Pubdate: Wed, 20 Oct 2004
Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (AK)
Copyright: 2004 Fairbanks Publishing Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.news-miner.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/764
Author: Thomas J. Hillgardner
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n1464/a03.html

ON PROPOSITION 2

To the editor:

I am willing to fight for Dave DeLany's right not to possess marijuana
in the privacy of his home. He seems very concerned that the mere
presence of marijuana in a home where children live is not merely a
threat to the children living in that home but is also a threat to
society at large.

Applying that same logic to gun ownership and one realizes that Mr.
DeLany argues too much. Why does he believe that he can responsibly
handle a deadly weapon and keep it in his home while a marijuana
smoker (whose property is much less instantly lethal) is a menace to
society the likes of which he feels society cannot tolerate?

And the children of Alaska are not "ours." In a free country, within
limits, each family is free to decide the best way to raise their own
family. And while that doesn't include raising a family in a meth lab,
the irrationality of the federal government's marijuana policy is an
international embarrassment.

Alaska, the land of the rugged individualist, can lead here. Or it can
follow more than 65 years of failed federal drug policy that makes
marijuana easier for kids to obtain than either tobacco or alcohol.

Thomas J. Hillgardner

Fairbanks
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake