POT PUT-DOWN

EDITOR: Just because marijuana legalization is beyond the short-sided
agenda of our present backwards government is no reason to pooh-pooh
it, anymore so than gay rights, renewable energy or peace in the Mideast.

Even if, as you state in Thursday's editorial, marijuana is not always
healthful, that hardly distinguishes it from alcohol, tobacco, junk
food, gambling, guns or countless other everyday products that
Americans are free to consume.

What does distinguish it is the fact that it and its users have been
singled out for suppression and persecution at taxpayer expense,
thereby creating a criminal market.

DALE GIERINGER

State director, California NORML

National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws