'WEED' IS TOUGH TO ERADICATE

Last week, agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration found 2,000
marijuana plants growing in Dell Canyon. A few days later, they found
another 2,500 nearby. In St. George, 100 pounds of pot was confiscated
during a routine traffic stop.

There will be more to come.

For a century, the caretakers of the public good have tried to weed out
marijuana. The task, however, has proven to be more daunting than
eliminating dandelions. American culture is laced with the stuff. When talk
show host Jay Leno can rib his band leader about smoking dope and comedians
like Cheech Marin can build a career on it, you know many Americans have
accepted the drug as part of the American grain.

In some minds, marijuana has gone from its days as "demon reefer" to a
rather simple alternative vice - more akin to bathtub gin, say, than crack
cocaine.

Marijuana has even seeped into our language. Now, Nevada wants to legalize
the drug, some California doctors want to prescribe it as a medicine and
hundreds farmers south of the border are itching to grow it.

When the Deseret News did a story about the dangers of legalizing marijuana
not along ago, the piece prompted dozens of letters and e- mails, part of
an orchestrated campaign. Said one: "There's nothing to do in Utah but
smoke weed," then went on to say, "Be warned, Utah. We're coming to change
your drug laws."

You can apparently add a new color to the political spectrum: the
"marijuana militant."

Of course, those who favor legalization of marijuana hate nothing more than
having society's patrician voices speak out against them. To the reformers,
the naysayers reach the height of sanctimony when they say, "Marijuana is
evil. It kills true personal fulfillment. It damages individuals, families
and society. Growing it, selling it and smoking it are crimes because the
drug is a thief. It steals the best things America has to offer."

To the "letter tree" of e-mailers who flooded the Deseret News with angry
protests the last time we spoke out against the drug, we have only one
thing to say:

Marijuana is evil. It kills true personal fulfillment. It kills the best
things America has to offer.