LEGALIZE AND REGULATE IT

The problem with marijuana is an unregulated market. Remember alcohol
prohibition in the 1930s? You had high-potency forms of alcohol being
made in people's bathtubs, only bathtub gin was often toxic. Even at
today's higher standards of potency, marijuana still hasn't produced
a single death in recorded history.

If you want to have any kind of control you have to legalize and
regulate the commercial production and sale [of marijuana].

All the exaggerated scare stories have only increased interest in,
and experimentation with, marijuana. I'm sure all the pot dealers
want to thank the Register for the free advertising.

If your kid experiments with alcohol, at least your kid isn't going
to be stigmatized for life by a drug conviction. The chances for
intervention and treatment are better when society recognizes that
people need help instead of locking them up and labeling them as
rejects for the rest of their lives.

So, go on keeping marijuana illegal and forcing it into the black
market. See where it has gotten you?

- -- Carl Olsen

Des Moines.