PREVENT MARIJUANA USE

Two recent stories on marijuana (Sept. 18 World-Herald) should cause
responsible citizens great alarm.

The first story reported the start of a national media campaign to address
the dramatic increase in childhood use of this dangerous, addictive drug.
One in five American eighth-graders has tried marijuana. Children in the
Omaha area are using this drug at the same shocking rate. Research has long
noted that adolescents' use of drugs increases as their perception of harm
decreases.

Thus, the second story on marijuana that day helps explain why today's
children think marijuana can't hurt them and is "no big deal." That story
reported on the city leaders of Santa Cruz, Calif., giving away marijuana
as "medicine."

Santa Cruz's promotion of marijuana is just one part of a
multimillion-dollar movement aimed at legalizing and normalizing marijuana.
The multifaceted campaign is working well. Nine states have legalized
marijuana as "medicine." Other states are voting to relax marijuana laws,
and Nevada voters will decide in November whether to allow legal possession
of up to three ounces of marijuana.

Children aren't hearing the truth that smoked marijuana is not a safe
"medicine." In fact, marijuana can attack the immune system and make sick
people sicker. Adults who care about children must fight this growing
pro-marijuana movement or face the loss of an entire generation of children
to this insidious drug.

Susie Dugan, Omaha

Executive director, PRIDE-Omaha, Inc.