Prohibition of cannabis a sad waste of time

The truth, at best, is elusive. The facts, on the other hand, are well documented. Since 1970, alcohol has been responsible for millions of deaths. Since 1970, there is no evidence of a single death from the smoking of cannabis.

In 39 years, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on the advertising of alcohol while billions have been spent on enforcing the prohibition of cannabis. The truth is, it's cheaper to kill millions of people than to stop them from smoking cannabis.

While my conclusion may be suspect, the facts are not. Alcohol (85,000), tobacco (435,000), and aspirin (7,600) kill hundreds of thousands of people a year; cannabis (0) does not. If I was in the cannabis prohibition business, I'd be looking for another job. We can no longer afford to waste billions of dollars a year prohibiting a substance that is safer than aspirin.

David L. Marsh Sr.

Cedar Rapids