I was checking out the site of a new publication that is published out of Ames today.  While I was looking through the latest posts, and was amazed to find a letter from one of our Senators.

In this letter, Grassley gives his argument for the continued prohibition of cannibis.  Here are some choice samples, you can find the whole letter at

http://www.amesprogressive.org/2008/04/03/blogs/gavin/grassley-illegal-drug-use-costs-society-at-least-as-much-as-genocide/

I must, however, disagree with your views on this topic. You see, marijuana is illegal because it is dangerous. When you smoke marijuana, or use any other drug, it changes your brain. It changes the way you think, your ability to learn, and how well you can remember. Making marijuana a legal drug will not change any of this.

More below! 

Despite our wishes to the contrary, we do not live in a perfect world. This is true with respect to pollution, violent crime, child abuse, and countless other areas where there is no true hope of ultimate success in ending the abuse. In the case of drug control, absolute success isn’t necessary to justify prohibition, nor is an unpleasant side-effect necessarily sufficient cause to end it.

 

After several thousand years, civilized societies have failed to eliminate murder, rape, or child abuse. Nor have they eliminated organized crime, the manufacture of counterfeit money, or genocide. But no one seriously sees these failures as justification for surrender. Illegal drug use costs society at least as much as any of these social ills. Yet we do not hear any calls to legalize these abuses. Why then should we give up? Should we surrender to the criminals, and legalize marijuana? No