Pubdate: Thu, 15 May 2014
Source: Athens News, The (OH)
Copyright: 2014, Athens News
Contact:  http://www.athensnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1603
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v14/n429/a05.html
Author: Stan White

DEMONIZING POT JUST LEADS TO DISTRUST IN AUTHORITY INSTITUTIONS

To the Editor:

If Ohio and American citizens honestly want to lower heroin addiction
rates ("Heroin Scourge Mainly Hitting the Young," The NEWS, May 7),
end cannabis (marijuana) prohibition. An important reason to end
cannabis prohibition that doesn't get mentioned is because it
increases hard drug addiction rates. It puts citizen who choose to use
the relatively safe plant into contact with people who often also sell
hard drugs.

Further, government claims that heroin is no worse than cannabis and
methamphetamine and cocaine is less harmful by insisting that cannabis
is a Schedule I substance alongside heroin, while methamphetamine and
cocaine are only Schedule II substances.

How many citizens tried cannabis and realized it is not nearly as
dangerous as claimed and believed other substances must not be either
only to find themselves addicted to hard drugs? Can the message from
cannabis prohibitionists be any worse for vulnerable citizens?

Stan White
Climax Drive
Dillon, Colo.
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MAP posted-by: Matt