MARIJUANA PROPOSITION WILL HELP TAXPAYERS, STUDENTS

Editor, the Tribune: I want to thank columnist Forrest Rose, who wrote an
article on Feb. 4 regarding Proposition 1 on the April ballot. The article
was straightforward, sensible and reflects the kind of critical thinking
that the media have been criticized for not having.

Humankind will progress only when the people who take the
responsibility of communication in society reach beyond the propaganda
and the rhetoric employed by both sides of an argument. It is folly to
deny that side effects can't occur with the use of marijuana, but it
is perhaps even more damaging to overstate the harmfulness of those
effects.

Proposition 1 represents a reasonable approach to dealing with the
people in our community who are victims of a 70-year war. It would
exempt ill people with a written doctor's approval from becoming even
further victimized.

This proposition would also allow young people to keep financial aid,
improving their lives through education and increasing social capital
should they happen to be caught experimenting with the least harmful
of illegal drugs: marijuana.

There is one thing I would like to have seen mentioned in the article.
The Missouri state budget is approximately $11 billion. Nine of that
$11 billion is appropriated for various activities, and $2 billion is
considered "expendable." That $2 billion supports two primary
programs: higher education and the prison system. As we face a
devastating budget crisis, we scramble to find money to build more
prisons for a population filled with more nonviolent offenders than
violent ones.

Amber Langston