Pubdate: Mon, 22 Nov 1999 Date: 11/22/1999 Source: Nation, The (US) Author: Kenneth Hymes Related: All the special issue articles are linked at: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n963/a03.html Michael Massing's piece on seeking drug policy reform seems to me yet another example of The Nation's (and the liberal left's) failure of nerve. He would levy fines for use of pot but jail terms for production and sale. This is illogical and gutless. There is simply no credible basis for criminal sanctions against marijuana users or growers, particularly in a culture that not only accepts but, through government policy and subsidy, promotes the production and use of recreational and pharmaceutical products known to cause illness and death. We "fight drugs" with one hand and then force drugs on adults and children. Examples are legion of therapies not studied, and therefore stigmatized, simply because there is no profit in them (e.g., vitamin and diet therapy for behavior problems in autistic children, versus the polypharmacopoeia endorsed by the medical community). The social problems teenage users suffer from are symptoms of their relations with their families, their schools and the culture at large, not provable effects of the only organic drug indulged in by Americans. We have devastated communities and ruined lives in a pointless quest for some imagined moral purity. Enough! No more "compromises." I smoke pot, along with at least 50 million other Americans. We need to reject the stigma imposed on us by regressive forces. Kenneth Hymes Charlottesville, Va.