Open Forum

Legalizing marijuana makes sense in state

To the editor:

A recent Rasmussen poll showed that 61 percent of Coloradans favor marijuana legalization. Amendment 64 would legalize and regulate marijuana like alcohol. It makes sense considering marijuana, unlike alcohol, doesn’t cause overdoses, isn’t physically addictive or a contributor to violent behavior. How often have we heard about domestic abuse stemming from alcohol? Often, yet violent crime induced by marijuana use is extremely rare. When’s the last time you heard about someone abusing his wife after using marijuana? I can’t think of any since marijuana generally reduces aggression.

Nor is marijuana a “gateway drug” as most people use alcohol before marijuana. Millions of people have used and currently use marijuana, yet lead perfectly successful, normal lives. These are average, law-abiding citizens who simply choose to use marijuana instead of alcohol to unwind at the end of the day, in the privacy of their own home. Besides, if marijuana was a “gateway drug” then everyone who has ever tried or currently uses marijuana should be heroin addicts and the evidence simply doesn’t show such a correlation.

Ironically, legalization would go further to keeping marijuana from teens than prohibition. By regulating marijuana like alcohol, we can better control it. Currently, a drug dealer isn’t going to ask your teen for identification before selling them marijuana. If legalized, that teen wouldn’t even be able to enter the marijuana store without showing proper identification. Plus, legal status would price out the black market as the cost of marijuana would naturally decline. That gives criminals little incentive to maintain an illegal marijuana operation.

Ending marijuana prohibition by voting for amendment 64 would also provide extra tax dollars to fund schools, medical facilities and other needy projects. In the end, this is about advocating for personal freedom. Amendment 64 would restrict marijuana use in public and ban driving while using it. So, if a marijuana user isn’t bothering anyone in the privacy of their own home, what business is it of the federal government?

James R. Ure

Loveland