Pubdate: Sat, 26 Sep 2009 Source: Lake County News-Sun (IL) Copyright: 2009 Sun-Times News Group Contact: http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3928 Author: Frederick Chase, Jr MARIJUANA AND PRISON The damage to children from imprisonment of a father for murder is tough enough, as described in the Sept. 22 article on kids of prison inmates. But when children are deprived of a parent by incarceration of a father for a marijuana offense, it is an outrage. The real problems are nicotine and alcohol, not marijuana. After all, we have Mothers Against Drink Driving. We don't have Mothers Against Pot Smokers. Does anyone know, for instance, of tens, hundreds or thousands who have died from marijuana abuse? Yet we all know of tens and hundreds and thousands and hundreds of thousands who have died from alcohol abuse and nicotine. Yet those substances are legal. Of course, we read about thousands massacred in Mexico and other places from the Drug War, but that is from the war over huge profits because it is illegal, not from consumption. If we treat marijuana and other drugs as a medical problem, like nicotine and alcohol, not as a criminal matter, we lower the incarceration rate and the huge related costs. Many fewer children then suffer the loss of care and attention of a father. So what if marijuana is smoked recreationally? I drink alcohol recreationally and alcohol has greater risks attached to it than does marijuana. Obviously, both need to be regulated for young people. It is ironic that teenagers report that marijuana, which is illegal, is more readily obtained than alcohol, which is only regulated. We went through all this 70 years ago with Prohibition, but we didn't learn nuthin'. Frederick Chase, Jr. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake