Editor, Times-Union: I have a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and have worked in an eastern state city prison. Citizens who are booked for drug use spend too much time in prison when I believe monetary fines would be better imposed. In most cases child molestation cases see the light of day before a drug case. I also believe the end justifies the means. I would rather the government never legalize marijuana in order to protect the citizens.
I also read that these people prosecuted are regular ordinary people who want to live and aren’t hardened criminals. Everyone starts out normal until the drug takes over and tells them what to do. I have brushed shoulders with seemingly normal inmates just like you until I read their file charge and found out their murder trial has no hope of innocent.
I mean this state is discussing smoking bans. They are trying to wise up and protect citizens from a lethal addiction as deadly as being morbidly obese. I don’t even want to breathe in second-hand smoke anywhere. People smoke with no care for others as they get a face full of smoke walking into Wal-Mart. Me? I want to snap that cigarette out of their hand and stomp it out. The second-hand smoke is where the real danger is.
Ten years ago I was addicted to pot, smoked, and I abused alcohol and other things as well. I will tell you I stole to get my fix from my own mother’s wallet. More importantly, marijuana is a gateway drug to the more serious illegal drugs. Don’t believe me? Ask the people prosecuted for methamphetamine.
If you haven’t been down the road of addiction then don’t pretend like you will know the outcome of putting addictive substances on the market without pondering the negative realities. It boils down to choice. I chose to stop as I became a reborn Christian man and put it all away with God’s powerful assistance.
I wonder if these law-practicing men who want to legalize pot and other drugs have any religious affiliation. If so, they don’t have the same Bible I read. Get them out of here because we need Christian leaders in charge just like the way this once great nation was founded.
I think we need to focus on more important things like changing the toxic food market, fix our sick nation, and build new jobs versus some sympathetic whim aligned with the thought of government control. The government controls even deceased people who get crosses taken off of their graves. Religious freedoms are being stripped as unbelievers complain.
Well, wah! Pick your battles to the point that they are at least important. People wanting to get all messed up for recreational time is loser time. The violence and addictions won’t stop and what this country needs is verdicts that fit the crime with stiff punishment that actually deters crime, not sissies wanting to bend everything for worse outcomes.
