DECRIMINALIZE POT

This is in response to Paul Ruschmann's July 29 commentary, "It's time to
ease nation's laws on marijuana."

Bravo for publishing this article. It makes some excellent points.

The unfortunate truth is that as long as our country respects any level of
freedom, it will be impossible to end the use of marijuana -- and the cost
of arresting and imprisoning so many people is worse than the effect of the
drug itself.

We need to start by looking at the approaches that other countries are
trying. We also need to start decriminalizing marijuana at the federal
level -- they should let states deal with small-time users, dealers, and
medical users as each state sees fit. The current drug war is about as
popular as the 55 mph speed limit was: we recognize that it is
well-intentioned, but it is clearly the wrong approach.

Mark Lehrer, Salt Lake City, Utah