Letters to the Editor for Wednesday — October 15, 2003

• Pot stinks

• Take gas issue even further, says Rice

Pot stinks

I get so tired of hearing uninformed people say that marijuana is harmless, or that it causes “little harm,” as recent contributors to the Forum have stated.

Call up the American Cancer Society and ask for some of their literature. Marijuana smoke contains a great many more toxic substances and carcinogens than tobacco smoke. Smoking grass on a regular basis is a great way to destroy one’s health.

And those who say that marijuana is not addictive have obviously never spent much time with a pothead who can’t think about anything except getting high and staying high and figuring out how to get some more weed once his stash has been all smoked up, even if he has to lie or steal to get it.

The reflexes and mental acuity of someone heavily stoned on marijuana are as seriously impaired as those of someone who is drunk. Ask people who have been involved in a car wreck caused by a stoner if they think pot is harmless.

And look at your friends who smoke alot of pot. Are they ambitious? Do they get much done when they’re stoned? Do they contribute to society? Are they going places? How clearly can they think when they’re loaded?

The most insidious aspect of marijuana use is the delusion that it is “safe.” It may not make people as violent or as crazy as ice does, but it just as relentlessly wrecks lives and damages the social fabric of our communities by teaching our kids that it’s okay to break the law.

Pot stinks.

EVELYN COOK

Kapa‘a

Take gas issue even further, says Rice

I never thought I’d agree with Robert Yount on anything (Letters, October 10), but I do agree that gas prices in Hawaii are too high.

He’s being overly optomistic, however, if he expects Gov. Lingle to do something about those prices. Lingle’s Attorney General let Chevron off the hook by basically dismissing a suit that would have forced Chevron to pay the state millions in back taxes. So now that Chevron doesn’t have to pay those taxes, why aren’t those savings passed onto consumers? Why is the cost of gasoline cheaper on the West Coast when the crude oil from which it is refined sails past Hawaii en route there? Why is the price of gas on Kauai 20 cents a gallon higher than on Oahu when it only costs about a nickel a gallon to ship it interisland? Why are they’re run-ups in prices here and on the mainland (pre-Iraqi war jitters and price gouging jaut before Labor Day) when the subsequent reduction in prices on the mainland are not matched here?

Don’t look to the Republicans and Governor Lingle to improve the situation as they’re on record as opposing the Democratic plan to cap gas prices passed by the Legislature last year. The best thing that could be done is to move the time frame up for the implementation of that plan.

Martin Rice

Kapa‘a