POT PROHIBITION SERVES NO PURPOSE

I must express my sadness and anger at reading about the seven Cambridge
high school students arrested and charged with possession of marijuana in
last month's police raids on local schools. If convicted, these young
people will be given criminal records before they are even out of school.
With a criminal record, these young citizens will have great difficulty
being bonded, will likely not be allowed to leave the country, and may not
even be able to get a job! Why? Because they were found to be in possession
of a substance no more harmful than a cup of coffee!

Despite what our government and its agencies tell us, marijuana has never
been shown to have any long-term negative effects. It does not cause brain
damage, it does not result in poor grades and it does not lead to harder
drugs. These facts have all been scientifically proven (see Lynn Zimmer and
John P. Morgan, Exposing Marijuana Myths: A Review of the Scientific
Evidence, October 1995, The Open Society Institute/The Lindesmith Center).

Why then do most governments of the West continue to vilify marijuana? I
strongly suspect that lobbying pressure from large pharmaceutical, tobacco,
alcohol and possibly even textile corporations is motivating our so-called
representatives to oppose marijuana legalization because these corporations
fear competition.

It's time we realized that marijuana prohibition is a failure. It has
caused serious problems while contributing nothing positive to our society.
The worst of these problems was illustrated tragically last month. What a
backwards society we are to abuse our youth in this way.

Dave Colter, Cambridge