Pubdate: Fri, 08 May 2009
Source: Telegraph, The (Nashua, NH)
Copyright: 2009 Telegraph Publishing Company
Contact:  http://www.nashuatelegraph.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/885
Author: Russ A. Johnson

MANY BENEFITS TO LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

Ask any teenager what is easier to get, marijuana or alcohol. They 
will tell you marijuana.

This is because there are not drug dealers selling alcohol on street 
corners. Why run the risk when a nice profit can be made legally 
selling to adults?

Making marijuana legal would better protect our children by making it 
harder for them to get.

Growing marijuana in the USA would reduce or eliminate the need to 
bring it in from Mexico. This would reduce the drug violence there 
and take money away from the drug lords.

Selling marijuana out of the state-run liquor stores keeps you having 
to buy it from drug dealers who might try to up sell you on something 
else over time. It would also take away marijuana as a product line 
they could sell.

This would put a lot of them out of business, reducing the number of 
drug dealers to the ones selling the serious stuff. Reduced numbers 
would make it easier for the police.

I would think most drug dealers who sell the hard stuff started by 
selling marijuana. Removing marijuana as a starting point/training 
ground for being a drug dealer could reduce the number of people who 
wind up in that business.

I see no downside and tremendous upside to legalizing marijuana.

Russ A. Johnson

Nashua
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