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) and the terrible toll on our children ( http://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/23/well/mind/teens-thc-cannabis.html ), 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
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 1, 2022. Read the original PDF.