ALLOW HOMEGROWN MARIJUANA USE

IIlicit drugs are grown, manufactured, exported to the U.S. and sold for
only one reason a "profit According to the Enquirer on April 11, U.S. drug
- - czar John Walters told his Cincinnati audience that 65 percent of
drug-dependent people have a primary or secondary dependence on marijuana."

In the l96Os, a DEA agent being interviewed on national TV about
California's marijuana problems suggested a solution: allow people to grow
marijuana in their home for their own consumption.

If you or I were a drug user and we had a choice of using free marijuana
that we know was not sprayed with chemicals by the DEA, would we choose to
use this or would we choose to buy our drugs on the street from a criminal
at great expense?

Obviously, the anti-smoking crowd and people making a living from the "war
on drugs" I won't care for such a suggestion. The rest of us may view a
potential 65 percent reduction in hard drug use and the attendant savings
in dollars and lives differently. The biggest downside to this idea may
eventually be the lack of taxes that we've become so used to collecting on
alcohol and cigarettes. Sometimes pragmatic decisions - are difficult.

John R. Myers, Springdale