here is a letter that a friend had sent in:
To:
opinion@thedaily.was hington.edu
Date: Friday, May 29, 2009, 10:36 PM
To the Editor of The Daily:
I'm writing about Jackson Rohrbaugh's thoughtful column:
"What's the worse that could happen" (5-28-09). If
marijuana
were legalized our booming prison building industry would
come to a screeching halt. And we would have to
figure
out what to do with our closed prisons like the
Netherlands.
I suggest the readers google: "Netherlands closed
prisons."
Then the readers will see that the Dutch only have a total
of
12,000 inmates. For comparison, the United States has
a total
of greater than 2.2 million prisoners.
I also suggest that the readers visit the web site:
The Netherlands Compared With The United States | Drug War Facts the readers will
see that even though marijuana is quasi legal for adults,
they
use marijuana at less than half the rates that Americans
do.
And they use heroin at less than a third the rates that
Americans
do.
Kirk Muse
1741 S. Clearview Ave.
Mesa, AZ 85209
(480) 396-3399
Thank you for considering this letter for publication.
Feel free to edit.