LUMPING DRUGS TOGETHER SENDS WRONG MESSAGE

That was quite an interesting logic used by the writer of the June 25 letter
"Jail time needed to protect community from drug users."

The most glaring deficiency in the letter was the continual use of the word
drugs, as if all illegal drugs are the same. To call someone a drug user
without defining which drugs were used is to say that all illegal drugs are
the same. Here is the problem. You have someone who tries marijuana and
finds that they don't really have the problems they were told they would
have. Now that they are a "drug user," they feel that they have nothing to
lose by trying cocaine, heroin, or "ice."

The generalization that all illegal drugs have the same negative effects
leads children to use what used to be called "hard drugs." That is the
gateway.

Keeping sick and dying Americans from using marijuana as medicine is an
example that is not lost on our youth. If that policy was changed, not only
would those seriously ill Americans be better cared for, our children would
see that there is a difference between heroin and marijuana. Those that
experiment with marijuana would then not feel like they have crossed a line
where they could not go back, and would feel free to refuse other drugs.

Jim Miller

Silverton, N.J.