From Sen. Jim Webb in Parade Magazine (March 29): “Today, one out of every 31 adults in the United States is in prison, in jail, or on supervised release.”
He says that America has five percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the prison population and adds: “either we are home to the most evil people on Earth or we are doing something different (from the rest of the world).” About 33 percent of the U.S. prison population are there for drug offenses, about half of which are for marijuana infractions. Sixteen percent are mentally ill. Our justice system is a disgrace.
Ron Hutchison in The Joplin Globe (March 29) says that marijuana has valid medical uses, especially for cancer patients, and that the (legal) alcohol industry, which views marijuana as competition, has successfully prevented its legalization. He adds that most illegal marijuana is contaminated by a dangerous herbicide, paraquat.
If you criminalize a product in strong demand, criminals will fill the demand. If you legalize it you can regulate and tax it just like we do alcohol, tobacco and prescription drugs. Criminals are then denied a market. Prohibition proved it, but in this case we failed to learn the lesson.
James R. Wheeler
Joplin
