Letters to the editor

Pot and public safety

Re “Should we tax pot?” Opinion, Dec. 4

Patt Morrison says legalizing marijuana wouldn’t necessarily eliminate pot-related crime because there still might be a black market -- as there is with legal alcohol and tobacco. Though that may be true, without question the majority of the criminal market would disappear.

What consumer wouldn’t be willing to pay a slight premium for the convenience of purchasing marijuana from a safe and regulated facility instead of running the risk of being hurt or killed in an illegal drug deal on the streets?

As a former Oakland community prosecutor, I certainly would never argue that marijuana is completely benign or that more people should use it. But what I do know is that the most dangerous thing about marijuana is that it’s illegal.

Public safety will be improved immensely when we bankrupt most of the criminals who control marijuana cultivation and profits.

James Anthony

Oakland

Musings on marijuana

Re “Should we tax pot?” Opinion, Dec. 4

Patt Morrison tells us that a Rand Corp. researcher estimates that if pot were legal, 60% to 70% of the population would smoke it regularly, as its addictive potential has supposedly been underestimated.

Yet pot is legal or decriminalized in some countries -- the Netherlands, for example -- and rates of regular use in these countries are lower than in the U.S., where pot is illegal. Was Morrison high when she wrote this column?

Jonathan Taylor

La Habra

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Morrison’s witty musings miss the key issue behind changing marijuana laws. It certainly would be splendid if a legal marijuana market helped California pay some bills. Nevertheless, the real reasons to repeal marijuana prohibition are moral, not financial.

In the United States, we take pride in our laws because they are just. Crimes that cause the most harm to others get the most severe punishments. Murder deserves a bigger penalty than double parking because it creates more harm. But what harm is caused by owning a plant?

How can we penalize someone for covering a seed with earth and watching it grow? We all want our children to grow up in a world in which the punishment fits the crime. Removing penalties for marijuana possession would bring us closer to this goal. If creating a taxed and regulated marijuana market raises some money, that’s icing on the cake.

Mitch Earleywine

Albany, N.Y.

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Should we tax pot? An alternative approach would be to legalize the substance and not tax it.

We would save the money used to criminalize it but not incur the “cost of regulating and enforcing the legal market.” Ridding ourselves of the cost of pot-law enforcement is a good way to begin trimming the budget.

Ken Hart

Long Beach

The meaning of gay marriage

Re “Limits of ’marriage,’ ” Opinion, Dec. 4

I couldn’t disagree more with Robert Epstein’s logic in regard to gay marriage. He believes short-term, lightly committed unions should be afforded the same rights as long-term, deeply committed relationships. The whole point of any marriage, be it gay or straight, is that the two people involved are making a statement to society and the legal system that they want their union to be considered permanent.

The fact that too many people’s unions end up less than permanent should not be the catalyst for denying the opportunity to a couple, gay or straight, who would like to give a permanent union their best shot. It’s called marriage.

Kelly Davis

Huntington Beach

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Epstein says gay marriage adds “nothing except the label.” One would think that he would know the importance of emotions like love, of healthy self-esteem, of strong family units and of civil and equal rights in society. But the only place Epstein uses the word “love” is in referring to his wife. The rest of his article is focused on technicalities.

At first, I too thought it was just a technicality when I got married to my partner of 13 years, but I was wrong.

After being given the right to marry -- something I believed I could not have in this lifetime -- I was amazed at how I felt about our relationship. I was even more amazed at how family, friends, co-workers and neighbors responded.

While Epstein wants us to think that gays are pushing him toward “greater tolerance of the unfamiliar,” I believe we are striving for the familiar -- the right and the ability to fall in love and marry just as my parents did 58 years ago. As the old song goes:

“Love and marriage, love and marriage,

Go together like a horse and carriage.”

Dan Spencer

Palm Springs

Send NATO into Pakistan

Re “Pakistani militants build web of Western recruits” and “Kashmir base reportedly hit,” Dec. 8

The Times’ article on Pakistani militants clearly exposes the ongoing activity of terrorist groups and their financing organizations, which are allowed to exist inside Pakistan, and it refutes official Pakistani claims of having closed them down years ago.

Pakistan’s claim to have raided and closed one militant camp could well be another falsehood meant to deceive the U.S. while continuing to allow the terrorists to operate under the radar.

It is time NATO forces go inside Pakistan and clear out these murderers. Let us stop the wishful thinking that Pakistan will do the job.

Maneck Bhujwala

Huntington Beach

Appreciation and dismay

Re “Coming home to a new America,” Column One, Dec. 5

Travel away from the things you love seems to be necessary to truly understand and appreciate them for what they are.

You have painted a portrait of the things that make America unique. It’s not the language, wealth, religion or the terrain that makes America what it is -- it’s what we expect of ourselves.

Dennis Mitcheltree

Santa Monica

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I am starting to think that The Times publishes articles like this on its front page to get a rise out its readers. While the Column One piece was meant to come across as a reflective observation on how a writer sees Los Angeles after living in Latin America for the last seven years, it was in fact a most depressing commentary about how far things have gone awry.

To see Mexico City and Los Angeles as “twin bad brothers of North American metropolises” is sadly all too true and horribly depressing. To try to spin it as a positive urban evolution by saying “Americans seem mellowed and slightly more humble” was insulting. We are not mellowed and more humble -- but simply overtaken and beaten down by what uncontrolled immigration has done to this city.

Laurie Trainor

Los Angeles