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# Reefer Madness
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/reefer-madness/
- Published: 2022-11-01T18:03:00.000Z
- Updated: 2024-12-11T23:46:57.000Z
- Author: Editor
- Tags: Letters, Opinion, letter, letter to the editor, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-06 12:28

**Editor:**

The claim that opposing the recreational sale of marijuana in Santa Monica (measure HMP) is “reefer madness” is unworthy of the SMDP.

The widely reported murders and environmental devastation, [(www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-09-08/reality-of-legal-weed-in-california-illegal-grows-deaths](http://%28www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-09-08/reality-of-legal-weed-in-california-illegal-grows-deaths?ref=smdp.com)) and the terrible toll on our children ( [http://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/23/well/mind/teens-thc-cannabis.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/23/well/mind/teens-thc-cannabis.html?ref=smdp.com) ), are not some fevered dream - they were created by the way pot was legalized.

California voters were tricked - they thought they were just ending long prison sentences for minor infractions - something that could have been achieved without destroying our kids or our lands.

Pot has been portrayed as no-big-deal, and perhaps it was when it meant an occasional puff on a low-potency spliff. It should have been de-criminalized, not legalized.

And the pie-in-the-sky claims of expected tax revenues from the stores never pan out.

The presence of local pot stores has been shown to increase under-age consumption. And parents will have no idea if their children are using high-potency, odorless vapes or popping pot-candy.

Forget the murders and environmental destruction - the spread of pot-stores will harm the educational chances of many kids and may devastate the lives of more than a few.

To deny that is truly “reefer madness”.

Vote no on HMP.

Peter Borresen, Santa Monica