DECRIMINALIZING POT WOULD MAKE SENSE

I saw the "Teens say pot easier to buy than cigarettes" editorial cartoon
by Jim McCloskey in last Friday's edition of The News Leader as being a
wake-up call more than anything else. From my own personal observations,
the kids are not buying the kind of high-grade pure marijuana which the
University of Mississippi is growing for the government for its
Compassionate Investigational New Drug program, but rather the street
variety of it (if it is marijuana) that is often laced with impurities
which make them sick rather than high.

Tobacco is a dangerous drug for both kids and adults alike. Prescription
medicine with lethal side effects and alcohol poisoning come to mind, too.

No one has ever died from an overdose of uncontaminated marijuana. It is a
safe drug when compared to other illegal ones on the black market. The
government lifting its marijuana prohibition and letting the drug be
manufactured with a filter like it does with nicotine cigarettes would make
it a much safer drug. The decriminalization of its usage would be the most
sensible way, as I see it, to curb the underage possession of alcohol by
minors, as well.

JOHN PAUL TURNER

Churchville