DRUG USE

Legalize Marijuana; Better Educate Public

This is regarding the article "Researchers zoning in on effects of
marijuana" in the Feb. 25 Health and Science section. Contrary to writer
Linda Carroll's claim that "until recently, little research had been done
to settle the controversy," there has been extensive research on the
effects of marijuana.

If it weren't for the government's misbegotten war on drugs and campaign of
disinformation, kids like Dawn would understand that smoking a blunt - a
marijuana cigar - is like chugging rum. Anyone who consumes alcohol knows
the difference between having a beer and drinking 150-proof alcohol. But we
lie to kids with programs like DARE so they don't understand the difference
between having two hits of a marijuana joint and polishing off a cigar-size
blunt with friends.

Does anyone remember the deaths and other injuries caused by consuming the
"bathtub gin" that alcohol prohibition spawned? Our current drug war
prohibition and persistence of the "just say no" mentality has resulted in
a refusal to admit that marijuana, like many other things, has the
potential for both good and bad.

We need to legalize marijuana and communicate truthfully about its good and
bad sides and stop locking up people for using it.

Paul Mozina, Milwaukee