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GOVERNMENT SHOULD END POT PROHIBITION

Since 1935, Americans have been hoodwinked by the federal government with the movie "Reefer Madness," which portrays marijuana as being an evil substance that caused people, especially black people, to commit horrendous crimes.

But, as the police chief of Washington, D.C.  states, "People that use marijuana don't go out and commit violent crimes, they just want to eat a doughnut and relax." Anyone who attends a public middle school or high school knows there is no zero tolerance anymore.

Students are no longer expelled for bringing pot to school.

It is viewed pretty much the same as bringing alcohol to school, a virtual slap on the wrist.

Even the NCAA cut penalties for marijuana use in half or more, and many schools don't even test athletes for pot.  Yet the author of "Marijuana legalization initiative is wrong," Dec.  27 in the Daily Press, is worried about increasing adolescent use? Any American who wants marijuana is able to find it.  We have already tried locking lots of people up for marijuana possession; how is that working? Gotten rid of all the pot on the street?

In 80 years of our failed war on drugs, what have we gained?

Just like prohibition with alcohol failed, so has the prohibition of pot failed.

We are wasting money trying to eradicate something millions of people want.  This author is merely calling for more of the same failed efforts to force people to quit using pot.  How is that working so far? America has the highest per capita incarceration rate of any country in the world.  Have you noticed the condition of our infrastructure, highways, city streets, bridges on the verge of collapse?

Do you think it is wise to continue to waste billions of dollars trying to stop the use of a substance that the majority of people want to use to relax, to lessen their pain, or to increase their appetite?

Where does the writer get his statistics? He writes, "The social costs of marijuana, like alcohol and tobacco, are 10 times greater than tax revenues." Maybe he should check with the states of Colorado, Washington, and Oregon.  The social costs of marijuana are due to the high incarceration rates of having pot illegal.

The social cost of having numerous people in jail for marijuana charges is atrocious.  Alcohol and tobacco kill tens of thousands of people every year; marijuana kills no one.  The author offers nothing new, no new solutions, just more of the same failed processes currently in place.

And to what point? Do you think you can eradicate something that people want to use and can grow in their house or yard? Isn't it obvious that the majority of the people voted for medical marijuana because it helps people relieve their symptoms and also to relax?

Pot has also been shown to greatly lessen the occurrences of epileptic seizures, to cure some skin cancers, to increase the appetite of chemotherapy patients, and many other benefits.

If the author of the article actually tried marijuana, I am also certain he would see that it is not the dangerous drug that he has been led to believe.  Where does he get the statistic that pot use tapers off after the age of 25? How does that jibe with my wife and many others who started using pot in their 60s due to cancer chemo-and-radiation therapy? Where does he get the idea that pot is an addictive substance? There is no withdrawal, no hangover, no ill feelings from having smoked or ingested pot the night before, or not having it.

It is not alcohol, methamphetamine or heroin that we are discussing.  It is marijuana.

It has been used for over 5,000 years now as a beneficial medicine by the Chinese.  I have used pot for over 50 years and never wrecked a car, ran over someone, committed a robbery, raped my neighbor or molested children because I had smoked pot.  It doesn't have that effect, despite the government lying that it does.

Mr.  Morgan would be more beneficial trying to help methamphetamine addicts than worrying about pot users.

We aren't trouble makers.

He will have as much success eradicating marijuana as the government did eradicating alcohol in the days of prohibition.  Meth users need help; pot users are happy as we are.  Go away and leave us alone, we aren't hurting you.  And trying to punish me for something that helps me relax, and that is not only harmless but beneficial, is counterproductive.  If you are worried about America's drug problem, start with meth, heroin and alcohol; those are the big problems.

Or war on tobacco, another major killer.

Those are all disruptive drugs, and tobacco and alcohol are the real "gateway" drugs.

Those four drugs ruin lives.

Pot ruins lives due to incarceration; but if it were legal, families would not have to be torn apart for marijuana use.

What have we accomplished in 80 years of trying to eradicate marijuana? Why do we want to continue throwing money down that drain hole that solves no problems?

People are now voting to quit wasting tax dollars in that manner.

Mr.  Morgan would have us continue this folly.  What is the definition of insanity?

Doing the same thing over and over, yet expecting different results.

The war on marijuana is insane.

What has been accomplished is that the police are now adversaries rather than associates.  The war on pot is used to hassle people and control them.  The victims dislike and distrust the authorities even more.

What really started the mess we have now is that the government needed something to do with all of the agents that were losing their jobs due to the repeal of alcohol prohibition, so the government put out a movie full of outright lies portraying marijuana as an evil substance.

It is not.  It is a beneficial plant with many uses in medicine, clothing, fuel, and paper products.

It is past time to stop the insanity of the war on marijuana.

I am 71 and don't feel the need for Mr.  Morgan or anyone else to try to control and dictate what I do in the privacy of my own home.