The continued criminalization of marijuana and other drugs has not worked ("Ohio snuffs out Big Pot's risky push for legalization," Nov. 9).

Those punitive policies, over many years, have led to serious consequences including mandatory sentencing, expensive prison overcrowding and a lack of judicial discretion. And it has entrenched the underground business of delivering and selling illegal drugs.

It is common knowledge that cigarettes kill more people in the U.S. than any other drug. And alcohol use destroys more lives and destabilizes society to a far greater extent than marijuana and other drugs.

The United States should apply the far more rational policies we use to control cigarettes and alcohol use to all potential addiction problems, rather than continuing the failed "War on Drugs."

- - Tom Larkin, Bedford

The writer is a licensed psychologist.

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