Pubdate: Wed, 01 Nov 2006 Source: Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO) Copyright: 2006, Denver Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/371 Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/371 Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n1349/a05.html Author: David Van Duzer TEENS CAN SEE IMPACT OF DRUG USE IN SOCIETY One must wonder if the author of "Pot amendment deserves a 'no,' " the News editorial of Oct. 8, has spent any time in a high school recently. If our teenagers are dumb enough to think that an amendment to treat marijuana like alcohol means that there is no downside to its use, then we need to be more worried about education than drug policy. There are certainly social consequences to the use of both drugs, but teenagers can look around and see this for themselves. The piece also suggests that marijuana laws are the only thing keeping kids off drugs - God forbid they should listen to their parents. The bullet points in the editorial inexplicably intimate that the present laws aren't particularly harsh or resource-intensive, which doesn't seem like much of an argument against striking the laws entirely. Teenagers are smart enough to understand that the current laws amount to nothing more than a slap on the wrist, so why perpetuate hypocrisy? We should be advocating sensible and consistent laws on substances, and emphasizing the importance of personal responsibility in our youth, not quibbling over which chemicals responsible adults are allowed to ingest. David Van Duzer Denver - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake