POT-SMOKING DEMOCRATS?

An article in the June 17 edition of The Times, "College towns
Boston, Boulder tops in pot use," described how marijuana usage
varies in different parts of the country.

A color-coded map accompanying the article caught my attention
because of its resemblance to the blue-state/red-state maps we all
saw after last November's presidential election.

My curiosity was piqued, so I downloaded both the marijuana and
election data and plotted them against each other
(oas.samhsa.gov/substate2k5/secC.htm) and
(www.ipl.org/div/election/updates.html).

Well slap me silly if there wasn't an obvious, strong correspondence
between marijuana usage and Kerry states. For example, in only six
out of 31 Bush states had fewer than 5 percent of the residents
smoked marijuana in the past 30 days, while in only four out of 19
Kerry states had fewer than 5 percent of residents not smoked the
stuff in the past 30 days.

Now, this does not mean that voting Democratic makes one want to smoke pot.

Nor does it mean that smoking pot makes one want to vote for Democrats.

It may simply mean that something in the drinking water of some
states makes one want to smoke pot and vote for Democrats.

Rush E. Elkins

Huntsville