StancoInsider.com

It was in 1979,that I first heard about drug legalization and simultaneously learned about an organization called the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
 
I had taken my two sons (age 4 and 8) to purchase a record at a store within walking distance of our home. My older son wanted "just one rock music record." I was very uniformed on the subject. We asked for the record, received it, and gave the clerk a check.
As we began to walk out, I noticed the walls were covered with Frisbees, very small pipes, and glass tubes and hoses. I couldn't bear the curiosity and asked, "What are those things on your walls?" He didn't hesitate to tell me, "Oh those are pot pipes or bongs."
 
Shocked, I returned to the clerk and said, "Please return my check, I won't support a store that sells this stuff."

A friend and I returned the next day and purchased two grocery bags of pipes, bongs, drug toys, etc. and took them to the Montgomery County, MD school board. Because middle class America had no idea what had happened in their children's world, the meetings were packed with parents, print, and electronic media.

Joyce Nalepka

Soon, the members of NORML began to show up at the meetings. They called us names. They made loud noises when we were testifying and they smoked pot on the grounds outside.
 
We went to the U.S. Department of Justice and asked for help in drafting a bill to close the drug paraphernalia shops nationally. We first introduced and passed it at the state level starting in Maryland and Georgia. We began hearing from parents in other states. We were unprepared for the call from a California parent during dinner one evening.
 
My older son, Kevin, came running into the kitchen to tell me, "Mom, hurry get the phone, it's someone who says she's Carol Burnett." It was Carol. She wanted help closing the drug paraphernalia shops in California and asked if I would come out and help her. I had just returned from a trip and my husband wasn't quite ready to take on another week of cooking, homework, and carpooling. I told Carol I would get someone for her and actually, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration lawyer, Bill Lenck, went. He said he had never worked so hard or laughed so much on any assignment.

Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of laughter in the drug war. Yes, I still call it a "drug war" because no matter what they say, "It is and should be called an all-out war." Carol's daughter, had gotten tangled up in drug use as so many families had had to face. Her daughter died not long ago of cancer.
 
Why not legalize marijuana?
 
Legalization advocates claim legalization in California would bring in 1 Billion $---per year. Experts estimate $9.00 in social costs for every $1.00 in revenue.
 
California already has an estimated 24.2% high school drop out rate which costs California taxpayers $46.4 billion per year!" This is a national disgrace. California is not the only state in this kind of tragic situation. What in the world is happening to America and Americans? Pick up the phone and call your elected officials. I think they believe you're happy!

Marijuana already causes more injury accidents than alcohol.
 
We know marijuana causes cancer, respiratory problems, birth defects, depression, psychosis, schizophrenia, loss of memory and motivation and has no therapeutic value. (18 nations, including the US, report research linking marijuana to depression, psychosis and schizophrenia,)
 
Can you imagine a legitimate physician prescribing tobacco cigarettes as "medicine?"

Legalizers say tobacco is more harmful than marijuana. Not so: Researchers at the University of Mississippi where over 15,000 research papers are on file say one marijuana joint does as much harm as 5 tobacco cigarettes. And remember, those comparisons were done several years ago when marijuana was much less potent than it is today. The ingredient in marijuana that causes intoxication is called Delta-9
Tetrahydrocannabinol or THC.

Karen Tandy