Pubdate: Fri, 1 May 2009 Source: DrugSense Weekly (DSW) Website: http://www.drugsense.org LETTER OF THE WEEK MARIJUANA PROHIBITION IS A WASTE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESOURCES By Anthony Maenza Michael Hiltzik criticizes the methods used to estimate California's marijuana crop, but he never gives the value of or even mentions California's biggest legal crop. This leaves readers in the dark. How are we expected to make a comparison? We are still left wondering if pot is, in fact, the biggest cash crop. There are not "reasonable arguments on both sides" of the debate of whether to legalize marijuana. There is nothing reasonable about prohibition; it squanders finite resources, creates drug cartels and overcrowds prisons. And in an allegedly free country, there is nothing reasonable about having to ask the government's permission to use a substance that -- at worst -- only hurts oneself. Anthony Maenza Oceanside Pubdate: Sun, 26 Apr 2009 Source: Los Angeles Times (CA) Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09.n446.a06.html - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake