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 - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom