Pubdate: Fri, 12 Mar 2010
Source: Bainbridge Island Review (WA)
Copyright: 2010 Bainbridge Island Review
Contact:  http://www.bainbridgereview.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2610
Author: Larry Droguett

MARIJUANA POSSESSION SHOULD BE A CITATION, NOT A CRIME

After reading an article about Bainbridge Island's lack of a statute 
for possession of small amounts of marijuana, I was again disgusted 
at the ignorance and lack of foresight and justice after I read on to 
find what the alternative is for the system.

The fact that if you are arrested or pulled over and marijuana is 
found, the police will book you then for having drug paraphernalia 
because of the lack of a possession statute.

The problem with this is drug paraphernalia could mean anything when 
law enforcement is reading your criminal history and be misconstrued 
as dabbling in narcotic, which is not representative of the law that you broke.

The time has come for our government to see clearly that marijuana is 
in no way as dangerous to society as alcohol is and has been for 
hundreds of years, and that alcohol is so easy and legal to obtain 
and abuse. Where is the intelligence behind this thinking?

I no longer smoke marijuana, but if my son, who is a sophomore in 
college, came home to tell me about a big party he was planning to go 
to where there would be no alcohol but an abundance of marijuana, I 
would not only be relieved knowing that many of my fears would be 
eliminated concerning drinking and driving, I would be happy no know 
that no one would be harmed from the aftereffects of alcohol 
poisoning, liver disease, death and so on.

The misconception that marijuana is a stepping stone to harder drugs 
is minor when compared to the same statement with alcohol.

I firmly believe that Bainbridge should be pioneering in its 
enactment of legislation making possession of marijuana "by an adult" 
nothing more than a traffic citation. In that case it would be 
punishable by no more than a fine, rather than the jail-clogging 
current 90 days in jail.

Larry Droguett

Bainbridge Island
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