FIVE REASONS TO LEGALIZE DRUGS

It's always good to see jokes about the feds in a cancer ward busting
marijuana patients or rational arguments for repealing Prohibition. I
write, simply, as a middle-aged, pragmatist Texan.

Here are my top five reasons for legalizing "illicit
drugs":

Compassion, a wholly Christian virtue, requires listening and
patience. Addiction is recognized as a disease, so ergo, compassion is
more important than punishment

Economically, all Southwestern states - heck, all the United States
- - would benefit if marijuana could be grown for industrial and
medical use. The facts are in; awareness is all that's needed.

Poppies and coca are grown, currently, in Latin America and
Afghanistan, just to name two regions. My guess is that if all were
grown legally, they could be regulated.

Money would be generated for treatment for addiction. Such an ancient
"problem," one that is not moral, but scientific and medical.

The right-wing war on drugs has not worked. Why not try a democratic
process in educating ourselves about these miraculous and dangerous
plants our Lord God created?

LUISA INEZ NEWTON