A great letter-to-the-editor from the Marijuana Policy Project's Aaron Smith appeared in the Vallejo Times-Herald today. It's a perfect example of the type of letter you can send to your local newspaper the next time you see a piece about marijuana (or, as was the case here, a ridiculous column about marijuana). And if it gets published, let us know, and we'll hype it here on our blog, just like this one! [SAFER's emphases in bold]

No Laughing Matter

Malcolm Donahoo's sophomoric column poking fun at marijuana consumers has no place in a respectable newspaper like the Times-Herald. About 15 million Americans use marijuana at least monthly. Is Donahoo insinuating that all these individuals are useless couch potatoes or "Cheech and Chong" wannabes?

Marijuana consumers are everywhere. They come from all walks of life. The local grocer, attorney, mechanic, hairdresser, or even your local newspaper columnist might be a marijuana consumer. It's offensive that Donahoo would deride this major group of people who simply choose to unwind with a substance that is, by all objective measures, far safer than alcohol.

Do some people abuse marijuana? Sure. But it's even more inappropriate to make a joke out of problem drug users. Donahoo didn't pen a column mocking alcoholics. Perhaps that's because it's harder to find humor in the harms associated with alcohol -- liver cancer, highway fatalities, domestic violence, etc. -- than it is to laugh at a person who seems to be enjoying his Cheetos with just a little too much enthusiasm.

What is really not a laughing matter is that we waste billions of tax dollars arresting some 850,000 Americans every year for using a substance that's far safer than alcohol or tobacco.

F. Aaron Smith
Marijuana Policy Project
Santa Rosa

The following interview with SAFER cofounder and Marijuana Is Safer coauthor Steve Fox is featured by the independent music magazine, the L.A. Record:

Steve Fox is the Director of State Campaigns for Marijuana Policy Project—also known as the MPP, the nation’s largest marijuana reform organization—and is co-author of a new book called Marijuana is Safer, which argues that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol. He speaks now via phone to L.A. RECORD’s Scott Schultz.

Of the politicians in Washington D.C. who are opposed to marijuana legalization, what do you feel is the breakdown between those who are benefiting from the anti-drug campaigns, those who are privately in favor but politically opposed, and those who are just legitimately opposed?

Steve Fox: Fear is probably the biggest reason of all. When you think of the American public and how they’ve been convinced that marijuana is a dangerous drug, elected officials are at a whole other level. Many of them have been convinced that marijuana is a dangerous subject for them. They just know from their little playbook that’s given to them when they’re running for office: ‘Here’s what we’re going to say when anything about illegal drugs comes up.’ I think it’s really going to take public pressure for many of them to change, and that is what our book is all about. The book is about giving people the confidence to be more outspoken. There are so many people out there that are supportive of changing marijuana laws or maybe even using marijuana themselves. In the past—though they believed that marijuana was safer than alcohol—they weren’t prepared to talk about it at length. Instead they would get caught up in talking about, ‘Well, this is a waste of government resources!’ We want to make the simple point that all you need to talk about is, ‘I should just be able to choose.’ Marijuana is less harmful than alcohol. I should not be punished if I want to use the less harmful substance. We should be asking our elected officials why they want to force people to drink instead of using the less-harmful option, and make it about alcohol and not about marijuana.

A great op-ed by Redding, California resident Baran Galocy appeared this weekend in the city's local newspaper, the The Record Searchlight. It's a perfect example of the type of piece we hope you will write and submit to your local newspaper. And if it gets published, let us know, and we'll hype it here on our blog, just like this one!

A few choice excerpts: 

May we please discuss marijuana, medical or otherwise, and alcohol in the same sentence? If I were to try to poison myself to death by consuming alcohol, I could easily do so. That was proved in our community last year. Were alcohol illegal and marijuana legal, perhaps we wouldn't have lost a minor to alcohol poisoning last year. No regular user has ever "poisoned" themselves with marijuana and no one has ever died as a direct result of having smoked it...

Domestic violence is fueled by the consumption of alcohol. Someone who just got high is inhabiting an entirely different mental construct than one who just drank. I have never met a violent "stoner," although I have met more than my fair share of obnoxious, violent drunks. Logic dictates that any drinker who is against legalizing marijuana is a world-class hypocrite...

The bottom line is that, like it or not, this is the end of an era... We are watching very bad law under deconstruction.