MARIJUANA PROHIBITION GONE TO POT

Your editorial underscores the need to abolish legislation outlawing the
most benign of drugs (It's Agreed: Decriminalize Pot, March 15).

We know tobacco, alcohol and prescription drugs claim lives daily through
overdose and abuse. No amount of pot has ever resulted in a fatal overdose.
Marijuana comforts the suffering, diminishes anger in those predisposed to
violence, does not lead to heroin addiction and relaxes the worried. Should
Canadians be denied the mild pleasure of marijuana?

Carol Francey, Vancouver.

MARIJUANA PROHIBITION GONE TO POT

Your editorial clearly and concisely laid out many valid arguments for
ending cannabis prohibition. Too many law-abiding citizens have had their
lives turned upside down simply for using unapproved intoxicants.

It is now easier for children to buy cannabis than it is to buy alcohol and
tobacco. We need to regulate cannabis and make it available through
licensed, responsible distribution outlets.

Thank you so much for this editorial, which promotes a saner drug policy
than the draconian, irrational policy we all suffer under today.

Kevin M. Hebert, Chicopee, Me.

MARIJUANA PROHIBITION GONE TO POT

As a police officer -- now retired -- I concentrated on those activities
which hurt or killed people like drunk driving. People transporting a
baggie of marijuana never hurt anyone in my jurisdiction. Though
recreational use of marijuana is a bad choice, it is time to stop wasting
precious police time chasing the green. We should only imprison people we
are afraid of, not someone hurting themselves with drugs.

Howard J. Wooldridge, Bath Township, Mich.

MARIJUANA PROHIBITION GONE TO POT

A friend of mine had an experience a couple of weeks ago that parents
dread. He was called from work one day with the news that his daughter had
suffered a bad reaction to smoking some pot.

I am told that sometimes some other drug is put into a joint by the roller,
which can cause the bad reaction. What was interesting was that the
response of the authorities to this medical emergency was to threaten the
girl with a criminal record.

I pointed out to my friend that this adulteration (if true) is the result
of the prohibition of pot. If it were not prohibited, but available like
liquor, the buyer would not be able to buy the adulterating drug nearly as
easily, and probably the pot would not be as easily bought. My own sons
have told me pot is easier to get than alcohol. This is also a result of
prohibition.

If my friend's daughter had been drinking a alcohol instead, he would have
had little worry about bad effects, because alcohol is made in controlled,
inspected factories. If, however, she had been drinking during prohibition,
her parents would have been terrified she might end up dead or blind
because of improper distilling producing wood alcohol.

Most of the parental anxiety about pot is based on lies and misinformation,
but the root of the whole problem is that this innocuous substance is
outside of mainstream control because of its illegal nature.

Bruce Symington, Medicine Hat, Alta.

MARIJUANA PROHIBITION GONE TO POT

Alcohol, tobacco and medicines are legal; their risks are played down and
they are promoted, while consumers of cannabis (hashish and marijuana) are
still punished and derided.

Cannabis should be legalized because repressive policies are
counterproductive, ineffective, senseless and expensive.

Legal regulation of cannabis with controlled sales in special stores would
permit age checks to be done. The illegal market would collapse and the
state could redirect funds from interdiction into effective pubic health
and drug-education. It does not make sense to have arbitrary and
discriminatory laws that cause more damage to the life of persons than
arguably, any harms which are meant to be prevented. Being labelled as a
criminal with all resulting social consequences is worse than any harms of
the consumption of hashish.

Johnny Theisen, Rumelange, Luxembourg.

MARIJUANA PROHIBITION GONE TO POT

I am a family man and love my wife and children very much. I am a hard
working responsible member of society and don't believe I should be yanked
from my family for smoking a joint in the privacy of my own home. Also I
believe I should be allowed to work and support my family, even if I choose
to relax in the evening with a marijuana cigarette.

I have seen many of my co-workers fired because they smoke pot and I wonder
what purpose that serves? Some of the best people I have ever had the
pleasure of knowing are treated like worthless swine because they won't
allow the government to run their lives and tell them how to live.

The only time pot has ever caused me any harm at all was when the police
found my weed and arrested me for a victimless crime, hauled me to jail,
heavy fines, drug treatment and probation, lost licence.

James Goins, Monroe, Mich.

MARIJUANA PROHIBITION GONE TO POT

I'm glad to see you speak out against the failed policy of cannabis
prohibition.

But if we simply decriminalize and don't legalize, we will still be funding
a black market that supplies untaxed, unregulated, adulterated pot at
inflated prices and introduces our children to truly hard drugs like speed
and cocaine.

Paul DeFelice, Holy Smoke Culture Shop, Nelson, B.C.