MARIJUANA LAWS STILL NEED CHANGE

As a drug law reform advocate, I am very pleased that nonviolent drug
offenders will soon be released from Alabama's overcrowded and violent
prison system. However, that is equivalent to putting a Band-Aid on an open
jugular.

Despite the fact that Alabama has some of the harshest drug laws in the
nation, it is painfully obvious they are not acting as a deterrent. What is
the state going to do to keep nonviolent drug offenders from refilling the
prison system?

If we leave drug laws the way they are, then it is inevitable that a lot of
the same people being released will soon find themselves back in prison.

Substance abuse is a health problem and not a judicial one. You cannot
incarcerate your way out of it.

I suggest we change the laws ... starting with marijuana. We need to remove
all criminal penalties for responsible adult use.

Many of the people in prison for nonviolent drug offenses are there for
possessing, smoking, growing or selling marijuana. While marijuana has
never killed anyone, people die every day in the unjustified war against it.

What is the moral basis for persecuting, incarcerating and killing a
nonviolent segment of society because of what they choose to ingest?

Loretta Nall

President, U.S. Marijuana Party

Alexander City