Pubdate: Mon, 10 May 2010
Source: Aspen Times, The  (CO)
Copyright: 2010 Aspen Times
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/zKpMPhQ7
Website: http://www.aspentimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3784
Author: Kevin Stephenson

DON'T LOOK THE OTHER WAY ON POT

Dear Editor:

After my letter to the editor regarding Sheriff Braudis' retirement 
was printed, I read with interest Rick Leonard's candidacy 
announcement for the position. I'm pleased that he at least thinks 
there are times and places when drug investigations and tougher 
enforcement are warranted, but I strongly disagree with his statement 
that marijuana has been "de facto legalized in Colorado."

Mr. Leonard has just admitted that the folks who criticize the 
medical marijuana law because it's a "smokescreen" to legalize weed 
are right. Marijuana was not legalized, medical marijuana was, and 
only at the state level, and the law is already being "bent" and 
misapplied. Now we're seeing stories about kids facing criminal 
charges for selling their parents' "medical marijuana" at school, and 
about dispensaries creating high-crime areas as they become burglary 
targets. Is this your idea of how to reduce the crime rate, Mr. Leonard?

If you read my previous letter, you'd realize that if you want to 
enable a kid to throw the rest of his life away, don't enforce the 
minimum drinking age, look the other way on drug offenses, and make 
marijuana legal.

Anyone who thinks marijuana is harmless, and isn't a gateway drug, is 
either delusional, grossly uninformed, or a user himself who doesn't 
want to give it up. It's time we woke up to the fact that we have a 
serious substance abuse problem to solve, and rationalizing it, 
ignoring it, or enabling it will all come at the cost of our 
children's futures, some sooner and some later.

Kevin Stephenson

Glenwood Springs
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