Pubdate: Sat, 25 Jul 2009
Source: Union, The (Grass Valley, CA)
Copyright: 2009 The Union
Contact: http://apps.theunion.com/utils/forms/lettertoeditor/
Website: http://www.theunion.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/957
Author: Jordan Fisher

MARIJUANA, CRIME AND MASS OUTBREAKS OF MELLOWNESS

To the editor:

Thanks for your stance on the legalization of marijuana and for 
printing the Other Voices "Rebuttal to 'Pot Shop Debate is a Case of 
Smoke and Mirrors,'" demonstrating how hysterically funny an argument 
can be when unrestrained by the need to make sense.

For example: "Let's face it. They can't control it now and that's one 
reason it's illegal."

The author goes on to suggest a return to the medieval practice of 
cutting off parts of criminals' bodies -- in the case of pot smokers, 
I assume, their lips.

Two decades in law enforcement taught me that marijuana didn't make 
people beat their spouses, drive recklessly, or rob liquor stores. 
What marijuana did cause were mass outbreaks of uncontrolled mellowness.

Crime I witnessed with marijuana derived entirely from its status as 
an illegal substance: Violent field ripoffs, drug deals gone bad, and the like.

However, my experience made me deathly afraid of methamphetamine and 
its associates. We need to circle our wagons and spend our limited 
resources trying to root out this drug.

It makes people violent, unreliable, and prone to lie, cheat, steal, 
and even kill to stay on it. It destroys people's health, family 
life, and ability to work.

Jordan Fisher Smith is a Nevada City resident.
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