Letters to the Editor
Reefer madness
Regarding your Oct. 9 editorial, if health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents.
Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best.
Marijuana prohibition has failed miserably as a deterrent. The United States has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where possession of marijuana is decriminalized. Students who want to help end the inter-generational culture war otherwise known as the war on some drugs should contact Students for Sensible Drug Policy at www.SchoolsNotPrisons.com.
Robert Sharpe
policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy
Give peace a chance
Mr. President: When mankind works with as much determination and sacrifice to make peace as war, there will be peace. As Ben Franklin advised, “There has never been a good war or a bad peace.”
Franklin understood that peace is more than just the absence of war. Like love, it is more than just the absence of hate — they are both active pursuits.
Militarily, the United States is the most powerful land in the world. If we cannot find the courage to ever turn the other cheek, no one else will, either. We have made enough mistakes in pursuing war.
It is now time to risk peace.
Sam Osborne
West Branch resident
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