MARIJUANA SHOULD BE LEGAL

I'm writing about the column, "Marijuana should not be illegal" (CT, April
1). I totally agree.

I'd like to add that marijuana is relatively safe in that it has never
caused a documented death from its use. However, marijuana prohibition is
very dangerous. Dangerous because marijuana is then sold only by criminals
who often sell other much more dangerous drugs and who offer free samples
of the much more dangerous drugs to their marijuana customers.

This association with other drugs leads to the so-called "gateway effect"
of marijuana. For the sake of our children, we need to regulate and control
the sale of marijuana.

Only legal products can be regulated by our government. Only legal products
can be controlled by our government. And only legal products can be taxed
by our government.

Speaking of taxes, it seems to me that non-marijuana users would be very
much in favor of taxing a product they don't use.

Around here, taxing someone else's vice is very popular.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.