I believe Scott Herhold (Page B1, July 25) is right with his reasoning for legalizing marijuana. I think many people don't see that marijuana brings more benefits compared with it being illegal. The two important reasons are that it would hurt local gangs who sell marijuana, usually to underage students for profits. It would also save us millions of dollars on health care costs for people placed in jails for having possession of marijuana, which would help bring the state of California out of the billions of dollars of debt it is in now by only leaving the people with more serious crimes in jail.

Marijuana is largely a recreational drug. There is no way that the fight against drugs is going to get rid of marijuana. The government should tax the purchase of marijuana and invest the money in areas needing reform like our educational system.

Braulio Chavez

San Jose

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