Pubdate: Sun, 14 Apr 2002 Source: Newsday (NY) Copyright: 2002 Newsday Inc. Contact: http://www.newsday.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/308 Author: Alvin Bessent, Bob Keeler, Phineas Fiske, and Carol Richards Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) ASIDES These Are Personal Views Of Members Of The Editorial Board. BILL CLINTON, George Pataki, Al Gore, Newt Gingrich, Bill Bradley. Alan Hevesi, Mary Donohue, Connie Mack, Lawton Chiles, Fernando Ferrer, Ruth Messinger and now New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. What do all these highly successful people have in common? They all admit having smoked marijuana at some point in their illustrious lives. I don't think teens or pre-teens should use intoxicants of any kind. And marijuana is not a totally innocuous drug (there is no such thing), despite claims of proponents. But for this long list of high- profile people, marijuana wasn't the gateway to addiction and ruin that antidrug crusaders paint it to be. We should stop jailing thousands of people every year and criminalizing sick people for doing what we realistically dismiss as a youthful indiscretion of people trusted to run the nation, state and city. That kind of hypocrisy won't help the nation win its war on drugs. Alvin Bessent A STATE POLICE crackdown on aggressive drivers has brought to the imagination of most non-aggressive drivers their favorite outrages. Here's mine: The less-than-optimal entrance ramps on Long Island's parkways do not leave drivers room to accelerate properly before entering the stream of traffic. Crazed drivers make it worse: Perversely, they assume they have the right of way and cars zipping past on the parkway should yield to them. So they enter recklessly and act aggrieved if you don't veer out of harm's way and let them in. Traffic gurus say: Don't sit at the bottom of the entrance ramp, next to fast-moving traffic, and jump onto the road from a dead stop. Do stop as far up the entrance ramp as you can, wait for a good gap in traffic, then accelerate to enter the parkway at sufficient speed. And remember: Those already on the main road have the right of way. Bob Keeler MY FAVORITE highway outrage is drivers leaving the Long Island Expressway. At the exit I cross paths with regularly, motorists come charging off the LIE full tilt and demand drivers on the service road to get out of their way. Over the years I've been assured by state highway officials that it is the service-road traffic that has the right of way. But over those same years the state has ignored the need to install "Yield" signs at LIE exits, so that the high flyers would at least not have ignorance as an excuse. Phineas Fiske HONESTLY, PHINEAS, do you really think signs would do any good? My gripe is cars that speed through family neighborhoods, utterly ignoring the speed limit, endangering moms, dads and kids. I live near a crosswalk that has been brick-paved to create a low speedbump to "calm" traffic. A speed limit sign says "15." In recent weeks, new neon-green stanchions have been installed warning that pedestrians have the right of way. Ha. The signs don't work. While walking the dog, I see cars speed so aggressively over the crosswalk that they become airborne. In my fantasy, an aircraft-carrier-type tailhook rises from the crosswalk and grabs the speeder's bumper, pulling the car up short. The driver would get the message dramatically, and the dog and I would have a good laugh. Carol Richards These are personal views of members of the editorial board. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager