To the Editor:

There is a lot of discussion concerning legalizing the sale of marijuana, especially in California. The governor wants to legalize it so they can collect tax on the sale. Others say they can regulate the use of marijuana so it can be used for medicinal purpose.

What worries me, is who is going to regulate it?

Will it be the same people that regulate the prescription drugs that took the life of Elvis Presley, Heath Ledger, Anna Nicole, Michael Jackson and who knows how many others?

We had this same problem with alcohol. On January 16, 1920, the Eighteenth Amendment, which prohibit the sale, manufacture and transportation of alcohol was adopted. This opened up the avenue for bootlegging and speakeasy clubs.

In 1925 there were 50,000 to 100,000 such clubs in New York, alone.

As the government was losing all the tax revenue on alcoholic beverages, on March 23, 1933, President Roosevelt signed in to law, theCullen-Harrison act, allowing themanufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages.

On December 5, 1933, the ratification of the Twenty First Amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, and the sale and manufacture of alcoholic beverages was under the control of the government.

So now we have liquor stores on every corner, sale of alcoholic beverages in grocery stores, drug stores, and convenient stores.

The legalizing marijuana for medicinal purpose will lead to the same thing as alcoholic beverages. Ithas already spread like wild-fire in California. After all, every one knows whiskey is the bestcure for gun-shot wounds and snake-bite.

Amon Louis Kerns

Lehigh Acres