Thursday, Oct. 17, 2002 | 9:05 a.m.
Regarding the marijuana initiative:
I don't smoke pot. I don't use tobacco. A big bottle of rum to flavor my tea and baking lasts me a year.
I don't have bill collectors coming to my door. I've had no moving traffic violations during my 47 years in Southern Nevada.
In other words, I'm a responsible citizen who also is a volunteer for Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement, the group seeking passage of Question 9.
Democracy requires responsibility. Our country promotes democracy throughout the world to provide all people with freedom. And freedom is what I want when it comes to the marijuana initiative in the coming election.
I'm old. Though healthy now, I would use marijuana to provide comfort for the aches and pains of aging. I've spoken with several people whose family members suffered severe pain prior to death and wanted sufficient marijuana as a pain-reliever without side effects.
State licensing will allow doctors to prescribe it, and state oversight will assure a product without dangerous additives.
We're in scaredy-cat mode these days -- we're fixated on "what might happen." Now is the time to protect our freedoms by exercising them. Decriminalizing the use of marijuana should not depend on what the police and other authorities see in their crystal ball.
It is parents or individuals who have the responsibility of dealing with alcohol and cigarettes and marijuana in the privacy of their homes.
This is a democracy. We don't need Taliban kind of control from our authorities that results in suffering and loss of personal freedom.
EUGENIE THROCKMORTON
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