Adult decision

In his Tuesday letter, Clyde Dinkins warns that “if this pot measure passes, it will cause a great moral decline in our state.” I have to question what Mr. Dinkins’ standards are for morality in Nevada.

Last I checked, Nevada is the only state in the union to sanction prostitution. Much of the state’s economy is based on people blowing their money, getting drunk and stumbling down to Fremont Street to gawk at all-but-naked buskers. Radio advertises less-thansubtle ads for strip clubs and television proves that anyone’s bad behavior can be excused if it’s shocking enough to turn heads.

That right there is moral decline.

But where’s the outrage? Instead we’ve got people up in arms about what adults — not children, not teens, but adults — may put in their own bodies.

To be clear, I don’t like marijuana either and I certainly don’t think minors should have access to it. And yet prohibition has already failed in that regard. If anything, the illicit nature of the drug seems to have contributed to this “morass of criminality” Mr. Dinkins warns of.

Alcohol, a once similarly prohibited substance, has been legalized. Where’s the “morass of criminality”? It’s been a little while since I last heard anyone complain about moonshiners and bootleggers.

Mr. Dinkins urges us to “think of the children.” I have. And I can conclude only that sanctimony and hypocrisy on our part are far greater threats to society’s moral fabric than adults being free to make their own decisions.