BURN ONE DOWN

[Re: "Stay off the Grass!" July 19]: Across America, I
hear a lot of marijuana-flavored music from the stall walls
of our finest coffeehouses, chocolatiers, and music
retailers. However, I find it highly disingenuous on those
merchants' parts to woo me into their THC-free environs
with spiritual Bob Marley music or the righteous sounds of
Louis Armstrong, when both great men were life-long
advocates of cannabis decriminalization.

Congress can nullify its draconian anti-cannabis laws more quickly
than it allocates hundreds of billions of dollars for distant war
operations in central Asia. Reasonable state and local restrictions
should replace the immoral federal prohibition, whose time now has
truly come to an end.

Ivan Smason

Santa Monica