To the editor:

Which does more harm to our society: the smoking of marijuana or the persecution of marijuana smokers?

There are families destroyed by the war on drugs.

Otherwise law-abiding, tax-paying citizens are thrown in jail, forced to pay ridiculous fines, stripped of driving privileges and, many times, fired from their places of employment.

The following is a quote from President Jimmy Carter, August 2, 1977: “Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself.

Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marijuana.”

The Partnership for a Drug Free America would like you to think that harder drugs become an issue because marijuana users need a bigger and better high.

If a joint gets you high today, the same joint will get you just as high a year from now, regardless of how much you smoke between now and then.

Marijuana is purchased from the black market because it is illegal. This connection introduces people to meth, LSD and cocaine.

The PDFA should support the decriminalization of marijuana.

No one has ever died as a result of marijuana use and it is not physically addictive. Can the same be said for alcohol?

If the PDFA were to drop their marijuana propaganda, I think they would get a LOT more support from people like me.

I challenge anyone to disagree. If I am misinformed, then state your views in the paper.

Travis Johnson

Sophomore

Materials science and engineering