Regarding the editorial "Failed drug 'war'" (July 19 and TribLIVE.com): There is a middle ground between drug prohibition and blanket legalization.

Switzerland's heroin maintenance program has been shown to reduce disease, death and crime among chronic users. Providing addicts with standardized doses in a clinical setting eliminates many of the problems associated with illicit heroin use.

The success of the Swiss program has inspired heroin maintenance pilot projects in Canada, Germany, Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands. If expanded, prescription heroin maintenance would deprive organized crime of a core client base. This would render illegal heroin trafficking unprofitable and spare future generations addiction.

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Regarding Tony Norman's July 13 column ("Legalized Pot? Like Getting Bonged in the Head"):

The drug war is largely a war on marijuana smokers. In 2008, there were 847,863 marijuana arrests in the United States, almost 90 percent for simple possession. At a time when state and local governments are laying off police, firefighters and teachers, this country continues to spend enormous public resources criminalizing Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis.

The end result of this ongoing culture war is not necessarily lower rates of use. The United States has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available.

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Thousands of lives lost and more than $2 trillion later, the 40-year-old U.S. "war on drugs" has become a lost cause steeped in senseless stratagems and without any end in sight.

U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske admits the problems have only "intensified." And the Obama administration has increased the nation's drug-control budget to $15.1 billion.

Adjusted for inflation, that's 31 times the amount President Nixon authorized when he signed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act in 1970. The Associated Press reports the casualties:

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Regarding your July 16 editorial on New Jersey's stalled medical marijuana program, the drug war is largely a war on marijuana smokers. In 2008, there were 847,863 marijuana arrests in the U.S., almost 90 percent for simple possession. At a time when state and local governments are laying off police, firefighters and teachers, this country continues to spend enormous public resources criminalizing Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis. The end result of this ongoing culture war is not necessarily lower rates of use.

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On July 11, the Post-Gazette reported on Pennsylvania's efforts to legalize medical marijuana ("The Push for Pot: State Bill Would Legalize Marijuana as Therapeutic Option"). For both alleged medical reasons and admitted financial ones -- and rationalizing that the popular vote is there -- legislators ask, why not?

Everybody knows it, but maybe it's a good time to say it again: Popular opinion is not science. In fact, the two have little in common.

There is scientific evidence that marijuana is addictive. Recent developments in neuroimaging techniques show distinct similarities between the way the brain changes in response to cannabinoids and the way it changes to exposure to other addictive drugs: The brain develops a tolerance, can experience cravings and can suffer withdrawal -- all marks of addiction. Some marijuana users express a desire to cut back or quit, but have difficulty doing so -- a hallmark in assessing dependence. Like all drugs, not everyone who uses marijuana becomes dependent on it. But some do.

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A medicinal marijuana bill is being considered in the state House and Senate in Harrisburg. The bill would allow qualified people to ingest cannabis for ailments such as cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, AIDS and many others.

To receive a verification card from the commonwealth, a user would have to first have what the state deems a "bona-fide doctor-patient relationship." You would have to go to a physician familiar with your specific medical history, and not just see some doctor at random.

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As a person who values my health and believes in the simplistic but important concept of being responsible, I'm appalled by the notion that state lawmakers are even considering legalizing marijuana for medical uses, as stated in Mackenzie Carpenter's article "Pa. Bill Would Legalize Marijuana as Therapeutic Option" (July 11).

Has our society really sunk this low? Sure, there is some very limited merit to any argument regarding therapeutic uses. However, if we take this step, where does it stop?

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Who will grow it?

Who will dispense it?

Who will make money on it?

Just six months after the New Jersey Legislature passed a bill to legalize marijuana for people with a demonstrated medical need, the still-to-be-inaugurated program is bogging down in the rule making.

The legislation called for certified nonprofit organizations to procure the drug and make it available at convenient locations around the state. Legislators insisted upon safeguards -- such as prohibiting storefront pot shops -- to prevent the Garden State from becoming the wrong kind of garden state.

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I'll take my chances with the game.

It's Christmas Eve in Philadelphia and weed is legal. Problem is, I've got 20 minutes to get it. The state store is on holiday hours and I still need to pick up the egg nog. No biggie, I'll just swing by Wawa on the way home.

I check my watch. Shit. I sigh. This is gonna be a long Christmas.

I pull up to the dispensary to what looks like a flash mob. It's not. It's the longest, most annoyed line of people I've ever seen. I panic. Please don't be sold out. It's Christmas! A worker announces that production has been reduced for the holiday season, and the G-13 is quickly running out. But I keep waiting because this is the only way to get weed now. The only other dispensary in the city has already been shut down. The operator is being charged in a kickback scheme. Typical Philly.

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In November, Californians will have the opportunity to vote on a ballot initiative legalizing all marijuana use, whether medicinal or not.

According to the latest poll of likely California voters, Proposition 19 will pass. This will put the Obama administration in an awkward position.

The federal government is already suing Arizona for its recently enacted immigration law. What will the Obama Justice Department do when a state goes rogue by establishing its own rules when it comes to licensing and taxing the sale of weed?

