Pubdate: Fri, 3 Sep 2010 Source: North County Times (Escondido, CA) Copyright: 2010 North County Times Contact: http://www.nctimes.com/app/forms/letters/index.php Website: http://www.nctimes.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1080 Cited: Proposition 19 http://yeson19.com/ Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion) Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/find?272 (Proposition 19) KEEP A LID ON THE POT Harm Outweighs Good in Proposition to Legalize Pot While there are good, reasonable arguments to be made in favor of Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana for personal use and allow counties to legalize it entirely, it strikes us that the potential harm from legalizing pot far outweighs any good it might accomplish. Society already struggles with the heavy costs of alcohol and tobacco use. We lose more than twice as many people every year in this nation to drunken drivers than we lost in the entire Iraq war. Add in the number of people who die prematurely from smoking-related illnesses, and the toll to substance abuse is far too high. Adding legal marijuana to that mix is not the path to take. We acknowledge that legalizing pot might weaken the growing clout of the ultra-violent Mexican drug cartels, as well as those marijuana growers who plant in our state and national parks and forests, and guard their illicit crops with booby traps, dogs and guns. But when measured against increased traffic fatalities caused by impaired drivers, and the health care costs of treating the additional people who would regularly use marijuana were it legalized, the benefits just aren't enough to justify passing Prop. 19. Not that we advocate a crackdown on marijuana use, either. Rather, we support the current state policy of classifying marijuana use as a low-grade crime and of allowing its use for those whose doctors suggest it for legitimate medical reasons - and coupling that to increased education about the risks of marijuana use, similar to public education campaigns regarding alcohol and tobacco use. The policies in place now are reasonable and prudent; we urge a "no" vote on Prop. 19. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake