USE OF MARIJUANA PREVALENT IN WHITE, MIDDLE-CLASS AREAS

Editor, the Tribune: I must have misunderstood that article on Almeta
Crayton. Surely she isn't suggesting that marijuana is just now coming into
the white, middle-class neighborhood. Marijuana became rampant during the
Vietnam police action when it was readily available to soldiers.
Middle-class kids playing at rebellion picked up on it and became hippies.
Rock bands such as the Beatles advocated its use to their listeners: white
middle-class people. This is an oversimplification, but it's mainly true.

Fast forward to the '90s and '00s in Columbia. I've been at several
workplaces where the distribution of pot and alcohol to college kids was an
integral part of the recruitment process. Supervisors in their late 20s and
early 30s would talk about their marijuana consumption to prove how cool
they were, and the younger employees would be impressed, especially when
the younger employees were told they could be trusted more than the older
employees.

Now we've got actors like Woody Harrelson advocating legalization of pot,
so it's trendy to make jewelry out of that ugly hemp stuff and to try to
get pot legalized.

Here's a tip for you young people. Smoking of any kind - tobacco, pot,
cornsilk, whatever - makes you age more quickly. It creates smoker's
wrinkles around the eyes, among other things.

Central-city realities are a whole other issue.

Sharon Scarbrough