Legalize and regulate

I’m reminded of the Taliban every time I read an article about the socalled evils of a natural herb any of us could grow in our own garden.

However, if we did, the Feds or local law enforcement could come and take our property and our freedom from us even if it was only being used medicinally instead of the more common recreational use.

I’m from the class of 1965, and I’ve read and studied the pros and cons for almost 50 years; the pros outweigh the cons a hundred times. The “War on Drugs” (all of them) has been a farce. I believe it’s been far worse than Prohibition was, and has been going on far too long. The coming vote on making it less of a crime to use marijuana medicinally will just drag this so-called war on a bit longer.

For the love of God and your fellow man, let’s fully legalize it. Then we could at least have the benefits of the taxes it would bring in and we could truly regulate it.

Sure, keep it out of the reach of our children, just like we do our alcohol, tobacco and firearms. The taxes collected could be wasted on something else instead of us being taxed billions of dollars to incarcerate individuals for harming no one but themselves.

So this November 6th, vote no to the Taliban and yes for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. JEFFREY MUCKLEROY

Fayetteville