OK, so marijuana isn't harmless and legalization would bring on some knotty problems. But we have to admit that the "war on drugs" is over. Drugs won.

Prohibition did not work. Since it ended, the per capita consumption of alcohol has decreased with great regularity. Ditto for the consumption of legal tobacco products. Yet the demand for illegal drugs seems boundless.

We need to stop considering those who use drugs to be criminals and start treating them as sick individuals who need treatment. We need to control the market for drugs in order to put the drug gangs out of business. The illegal drug culture, like the illegal alcohol culture during the Prohibition era, is a major source of corruption in the US, as well as other countries. Enough already!

Davidson, N.C.

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