I’m writing in support of the Friday letter, “Marijuana doesn’t lead to heroin use”: I am a former chemical dependency counselor and I am also a heroin addict in recovery, so I know what I am talking about. They call marijuana a “gateway drug” but the mothers of all “gateway drugs” are alcohol and/or cigarettes.
Most kids had their first experience with drugs when they started stealing their parents’ cigarettes and sneaking sips from their glasses of wine or cans of beer. These two legal drugs cause more death and disease than any and all of the other “hard drugs” combined. If there was no alcohol or cigarettes and someone tried have them approved today by the FDA and the DEA, they would be thrown out on their ear and laughed out of the building.
Our country is significantly supported by the income generated by the taxes on tobacco and alcohol. In Washington state, more than one third of your alcohol cost is taxes, and the state tax on a pack of cigarettes is more than $3 per pack, generating hundreds of millions in revenue. So no one is going to make those “gateway drugs” go away.
You cannot in good conscience stand in front of your child smoking your cigarette and holding a can of beer or cocktail and tell them not to take drugs. I know so many good, honest, hard-working, law-abiding citizens who smoke pot and have never touched a “hard drug.” To have marijuana in the same category as heroin and cocaine is just ludicrous.
Thank God the laws are beginning to reflect the overall approval of legalizing marijuana. No one should be in prison for growing or smoking pot for their own personal consumption. No one! If your kids smoke and drink, they were using “hard drugs” long before they smoked their first joint.
Susan Martin
Everett
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