Get real about drugs by legalizing pot

While I sympathize with parents who have lost children to heroin, the billboard at the center of the story suggesting that cannabis is a necessary precursor to heroin experimentation is dangerous and counterproductive to these parents' cause. Two of the central flaws of the drug war are the mistaken beliefs that all illegal drugs are equally dangerous and that one necessarily leads to another. Neither one of these beliefs have any basis in fact.

Indeed, after being bombarded with misleading and inaccurate hype about cannabis, which is easily refuted by many reputable Internet sources, as well as personal experience, it's no surprise that young people fail to take official warnings about riskier drugs seriously. But, those who make their make their living off the drug war know that cannabis is their bread and butter.

If cannabis were taken off the list of illegal drugs (as it should be since it causes much less harm to individuals compared to legal drugs like alcohol), anti-drug budgets would be slashed. To be honest about cannabis is a risk to job security.

Unfortunately, bereaved parents as well as professional journalists seem more interested in getting an emotional response instead of trying to realistically deal with these problems. Anyone, particularly journalists, who really wants kids to avoid heroin needs to be honest about cannabis.

Stephen Young

Schaumburg