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York County's district attorney likes having the option; defense lawyers would like to see the mandatory minimum repealed.

Most of the City of York falls within a drug-free school zone, so an adult convicted of even a first-time offense could face time in state prison.

It's up to the district attorney whether to invoke mandatory minimum sentences of two to four years for drug offenses that occur within 1,000 feet of school property.

If the district attorney does so, a judge must hand down that sentence -- whether or not he or she agrees with it.

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They're lighting up joints in Bryn Mawr and Squirrel Hill after putting the kids to bed.

At Abay, an ultra-hip eatery in East Liberty, pro-medical marijuana activists are recruiting and organizing new members over martinis.

And in Harrisburg, some legislators are pushing for passage of a bill that would make Pennsylvania the 15th state to legalize medical marijuana -- if New York and Maryland don't beat them to it.

Pot is hot.

Long known as America's most widely used illicit drug, marijuana is no longer just a habit for aging baby boomers reliving the '60s. Fragile multiple sclerosis sufferers and chemo patients swear by it. In the movies, positive images abound: In "It's Complicated," Santa Barbara matron Meryl Streep gets stoned to hilarious effect, while on television's "Nurse Jackie," Edie Falco helps a chemo patient fashion a bong for his joint.

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An LVC graduate is testing medicinal marijuana products with his company in California.

Jeff Raber describes himself as a "serial entrepreneur."

While he was a student at Lebanon Valley College, he was a systems administrator for Lebanon MobileFone, an Internet provider, and began his own IT consulting business, Creative Technology Solutions. He's helped to launch other companies since moving to California more than a decade ago.

His newest project, The Werc Shop, is a laboratory devoted to developing testing procedures for cannabis products used for medicinal purposes.

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To The Editor:

This is a response to Bradley Harrington's June 4th op-ed, "The War On Drugs: A War On Liberty And Common Sense."

The drug war is largely a war on marijuana smokers. In 2008, there were 847,863 marijuana arrests in the U.S., almost 90 percent for simple possession. At a time when state and local governments are laying off police, firefighters and teachers, this country continues to spend enormous public resources criminalizing Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis. The end result of this ongoing culture war is not necessarily lower rates of use.

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Let's rethink the rush to make marijuana a legal medicine.

We live in a time that merits a new edition of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Charles Mackay's classic 1841 study of human follies and frenzies, including witch hunts, alchemy, and bursting financial bubbles. One delusion now in full bloom is the movement to legalize medical marijuana, which is proceeding apace without significant care or consideration on the part of the government, the medical and scientific community, or the public.

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"Once the principle is admitted that it is the duty of the government to protect the individual against his own foolishness, no serious objections can be advanced against further encroachments."

- -- Ludwig von Mises, "Human Action," 1949

Finally, the Emperor has been declared naked: "After 40 years, the United States' war on drugs has cost $1 trillion and hundreds of thousands of lives, and for what? Drug use is rampant and violence even more brutal and widespread." ("U.S. war on drugs has met none of its goals," Associated Press, May 13th.)

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Gov. Christie has not made a good enough case to delay implementation of the new law that will allow seriously ill patients in New Jersey to obtain medical marijuana. He should stop being a roadblock.

Christie says another year is needed to write regulations. He's just stalling. The law goes into effect in July, but it gives state officials until October to write the rules. That's sufficient time.

Christie had almost persuaded State Sen. Nicholas P. Scutari (D., Linden), a prime sponsor of the law, to delay it. Fortunately, Scutari has recovered and is now urging the governor to "make a good-faith effort" to implement it.

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To The Times:

Recently, my heart was shattered due to the death of my grandson, John. When is this senseless slaughter of our loved ones going to stop? We fight wars for other things. Why can't we fight the war on drugs?

The drug lords are making millions from our loved ones. The little guy on the streets of North Philadelphia, Kensington, Lehigh and Somerset in Chester, Highland Gardens, Third and Highland, Seventh Street and many, many more (these are the ones I'm familiar with) are the ones put in jail for distributing. When are they going to learn that, if they stop all of this nonsense, there will be no one to sell this murderous, vile, addiction that has taken over our world?

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There is another, rarely mentioned reason why sick citizens should be allowed to use cannabis (marijuana) ("Rally supports use of pot to help ease medical pain," May 8): because it's biblically correct. Christ indicates he created all the seed-bearing plants, saying they are all good, on literally the very first page (Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-30).

The only biblical restriction placed on cannabis is that it is to be accepted with thankfulness (see 1 Timothy 4:1-5). And "But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?" (See 1 John 3:17).

Many people know of cannabis as the tree of life, and the very last page of the Bible indicates the leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations.

Jesus risked jail to heal the sick.

Stan White

Dillon, Colo

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Another reason to allow sick citizens to use cannabis (marijuana) that doesn't get mentioned is because it's Biblically correct since Christ God Our Father, the Ecologician, indicates He created all the seed-bearing plants, saying they are all good, on literally the very first page (Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-30).

The only Biblical restriction placed on cannabis is that it is to be accepted with thankfulness (see 1 Timothy 4:1-5). And "But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?" (see 1 John 3:17).

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