Cannabis should be legal 

This plant needs to be decriminalized, and then it needs to be regulated just like alcohol. As it is now, it is all just “hidden,” which has had horrible consequences. The latest being the death of a beautiful person who was in the business of growing it, Ben Terra. He, unfortunately, had to choose a wacko landowner (in Paso Robles) who ended up killing him for no reason other than insanity induced by alcohol and pharmaceutical medication abuse. 

He was a super kind and intelligent, hard-working young man and the only reason, I am sure, that he had to choose such a wacko landowner is because the laws make farming marijuana a non-legitimate business. Another unfortunate consequence of marijuana criminalization was I lost my grandbaby due to young kids smoking “synthetic marijuana” (spice) and the driver nodded out while driving, killing two people, one being my grandbaby. I am sure the driver would not have nodded out if he had been smoking marijuana. People get hooked on spice (literally poison sprayed on herbs) because it doesn’t show up in drug testing. Marijuana, like alcohol, needs to be exempt in drug testing.

I am not a real fan of smoking marijuana, it makes me feel challenged and awkward. I enjoy a very little now and then after a couple of glasses of wine. I don’t understand how many marijuana smokers seem to do it all day long. But if using marijuana “came out of the closet,” issues like overuse would be addressed. Soon this plant and its cousin plant, hemp, will be legalized and regulated. Keeping the money and jobs in the area is only being smart. Let’s be done with fear of marijuana (and hemp) by legalizing it and thus “getting it out of the closet” so to understand it better. 

-- Dana Gibson - SLO County