Editor:
Re: Legalizing marijuana opens the door to host of social problems, Nov. 16 If marijuana were just decriminalized, then alcohol needs to be de-legalized.
Remember prohibition? Alcohol is a drug.
I have also worked in the field of alcohol and drug abuse, and am more than 28 years clean and sober.
Did Jim Stimson's family members overdose on marijuana? Did his sister die from marijuana? Is his son addicted to marijuana? I think not. The three separate car crashes resulted from alcohol abuse, not marijuana.
Kids, and other people, have been getting whatever they want, without help from anyone, ever since there were kids.
All the studies Stimson talked about having been done for the abuse of marijuana have also been done for other drugs. The results are all the same - destructive. Marijuana, however, is being investigated for curing diseases at doses far higher than one can obtain by lungs or stomach. Narcotics relieve unbearable pain.
As for a substance being addictive, everyone who uses narcotics for too long gets physically addicted.
Most people don't get addicted to alcohol, and for those who do, it's a physical addiction. Marijuana is only psychologically addictive.
Any kind of addict is obsessed with getting a supply of his/her stuff.
Medical marijuana comes in different foods so those who can't or won't smoke can get their pain relief in a form they can use, like sugared-flavoured cough syrup for children.
Stimson is concerned about public health costs "... and the cost of overseeing the growing, manufacturing and selling if it."
Apply that to all the drugs I have mentioned: think of how alcohol is regulated in its manufacture, transportation, taxation and sale; the way narcotics are regulated and criminalized; and how much they cost now in terms of health care.
Washington and Colorado were tired of the costs and incredibly damaging effects the criminalization of marijuana has had, and decided to make an ounce or less legal to possess. That's not growing, manufacturing, selling or taxing.
Education is the answer. May I suggest: Wikipedia, Legal history of cannabis in Canada/USA and http: // www.jackherer.com/thebook/.
Carol Tennis
