Pubdate: Mon, 31 Jul 2017
Source: Herald News (West Paterson, NJ)
Copyright: 2017 North Jersey Media Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.northjersey.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2911
Author: Roy Sutton

LET'S RECOGNIZE THE BENEFITS OF CANNABIS

Regarding "Opioid crisis continues to grow" (Editorial, July
22):

Most of the efforts on overdosing of opioids in Governor Christie's
programs have to do with treating the addict. We need more to be done
to prevent the addiction from happening in the first place. And at the
same time, we should not shame people who want to use soft drugs.

When we have a legal drug, alcohol, which causes far more harm than
cannabis does, there is something wrong. We need to acknowledge that
some people have a need to benefit from cannabis, and we gain nothing
by censuring them. The "stigma" hasn't really worked very well. People
have found benefit from this plant. We would be better off accepting
this rather than putting them through arrests and worse.

Roy Sutton

Rahway, July 25