To the Editor:
I wonder if Rebekah Balmer actually drinks coffee. Complaining about a Starbucks replacing a Java City is quite laughable for a few reasons. First, anyone who enjoys coffee knows that Java City severely lacked the quality that Starbucks has. Java City’s coffee was horrible at best. Second, Java City, albeit not as big of a chain as Starbucks, is still a commercial chain with numerous locations throughout the country. Lastly, though Starbucks may potentially take business away from Sprazzo, it is no guarantee. In fact, a recent New York Times article cited “hometown” coffee shops outlasting the presence of a Starbucks located across the street. While I also am not impressed with Starbucks’ lack of a hometown-feel, I am not going to complain about their presence on campus. It sure beats drinking Java City everyday.
Joseph Menta
Fourth-Year Student
To the Editor:
Kevin Conner is to be commended for exposing the racist roots of marijuana prohibition in his Feb. 18 article. If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents. The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican immigration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best. White Americans did not even begin to smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched government bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda. By raiding voter-approved medical marijuana providers in California, the very same U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that claims illicit drug use funds terrorism is forcing cancer and AIDS patients into the hands of street dealers. Apparently marijuana prohibition is more important than protecting the country from terrorism. Students who want to help end the intergenerational culture war, otherwise known as the war on some drugs, should contact Students for Sensible Drug Policy at www.SchoolsNotPrisons.com. The following Virginia Law Review article offers a good overview of the cultural roots of marijuana legislation: http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/vlr/vlrtoc.htm.
Robert Sharpe
MPA Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy
To The Editor:
Churches and the so called oxymoron labeled “Christian right” still support cannabis (kaneh bosm / marijuana) prohibition, persecution and extermination (‘Why Not Pot?’ Feb. 18). As a Christian, it is revealing when churches support such a luciferous law since Christ God Our Father, The Ecologician indicates “He created all the seed-bearing plants,” saying they are all good on literally the very first page of the Bible. The only Biblical restriction placed on cannabis is that it is to be accepted with thankfulness (see 1 Timothy 4:1-5).
Stan White
Dillon, Colorado
To The Editor
As a retired police officer, I can only add this to Mr. Conner’s excellent analysis on marijuana prohibition; namely that public safety is dramatically affected by it. Every hour my colleagues spend chasing an adult pot user or grower means less DUIs and reckless drivers are caught. It means that fewer child predators on-line are caught before they have sex with a young girl or boy. At the federal level, it means that terrorists are not caught because federal officers are busting up another medical marijuana garden. Marijuana prohibition reduces public safety, period.
Howard Wooldridge
Member, LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition)