Pubdate: Thu, 05 Dec 2013
Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2013 The Tribune Co.
Contact: http://tbo.com/list/news-opinion-letters/
Website: http://www.tampatrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v13/n571/a04.html
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v13/n571/a05.html

A WAR ON PEOPLE

The letters you published regarding medical marijuana on Dec. 1 are
inaccurate. As a former narcotics detective, and a spokesman for Law
Enforcement Against Prohibition, a police group that advocates the
regulation of drugs in the same manner in which we regulate beer and
tobacco, I can tell you categorically that marijuana is neither
addictive nor a gateway drug. You want a real gateway "drug?" It is a
government that feels it knows what's best for its citizens, without
regard to their freedom of choice.

Alcohol is far more addictive and detrimental to society than
marijuana. In 33 years as a police officer, I never responded to a
domestic disturbance where someone "high" on pot beat up their
families, but I've responded to hundreds of incidents where drunks
have. Tobacco? People who smoke cigarettes not only harm their own
lungs, and the lungs of others with their second-hand smoke, but they
also stink. Drunks' and smokers' indulgences are far worse for society
than weed.

Eight hundred thousand people who are otherwise minding their own
business get busted for pot each year, and I submit to you that
society's response to marijuana is far more harmful to society than
marijuana. Wake up, people. The war on drugs is not real. It is really
a war on people.

Richard Craig, Dunedin
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MAP posted-by: Matt