READER'S VIEW: REGARDING THE DANGERS OF MARIJUANA USE

Jeanne Black-Ferguson disagrees with reputable physicians on the dangers of
marijuana as quoted and documented by Mary Smith (Ledger, July 7). Perhaps
Black-Ferguson is not aware that marijuana, the weed, is a Schedule I drug
at the federal level, meaning it has high potential for abuse, no currently
acceptable medical use and lacks safety and efficacy.

As one of the reasons for supporting decriminalization, Black-Ferguson
states: ' '... many hundreds of thousands of our citizens (are) imprisoned
for simple possession of the plant ..." an oft-quoted misrepresentation not
borne out by fact.

One of the many inmates to whom she refers, interviewed in an article, ' '
Chasing the demons of drugs," (Ledger, June 14), confirmed that
approximately ' ' 90 percent of the people locked in jails and prisons are
there because of addiction of drugs." The inmate further states: ' 'My
crime was aggravated robbery, but my motive was dope."

' 'I became addicted from the very first hit I took off the joint being
passed around among my peers ..."

' 'I'm here with countless other good men and women ."

The other ' 'good men and women" to whom he refers, like himself, might
have been ' 'good" at one time, but they are people who allowed drugs to
ruin their lives, sending them down the path of crime. He blames marijuana
for his misfortune and rightfully so. Simply put, people are in jail for
the crimes they commit - not for ' 'simple possession" as the pro-drug
movement would have us believe and as stated by Black-Ferguson.

It would seem to me that making marijuana more available and legal would
only increase the prison population and ruin more lives and families. If
our legislators would take the drug problem more seriously and get the
truth out to our young people about the dangers of marijuana, we could
eliminate the drug problem, empty our jails, live in a safer society and
perhaps have money left over to continue anti-drug education and all the '
'good men and women" who are in jail for drug-induced crime would not be there.