Pubdate: Thu, 09 Jan 2014
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
Copyright: 2014 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Contact:  http://www.ajc.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/28
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v14/n018/a05.html
Author: Donald Varn

MARIJUANA COLUMN IS ARGUMENT FOR DECRIMINALIZATION

I find it fascinating that a profound conservative like David Brooks 
("Weed laws reveal what society values," Opinion, Jan. 6) is now 
willing to admit he had a propensity for performing felonies as a 
teenager. Rather than making a coherent argument about the new 
cannabis laws, he - as himself - is a good example of why cannabis 
should be decriminalized.

Even though he admits to performing these felonies (possession, 
consumption and transfer of marijuana) as a youth in white suburbia, 
he was allowed to pursue his career with a clean record. If he had 
been an inner-city youth caught for the exact same crime, that felony 
could have followed him for the rest of his life.

What Brooks needs to understand is that regardless of the substance - 
cannabis, alcohol or tobacco - there are always those who will abuse 
it. But the most profound point Brooks makes is that even if you 
smoke cannabis, you can go on and do many things. Such as becoming a 
U.S. president, senator, the most decorated Olympian in history, or 
even a conservative newspaper columnist. I think it's obvious, this 
law's time has come.

DONALD VARN, Conyers
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