LEGALIZING POT THE ONLY CHOICE

RE YOUR comment that legalization of marijuana is not a choice (Letters,
Nov. 28): Sorry, you are wrong. It's the only rational choice. Any further
prosecutions will only increase the price; hence, the profits and the
people trying to make that fast million that they would probably never make
any other way.

The only rational way to stop this is to allow people to grow all that they
want -- like tomatoes. Then the artificially created, ridiculously
over-inflated price of pot -- typically $1,000 per plant -- estimated by
police, who have a vested interest in keeping pot illegal because it means
their jobs.

It takes the same amount of effort and skill to grow tomatoes as it does to
grow pot. This invites any average backyard gardener to try his luck.

For a million dollars, it's worth anyone's risk -- especially if the
statistics that you quote are accurate. Only 1% see jail.

Articles like this only exacerbate the situation and encourage more people
to set up grow houses. Most, by the way, are not, as the police would have
you believe, organized crime, although that is a catch-all phrase and can
mean anything from the Mafia (which we all know doesn't exist) to bikers to
various ethnic/nationalistic groups.

The government getting out of the pot biz and freeing the weed is the only
rational way to stop the traffic in pot. If you need any more proof of
this, simply show me where there is an illegal market in tomatoes.

If pot were the same price as tomatoes, only the users would grow a few
plants for themselves. There would be no profit motive for pot and pot
wouldn't sell for a thousand dollars a plant.

Why is this so difficult for so many people to realize, besides the ones as
mentioned above, who have vested interests in keeping pot illegal? Put the
police back to doing honest police work and we won't need to hire more cops
and increase taxes to further chase our own tails.

In the meantime, keep up the good work encouraging more and more people to
become millionaires.

Evangelos Xristos

Hamilton

(We didn't say legalization is not a choice, we said we can't stop busting
grow houses because of the myriad social and economic problems they cause.
By the way, ever gotten high on tomato salad?)