Pubdate: Fri, 02 Jan 2015
Source: Daily Press (Victorville, CA)
Copyright: 2015 Freedom Communications, Inc.
Contact: http://www.vvdailypress.com/sections/contactus/
Website: http://www.vvdailypress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1061
Author: Jim Blackburn
Note: Jim Blackburn lives in Apple Valley.

GOVERNMENT SHOULD END POT PROHIBITION

Since 1935, Americans have been hoodwinked by the federal government 
with the movie "Reefer Madness,"  which portrays marijuana as being 
an evil substance that caused people, especially black people, to 
commit horrendous crimes.

But, as the police chief of Washington, D.C. states, "People that use 
marijuana don't go out and commit violent crimes, they just want to 
eat a doughnut and relax."  Anyone who attends a public middle school 
or high school knows there is no zero tolerance anymore.

Students are no longer expelled for bringing pot to school.

It is viewed pretty much the same as bringing alcohol to school, a 
virtual slap on the wrist.

Even the NCAA cut penalties for marijuana use in half or more, and 
many schools don't even test athletes for pot. Yet the author of 
"Marijuana legalization initiative is wrong," Dec. 27 in the Daily 
Press, is worried about increasing adolescent use? Any American who 
wants marijuana is able to find it. We have already tried locking 
lots of people up for marijuana possession; how is that working? 
Gotten rid of all the pot on the street?

In 80 years of our failed war on drugs, what have we gained?

Just like prohibition with alcohol failed, so has the prohibition of 
pot failed.

We are wasting money trying to eradicate something millions of people 
want. This author is merely calling for more of the same failed 
efforts to force people to quit using pot. How is that working so 
far? America has the highest per capita incarceration rate of any 
country in the world. Have you noticed the condition of our 
infrastructure, highways, city streets, bridges on the verge of collapse?

Do you think it is wise to continue to waste billions of dollars 
trying to stop the use of a substance that the majority of people 
want to use to relax, to lessen their pain, or to increase their appetite?

Where does the writer get his statistics? He writes, "The social 
costs of marijuana, like alcohol and tobacco, are 10 times greater 
than tax revenues."  Maybe he should check with the states of 
Colorado, Washington, and Oregon. The social costs of marijuana are 
due to the high incarceration rates of having pot illegal.

The social cost of having numerous people in jail for marijuana 
charges is atrocious. Alcohol and tobacco kill tens of thousands of 
people every year; marijuana kills no one. The author offers nothing 
new, no new solutions, just more of the same failed processes 
currently in place.

And to what point? Do you think you can eradicate something that 
people want to use and can grow in their house or yard? Isn't it 
obvious that the majority of the people voted for medical marijuana 
because it helps people relieve their symptoms and also to relax?

Pot has also been shown to greatly lessen the occurrences of 
epileptic seizures, to cure some skin cancers, to increase the 
appetite of chemotherapy patients, and many other benefits.

If the author of the article actually tried marijuana, I am also 
certain he would see that it is not the dangerous drug that he has 
been led to believe. Where does he get the statistic that pot use 
tapers off after the age of 25? How does that jibe with my wife and 
many others who started using pot in their 60s due to cancer 
chemo-and-radiation therapy? Where does he get the idea that pot is 
an addictive substance? There is no withdrawal, no hangover, no ill 
feelings from having smoked or ingested pot the night before, or not having it.

It is not alcohol, methamphetamine or heroin that we are discussing. 
It is marijuana.

It has been used for over 5,000 years now as a beneficial medicine by 
the Chinese. I have used pot for over 50 years and never wrecked a 
car, ran over someone, committed a robbery, raped my neighbor or 
molested children because I had smoked pot. It doesn't have that 
effect, despite the government lying that it does.

Mr. Morgan would be more beneficial trying to help methamphetamine 
addicts than worrying about pot users.

We aren't trouble makers.

He will have as much success eradicating marijuana as the government 
did eradicating alcohol in the days of prohibition. Meth users need 
help; pot users are happy as we are. Go away and leave us alone, we 
aren't hurting you. And trying to punish me for something that helps 
me relax, and that is not only harmless but beneficial, is 
counterproductive. If you are worried about America's drug problem, 
start with meth, heroin and alcohol; those are the big problems.

Or war on tobacco, another major killer.

Those are all disruptive drugs, and tobacco and alcohol are the real 
"gateway"  drugs.

Those four drugs ruin lives.

Pot ruins lives due to incarceration; but if it were legal, families 
would not have to be torn apart for marijuana use.

What have we accomplished in 80 years of trying to eradicate 
marijuana? Why do we want to continue throwing money down that drain 
hole that solves no problems?

People are now voting to quit wasting tax dollars in that manner.

Mr. Morgan would have us continue this folly. What is the definition 
of insanity?

Doing the same thing over and over, yet expecting different results.

The war on marijuana is insane.

What has been accomplished is that the police are now adversaries 
rather than associates. The war on pot is used to hassle people and 
control them. The victims dislike and distrust the authorities even more.

What really started the mess we have now is that the government 
needed something to do with all of the agents that were losing their 
jobs due to the repeal of alcohol prohibition, so the government put 
out a movie full of outright lies portraying marijuana as an evil substance.

It is not. It is a beneficial plant with many uses in medicine, 
clothing, fuel, and paper products.

It is past time to stop the insanity of the war on marijuana.

I am 71 and don't feel the need for Mr. Morgan or anyone else to try 
to control and dictate what I do in the privacy of my own home. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom