Pubdate: Sun, 01 Dec 2013
Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2013 The Tribune Co.
Contact: http://tbo.com/list/news-opinion-letters/
Website: http://www.tampatrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446
Author: Jerry Burgin

ALL ABOUT GETTING HIGH

Regarding "Lighting up": Having spent 30 years in law enforcement and 
more than 20 years teaching DUI classes, I have done my share of 
homework on the legalization of pot issue. I submit that attorney 
John Morgan and Sheriff David Gee are both missing the point.

Marijuana, like all drugs, has side effects, and if the medicinal 
argument was anywhere as strong as Morgan implies, it would have been 
a windfall in the health care industry in California, where this drug 
has been legal for medicinal reasons for many years. It is all about 
getting "high," and if the "high" were taken out of the equation, the 
argument would evaporate.

What will happen if "any" form of legalization is authorized? The 
same thing that happened in other states "" more children will be 
using the drug. It lowers the IQ in children with still developing 
brains. It also freezes the intellectual level and diminishes the 
learning curve.

What we are witnessing is America slowly but surely making it legal 
to become addicted to another drug.

JERRY BURGIN, LITHIA
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom