Pubdate: Wed, 14 Dec 2011
Source: Santa Maria Times (CA)
Copyright: 2011 Lee Central Coast Newspapers
Contact: http://www.santamariatimes.com/app/submit-letter/
Website: http://www.santamariatimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/396
Author: Raymond Winters

FUZZY IDEAS ON MARIJUANA

Every day around the globe, we legally purchase and consume two of the
most horrific drugs known to mankind.

Every day these two drugs destroy families through divorce and
violence, and kill consumers and innocent bystanders alike.

Daily, these two drugs cost us billions of dollars in medical and
mental-health treatment and loss of production due to job loss and
poor performance. And that's just the short list of damages caused by
these drugs.

Statistics alone prove that alcohol and nicotine kill and harm more
people than all other illegal drugs, TB, AIDS and all of the violence
in the world combined.

Marijuana should be immediately declassified from a schedule-one drug
so it can be properly researched, regulated and standardized. Instead,
the federal government adamantly refuses.

The very same people and politicians who want less government in our
lives want our government to continue stigma-driven, misinformed,
anti-marijuana laws that are also statistically proven to
disproportionately incarcerate people of color. These laws ignore and
make illegal a perfectly viable resource that is pleasurable to use,
safer than alcohol or tobacco and medically crucial to some of the
most ill people on Earth.

Good grief, even Ron Paul thinks anti-marijuana laws are
absurd.

Raymond Winters

Santa Maria
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.