04/03/2008 00:00:00
Letter: It's time to stop treating marijuana use as crime
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Cannabis (marijuana) sales do not add crime to neighborhoods ("Marijuana
sales attract crime to neighborhood," March 1) but cannabis prohibition
does. Cannabis is a relatively safe God-given plant that millions of
otherwise honest law-abiding citizens choose to use and arguably should
be immediately re-legalized. Even government studies historically
discredit the "gateway" theory.
The so-called gateway to hard drugs exists because people who sell
cannabis sometimes also sell hard drugs. In fact, the ignorant cannabis
laws themselves create gateway drug problems since cannabis is
misclassified as a Schedule I substance while meth is only a Schedule II
substance, and when people try cannabis they then may think meth is no
big deal either.
And habits? Cannabis is less addictive than caffeine and coffee drinkers
aren't committing crime to acquire it. It's clearly time to stop caging
responsible adults for using and selling cannabis.
Stan White, Dillon, Colo.
http://www.thesunchronicle.com/articles/2008/03/04/opinion/opinion02.txt
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=13322
Author:
The Sun Chronicle via UKCIA
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