Pubdate: Thu, 26 Aug 2004
Source: Columbia Daily Tribune (MO)
Copyright: 2004 Columbia Daily Tribune
Contact:  http://www.showmenews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/91
Author: Kirk Muse
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04.n1142.a11.html

SOCIETY, NOT FOOTBALL PLAYER, HAS A MARIJUANA PROBLEM

Editor, the Tribune:

I'm writing about Bill O'Reilly's not-so-thoughtful Aug. 7 column, "Pot
problem bigger than Ricky Williams."

Williams doesn't have a pot problem. The NFL, our government and our
society have the pot problem. Pot didn't negatively affect his
performance on the football field.

It seems to me that adult citizens of a so-called free country should
be free to smoke, swallow, snort or inject any substance that they
want - as long as they are personally responsible for the
consequences.

It seems to me that what Williams does on his own time should be his
business and nobody else's.

O'Reilly claims to be a conservative, yet he wants the government to
be able to dictate which substances adult citizens may or may not
consume - even in the privacy of their own homes.

Our annual obesity-versus-marijuana kill ratio is about 400,000-to-zero.

So which obesity-causing foods should we criminalize first?

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin