USE COMMON SENSE IN WAR AGAINST MARIJUANA

To the editor:

In response to the Sept. 2 commentary by former drug czar speechwriter
Kevin Sabet, "The government is right -- pot is dangerous":

Mr. Sabet obviously has good intentions, but the slant created by all
those speeches he wrote is also apparent. Even more obvious is "the
government's" failure to tell us that this kind of outlook is
self-serving in that it helps bureaucrats keep their own jobs. The
worse thing that happens as a result of marijuana use is a possible
loss of short-term memory. That's if you smoke it all day long for
years, according to studies.

If Mr. Sabet, and indeed the drug czar, really used "common sense,"
they would go after the two biggest killers of people known to man --
alcohol and tobacco -- rather than try to protect society from the
dastardly effects of recreational pot use. But wait: Wouldn't a fight
to eradicate those killers wipe out two of the biggest corporate
industries in the world? We'd better re-think that because, in the
end, it's all about money, isn't it?

And, bet your boots: If "the government" could figure out a way to get
a tax stamp on a weed that you can grow in your back yard, all those
"bad things" would quickly be bearable -- just as it was when it put a
tax stamp on alcohol and when it saw the billions of tax dollars roll
in when people began killing themselves with cigarettes.

Those tax dollars are being put to use supporting the jobs created by
people who are losing the war on drugs instead of educating people
with the truth. Now that's common sense, Mr. Sabet. And that's from a
non-user who spent 32 years as a federal agent before retiring.

Frank Musaraca

Henderson