CANADA IS REASONABLE AND SANE

RE "ONLY in Canada" (Aug. 4): You ask what is going on in Canada? I think it
is called being reasonable and sane. Who is Robert Knight to speak for me or
my fellow Americans? Is he reporting poll data when he states we disrespect
your social policy moves, or is he simply engaged in wishful thinking? I
think it is called spin, salesmanship, and misreporting.

To be civil and kind about it, I can tell you every single major drug policy
study ever done recommends decriminalization of marijuana. If you want to
compete with the United States to have the most intoxicated kids on the
planet, continue looking for wisdom from the likes of Robert Knight and Phil
McLean.

While you are quoting conservatives, why not quote one of my acquaintances
who is far better educated and respected than either of these two
commentators: "As often as not, democracy sucks. But on the question of
marijuana laws, the good sense of the people is doing yeoman work ... it is
teaching that however ill-advised it may be to take the drug, it is less
well-advised to continue to arrest ten thousand people every week for a
practice or indulgence of such exiguous social consequence." Those would be
the words of William F. Buckley Jr., a man with whom these two cannot begin
to compete.

Matthew Hulett

Brick, N.J.

(And a former Sun columnist, as it happens)