Pubdate: Fri, 30 Jan 2009 Source: DrugSense Weekly (DSW) Website: http://www.drugsense.org LETTER OF THE WEEK Pubdate: Sun, 25 Jan 2009 Source: Times, The (Trenton, NJ) Author: Richard T. Kuncewitch Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n071/a02.html LEGALIZE MARIJUANA, DE-FANG THE DRUG GANGS The recent guest opinion article "Medical Marijuana: Opening Pandora's box?" ( Jan. 20) by Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini stated that if we were to allow the compassionate use of medicinal marijuana, we would be opening a Pandora's box and set forth its monsters upon society. What about the monsters that are already amongst us: the drug gangs that already make many of our urban streets unsafe? Worldwide, we have narco-terrorist gangs rampaging out of control. We need look no further than at the atrocities committed daily in Mexico to see the measure of misery caused by failed law-enforcement efforts. Admittedly the U.S. DEA ( Drug Enforcement Agency ) can interdict a fraction of the drugs smuggled into the U.S. This kind of failure rate would not be tolerated anywhere else but in the government community. Obviously, law enforcement and the risk of incarceration are no deterrent at all. Even the risk of death or maiming does not seem to stem the flow of young men and women willing to risk all for the billions to be made in the illicit drug industry. The only solution would be to take the tools that empower the gangs out of their hands. No money, and they will not be able to finance their terror armies. Put ting aside the moral argument about drugs, this is the only sensible solution. After all, alcohol and tobacco are drugs, too, and they are cash cows for our government. The politicians who profit mightily and the law-enforcement communities would howl at the loss. After all, corrections and its related periphery are big business for those holding the strings of control. The world community as a whole would prefer to see vanquished the monsters already amongst. So, why worry about a potential Pandora's box if we allow those who are suffering to smoke pot when the beasts are not contained within the box but already set free and feeding on us? Legalize marijuana. Control it and regulate it. Reap the profits both financially and socially worldwide. Richard T. Kuncewitch, Trenton - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake