Pubdate: Sat, 18 Nov 2000 Date: 11/18/2000 Source: Anchorage Daily News (AK) Author: Denise Van Dam The letters to the editor and the commercials on TV during the campaign would have had you believe that people supporting the legalization of hemp would distribute it to children and allow people to use it on the job. Alcohol and cigarettes are both legal and I have never heard of any distribution programs at the local schools. There are laws and company policies which restrict the use of these legal substances. I am a person who believes strongly in privacy and individuals' rights. What adults choose to do to themselves is their business as long as it does not infringe on the rights of others. Why is it that society feels that drugs with as many detrimental effects as alcohol and cigarettes should be legal and marijuana should be illegal? Is this not a violation of people's constitutional equality? People, educate yourselves on marijuana by reading the government commissioned Warren Report, the Shafer Commission report, the 1982 studies by the IOM and the WHO, and the 1976 Marijuana and Health Report, just to mention a few. Many of these reports have concluded that arresting and incarcerating the young is more harmful to them than marijuana use. Read "Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts" by Lynn Zimmer, Ph.D. and John P. Morgan, M.D. Laws are made to protect us from others. What we choose to do to ourselves should be governed only by ourselves. Even God gave me the freedom to choose for myself. Denise Van Dam