Pubdate: Thu, 11 Jun 2015
Source: Home News Tribune (East Brunswick, NJ)
Copyright: 2015 Home News Tribune
Contact:  http://www.mycentraljersey.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/825
Author: S.O. Schiro

IT'S TIME TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA

I'm writing to advocate for marijuana legalization, to stop hunting 
and jailing people based on disproved ideas and myths, to stop making 
police officers enemies to our children and to stop pouring billions 
of dollars down a bottomless hole.

In 1972, a study commissioned by the Nixon administration found that 
marijuana is relatively harmless. The study was scrapped because the 
facts did not provide the desired result.

Personally, I never found pot all that appealing. In the last 50 
years since high school, I've known a few people who don't smoke, but 
I can't think of anyone who believes in punishment for those who do. 
I used to worry about my kids being caught up in this 
cops-and-robbers stuff. But like many, I did nothing, as if it was an 
accepted part of life. But soon I'll have the same concerns for my 
grandchildren, and I find that a bit hard to take.

Now, many states have legalized what New Jersey will still imprison 
you for, while taking your money, and ruining your career. And it 
will spend billions of our tax revenue to do it. It's absurd.

I won't ask Gov. Chris Christie to reconsider. Obviously, this is a 
calculated political position, unrelated to the facts, or even beliefs.

His position lacks common sense, compassion and the consensus of New 
Jersey's voters. But it can no longer be seen as just another 
inevitable part of our lives. It's time for this anachronism to become extinct.

S.O. Schiro

Red Bank
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom