Pubdate: Sat, 24 Jan 2015
Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ)
Copyright: 2015 The Arizona Republic
Contact: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/sendaletter.html
Website: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24
Author: Robert Ryden

DON'T DRAW THE ERRONEOUS LINE FROM MARIJUANA TO HEROIN

A recent letter writer opposed the legalization of marijuana on the 
grounds that most users of heroin started with marijuana ( "A lot of 
those doing hard drugs got started with pot," Letters, Monday).

That is true, of course, but it's also irrelevant. You might as well 
try to ban milk, because most heroin users were once milk drinkers.

No, the relevant question is this: of all users of marijuana, how 
many go on to use hard drugs? That number will be very small, and it 
is likely that most of that number would be using heroin whether 
marijuana was legal or not.

Robert Ryden

Apache Junction
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