BLOWIN' MORE SMOKE

On last week's special issue about marijuana:

While I can sympathize with writer Solomon Jones' personal struggles with
addiction, it is unfortunate he mistakenly blames marijuana as the gateway
to his past perils.

According to a 1999 Institute of Medicine Report: "There is no conclusive
evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the
subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs."

The report further explains that marijuana has been mistaken for a gateway
drug in the past because:

"Patterns in progression of drug use from adolescence to adulthood are
strikingly regular. Because it is the most widely used illicit drug,
marijuana is predictably the first illicit drug most people encounter. Not
surprisingly, most users of other illicit drugs have used marijuana first.
Though in fact, most drug users begin with alcohol and nicotine before
marijuana--usually before they are of legal age."

DIANE R. FORNBACHER

Executive Director

Tri-State Drug Policy Forum

Bensalem

PW asks: Is it time to reconsider our marijuana laws? My response is: Yes,
let's reconsider the laws. After reading the PW articles, I have concluded
that we need stronger laws, stiffer penalties and absolute enforcement
against the use of marijuana.

MARK G. THOMAS

Philadelphia

According to Tim Whitaker's "Blowin' Smoke" editorial, there are no
politicians making an issue of our drug laws.

My fellow Pennsylvanians, I present to you Ken Krawchuk, Libertarian
gubernatorial candidate for 2002.

Says Krawchuk: "By making drugs illegal, their price has shot through the
roof. This causes an increase in thefts as addicts have to steal more to
pay for their habits. Huge profits mean more money to support organized
crime, which leads to even higher crime rates. And the bigger the profits,
the worse the class of criminals are that get involved ... Drugs aren't the
real problem--the drug laws are.

"As the Libertarian governor of Pennsylvania, I promise to pardon all
non-violent drug offenders on my first day in office. All of them--day
one--and any new ones, too ...[The Drug War] is insane."

I'd say that is both an argument and a referendum.

Indeed, the war on drugs is insane, and to me and Mr. Krawchuk, immoral.
I'm glad to see there is finally a politician who not only realizes this,
but plans to do something about it. I encourage all Philadelphia Weekly
readers who found themselves in agreement with the points made in last
week's PW issue to check out Ken Krawchuk at his website, www.kenk.org.

RICH GOLDMAN

Elkins Park

First off, I would commend Mr. Jones on his sobriety. Great strength is
required to ascend from the depths he details.

I question how he got there. While it may be true that most people who use
heroin and cocaine first used marijuana, most marijuana users do not
progress to heroin and cocaine. If it were true that marijuana was a
gateway drug, then we would have 30 million people (the number of Americans
who have smoked pot) addicted to heroin and cocaine. Perhaps then the
failure was in Mr. Jones and not the joint he smoked.

SCOTT NEWKIRK

Denver

EGG-ON-FACE REPORT

In last week's editorial about marijuana laws, this editor wrote "... best
we know, nobody even fired any marijuana law questions at the gubernatorial
candidates during the recently completed contest." In fact, in published
interviews with both Rendell and Casey, the City Paper fired very specific
marijuana law questions at both candidates. Apologies to our friends at the
CP for the oversight ... Also, in our Heroes and Goats section last week,
we awarded a "goat" to a police investigation team for conducting an
"all-out blitz" just to recover an Eagles stolen playbook. Subsequently,
that blitz resulted in the arrest of a team of thieves that had been
ripping off cars in parking lots for months. In hindsight, it appears that
we are the goats and they are the heroes. (T.W.)