STUDENT ATHLETES DON'T HAVE BRAINS TO HANDLE POT LAW

Editor, the Tribune: As a Boone County resident who has never smoked
marijuana, I agree with Sen. Chuck Gross of St. Charles. His proposed
bill would help Columbia residents realize the importance of sending
the right message to public schoolchildren: "You don't know any better!"

While medical marijuana prescriptions are intended for adults and
municipal possession laws apply to adults and not minors, the
progressively minded Gross feels that's too risky. Student athletes
must be stupid and impressionable. They get the wrong message about
"legalized pot." Rumors abound, and what else is there to do for fun
in Columbia? The ensuing mass of tourney-going pot smokers will send
this town into a chaotic mass of children stricken with "Reefer
Madness" not seen since the black days of the 1950s when the whole
populace of children was driven insane smoking the wacky weed.

At-large Missourians seem to hold such low regard for the "sickies" to
keep their youngsters away. How righteous the mighty live as to look
at their pale, lifeless faces and say "Nay, you may not toke upon
these joints and pollute the young minds of student athletes." These
children are impressionable and cannot tell the difference between
"hits" and "hits."

Missouri's standard of "proficiency" for MAP testing is less than 50
percent. There is no standard of proficiency for the DARE program. It
is a brave move to suggest that fewer than half of the high school
athletes would not know the difference between recreational pot and
terminal cancer.

Mike Bellman