marijuana does not have the harmful effects that alcohol does. It has also
been proven by government testing that toxicity is nowhere near that of
cigarettes or alcohol, yet the police spend a countless amount of tax
dollars doing surveillance to eradicate this virtually harmless weed.
People that I knew from high school and college that smoked "weed" grew up
to be teachers, nurses, doctors, business owners, politicians, and police
officers. Possession of marijuana should be treated like possession of
alcohol.

Valerie Nickerson-Bird