A QUESTION OF PERSONAL FREEDOM

Regarding the marijuana initiative:

I don't smoke pot. I don't use tobacco. A big bottle of rum to flavor my
tea and baking lasts me a year.

I don't have bill collectors coming to my door. I've had no moving traffic
violations during my 47 years in Southern Nevada.

In other words, I'm a responsible citizen who also is a volunteer for
Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement, the group seeking passage of
Question 9.

Democracy requires responsibility. Our country promotes democracy
throughout the world to provide all people with freedom. And freedom is
what I want when it comes to the marijuana initiative in the coming election.

I'm old. Though healthy now, I would use marijuana to provide comfort for
the aches and pains of aging. I've spoken with several people whose family
members suffered severe pain prior to death and wanted sufficient marijuana
as a pain-reliever without side effects.

State licensing will allow doctors to prescribe it, and state oversight
will assure a product without dangerous additives.

We're in scaredy-cat mode these days -- we're fixated on "what might
happen." Now is the time to protect our freedoms by exercising them.
Decriminalizing the use of marijuana should not depend on what the police
and other authorities see in their crystal ball.

It is parents or individuals who have the responsibility of dealing with
alcohol and cigarettes and marijuana in the privacy of their homes.

This is a democracy. We don't need Taliban kind of control from our
authorities that results in suffering and loss of personal freedom.

EUGENIE THROCKMORTON