Pubdate: Wed, 22 Jan 2014
Source: Union, The (Grass Valley, CA)
Copyright: 2014 John Deam
Contact: http://apps.theunion.com/utils/forms/lettertoeditor/
Website: http://www.theunion.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/957
Author: John Deam

IT'S TIME TO LEGALIZE, TAX AND REGULATE POT

Stop the war on marijuana, or MJ. (George) Boardman's column just
plain makes sense.

The near hysteria about marijuana when I was growing up was
scientifically unsupportable. Emotion, rather than rationality,
resulted in wasting our national treasure on the "war on drugs" (WoD)
- - an abysmal failure costing productive lives (people with a criminal
history only because of marijuana use) as well as billions of tax
dollars, which could have been better spent (or never collected for
the WoD).

I'm not young, and in all my years I have yet to read about an
overdose death from marijuana or even a serious injury caused simply
by a "Marijuana fiend," as Mr. Anslinger would have us believe. As
with alcohol prohibition, the countless bad things that happen
concerning marijuana are overwhelmingly the result of the huge dollars
created by a desirable product's illegality.

Tax it and regulate it! Like any conscious-altering substance,
rational people don't want immature juveniles to have access.

As I age, I'm encouraged to find more and more senior citizens who
evaluate the past and think things through. The definition of insanity
is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

John Deam

Grass Valley 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D