DON'T EASE UP ON POTHEADS

James Pillsbury (Nov. 7) seems to take delight in letting us know just how
fond he is of potheads, along with telling us how our state law enforcement
agencies should allow them to roam free across our landscape.

He says that we should spend money on other things, and that his pothead
friends are, aside from their predilection for dope, just normal
law-abiding citizens who happen to enjoy getting stoned as a hobby.

I would like for Pillsbury, in his few sober moments, to explain the
benefits of pot smoking as they relate to worker productivity, public
safety, and personal health. I'll assist him: there are none. There is not
a job in America that can be done as well or better when someone is stoned
on dope. Driving while stoned is the absolute equivalent of driving drunk,
and there is not one aspect of smoking pot that contributes to one's
physical well being. Pot will destroy your brain cells as quickly as you
can smoke it, it will pollute your lungs far faster than cigarettes can,
and long term pot smoking is hardly beneficial to your heart.

Given all of the above as simple and obvious truths, it is inconceivable as
to why anyone of authority in state and local government would want to ease
up the pressure on people who sell and smoke pot. As far as I am concerned,
if you're dumb enough to smoke pot regularly, and dumber enough to
distribute it, then you should rot in a jail cell until you have learned
your lesson.

So instead of the state throwing in the towel on the drug war, let us all
ask for potheads such as Pillsbury to grow up by foregoing their illegal
and illogical drug habit which contributes absolutely nothing beneficial to
society.

Tony Siciliano

Framingham