Pubdate: Thu, 19 Mar 2009
Source: Ukiah Daily Journal, The (CA)
Copyright: 2009 The Ukiah Daily Journal
Contact: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/feedback
Website: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/581
Author: Ralph Givens
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n252/a03.html

LEGALIZE MARIJUANA

To the Editor:

Letter writer Dennis Scoles displays ignorance when he tries to cite
the Bible to support drug prohibition. Nowhere in the scriptures is
there any authorization to punish someone for consuming a plant made
by Almighty God (1 Timothy 4:1-5). Scoles' allusion to alcohol being
forbidden by the Bible is just plain wrong. Jesus was a lifelong wine
drinker. His first miracle was making more than 40 gallons of wine for
a wedding party in Cana. Jesus passed wine around to his disciples
during the Last Supper. So where's Scoles' proof that alcohol should
be banned? (As though Alcohol Prohibition was not a societal disaster.)

Alcohol is the most dangerous drug on the planet, but instead of
prohibition, the Bible offers warnings against drunkenness and
overindulgence. No punishment is ever authorized for being a drunk or
a drug addict.

THC percentages are meaningless because marijuana is the least toxic
drug known to mankind. According to DEA Administrative Law Judge
Francis L. Young a lethal dose of marijuana would require an adult to
smoke 1,500 pounds of cannabis in 15 minutes.
(www.druglibrary.org/olsen/MEDICAL/YOUNG/young.html)

Even if pot potency increased 500 percent it would still require
smoking 300 pounds of marijuana in a few minutes to cause a lethal
reaction. The impossibility of consuming a fatal dose of marijuana
cannot be disputed.

Ralph Givens

Daly City
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