With marijuana being illegal, we have two problems: a health problem and a crime problem.

If we legalize it we eliminate the crime problem, leaving only the health problems as with alcohol and cigarette use.

Do you know anyone who wanted to get marijuana and who was unable to get it? The stuff’s everywhere and anyone can get it, right now, today! It’s been that way since at least the 1960s. What is the prohibition of it stopping?

Because it is illegal, it is expensive and it is violent criminals who ultimately produce it. They make billions of dollars and also kill people. Does anyone believe that they put the money in a mattress? What about the idea that millions of those dollars might find their way to various politicians and campaigns?

Alcohol prohibition ultimately failed, but when they made it illegal, didn’t we see the same crime and attendant corruption as we’re seeing with marijuana? A lot of that money found its way into politics for certain. Do you think that the cartels want to see it legalized?

Instead of jamming our courts with all the related litigation, why not regulate and tax this otherwise cheap weed as for alcohol or cigarettes, cut the legs off the cartels and allow those who like it to use it legally? Seems like common sense to me.

As for it being a stepping-stone to more harmful drugs, that only happens, if it happens, because users are already in contact with the criminal element that sells that stuff.

Whether you approve of its use or not, keeping it illegal only hurts us. In the meantime, anyone of the age of 12 or older who wants some can buy it today in Fountain Hills, or anywhere else in the United States.