Pubdate: Sun, 10 Nov 2013
Source: Dayton Daily News (OH)
Copyright: 2013 Dayton Daily News
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/7JXk4H3l
Website: http://www.daytondailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/120
Author: Frank Abernathy
Note: Guest columnist Frank Abernathy is a retired biological 
researcher who used to work for the gastroenterology department at 
Children's Medical Center in Dayton.

COLUMN AUTHOR FINDS READERS' RESPONSES 'ENCOURAGING'

I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the commentary on my 
article was quite supportive. That is refreshing and encouraging.

There was one comment about how doing this would encourage some naive 
non-users to try out drugs for free in the federally funded drug 
houses. That may be true. However, if they were willing to do this, 
they would eventually have tried it on the streets anyway. The main 
difference would be that drug dealers would heartily encourage them 
to use it, whereas the people in the federal facility would strip 
away the "sexiness" of it - by allowing them to observe people who 
come there and do drugs. I doubt anyone would think that was very sexy.

One commenter was really pushing the idea of legalizing marijuana 
which seems to have a lot of momentum these days. I have seen the 
results of pot smoking in the home (not mine, of course). I believe 
it impacts kids who breathe the secondhand smoke, similar to 
breathing secondhand cigarette smoke. The results are not pretty. I 
think it messes with their minds - permanently. So I don't believe it 
should be legalized for use in the home. These pot smokers can go to 
the federal drug facility, like all other drug users.

Editors used the term "easy solution" in my column's headline. This 
is somewhat misleading. There will be nothing easy about it - because 
it has to be approved by the federal government, and we all know how 
well that works.

I think the idea of a petition is a good one. How do we go about doing that?
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom