REGULATING POT WOULD HELP FIGHT AGAINST HARDER DRUGS

Thanks for publishing the outstanding letter from the directors of
Columbia NORML (Sound Off, "We Love Pot; You Should Too," Dec. 22).

I'd like to add that I've been buying beer and wine for more than 30
years. Yet, I've never been offered a free sample of whiskey, gin,
vodka or any other hard liquor. However, when I was a marijuana user,
which was more than 15 years ago, I was frequently offered free
samples of much more dangerous drugs such as cocaine and meth by my
marijuana suppliers.

If we regulate, control and tax the sale and production of marijuana
and sell it in licensed business establishments like we do with
tobacco products, we will close the gateway from marijuana to hard
drugs.

Speaking of taxes, it seems to me that non-marijuana users would be
very much in favor of taxing a product that they don't use. Around
these parts, taxing someone else's vice is very popular.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.