Time Mag Drug Article

[rodwal]

What do these six folks have in common? They each contributed about $12,500

to reform efforts simply by having letters to the editor published in Time

Magazine. A little more than two column inches of reform oriented letters.

Time's rate card says that a two column inch ad would cost you $113,120. 3

more writers were mentioned without names.

 

Time claims that each issue has over 20 million readers, and a 47% market

share of all weekly news magazines.

 

Of course all who sent letters to Time contributed to the amount of space

our side got. The more letters on a subject received, the more space the

issue tends to receive. Every letter sent counts, published or not.

 

The Time article was the subject of a DrugSense Focus Alert at

http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0256.html

 

Below are the letters on our side, followed by the two that were not. Of

course, the two that were not were from people with a substantial financial

interest in the status quo. Seems that there is hardly anybody left out

there that is anti-reform who doesn't make their living because of the laws

as they are.

 

Richard Lake

Sr. Editor

DrugNews

www.mapinc.org

 

Pubdate: Mon, 25 Nov 2002

Source: Time Magazine (US)

Page: 10

Website: http://www.time.com/time/

Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/451

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1995/a07.html

 

IS AMERICA GOING TO POT?

 

The question is not whether marijuana is good for you but whether it is so

bad that people should be put in jail for personal use [society, Nov. 4].

The answer, based on your story and research on both sides of the issue, is

clearly no. Legalize it and regulate it.

 

ROY HOBBES, Rio de Janeiro

 

Of all the risks involved with pot smoking, the biggest one is getting

arrested and thrown in prison with violent criminals. Last year more than

734,000 Americans were arrested for marijuana violations - more than for

murder, rape, armed robbery and assault combined! Our court system and

prisons should be reserved for people who harm others - not just

potentially themselves.

 

KIRK MUSE, Mesa, Ariz.

 

Used in moderation, neither marijuana nor alcohol will ruin your life.

But if you're caught with pot, the legal system will see to it that

your life becomes a shambles. Sanctioning alcohol use while

persecuting pot smokers is the height of hypocrisy. Thank you for

providing the facts so Americans can make up their minds

intelligently.

 

STU ALDERMAN, Reno, Nev.

 

Successful, hardworking people smoke marijuana. To paint them as dumb

and on the way to using other drugs is no different from

characterizing those who drink alcohol as reckless drivers and child

abusers.

 

KIRK BATTLE, Conway, S.C.

 

The claim that marijuana is a gateway drug is true for one reason: to

buy pot, one must rely on an illegal-drug dealer. This dealer probably

has connections to other illegal substances like cocaine and heroin.

Legalize pot, and the connections will be severed. The government is

wasting too much money fighting a drug that at best has medicinal

value and at worst is not all that dangerous. The war on drugs would

gain credibility if pot weren't enemy No. 1.

 

BENJAMIN L. MOAN, Flagstaff, Ariz.

 

Thanks in large part to big money, Americans at least had a chance to

vote on marijuana laws. For this, pro-pot activists George Soros, John

Sperling and Peter Lewis should be applauded. But the opportunity to

vote on legalizing pot is a painful reminder that the democratic

process is intricately connected to the almighty dollar. As for drug

czar John Walters and the rest of the Federal Government, they would

be wise to listen to the people and stop stepping on the states. That

would be democracy!

 

MATTHEW ALBRIGHT, Toronto

 

Note: The letters section ended with this note:

 

Drug czar Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug

Control Policy, is just as unpopular with some of our readers as the laws

against pot are.

 

"Having a culture warrior like Walters dictate marijuana policy is like

putting an Islamic fundamentalist in charge of alcohol," wrote a Virginian.

A New York reader asked, "Where does Walters get off saying the billionaire

philanthropists who bankroll the movement to legalize marijuana should

debate him? They don't owe him an explanation any more than someone who

backs the Red Cross does." And a man in Utah went further: "For Walters to

cry foul at the marijuana lobby's use of the tactics long employed by

Republican robber barons is just a hoot!"

 

And here are the two anti-reform letters also printed. The newshawk,

without commenting on the letters (we wouldn't have posted a comment

anyway, but as long as they are in good taste we allow newshawks write

their own credit lines), used this newshawk line: Newshawk:

http://www.csdp.org/ads/drawing.htm

 

TIME's coverage of the medical marijuana controversy was thoughtful and

scrupulously researched. But what argues most persuasively for a ban on

marijuana is the extraordinary threat the drug poses for adolescents.

Marijuana impairs short-term memory, depletes energy and impedes

acquisition of psychosocial skills. Perhaps the most chilling effect is

that it retards maturation for young people. A significant number of kids

who use lots of pot simply don't grow up. So it is hardly surprising that

marijuana is the primary drug for more than half the youngsters in the

long-term residential substance-abuse programs that Phoenix House operates

throughout the country.

 

MITCHELL S. ROSENTHAL, M.D., PRESIDENT, PHOENIX HOUSE, New York City

 

I fail to see how legalizing a drug that impairs one's ability to

concentrate and retain information can be viewed as good public

policy. I have worked in drug-treatment centers for more than 20

years, and I continue to see clients who identify marijuana as their

gateway drug to alcohol, cocaine and heroin.

 

PHYLLIS SELLNER, Indianapolis, Ind.