ROBERT SIEGEL, Host:
Now to your letters. Yesterday we took a look back at something that never happened. We posed the question, what if it were legal to buy and sale marijuana in the United States?
Unidentified Man #1: Marijuana becomes legal today for personal consumption throughout the United States.
Unidentified Man #2: We don't worry about going to jail anymore for smoking.
Unidentified Woman: Oh, what a relief it is.
MICHELE NORRIS, Host:
Most of our mail came from listeners who thought our arguments against legalization were specious. Clifton Middleton(ph) of Homestead, Florida, writes: Currently over 100 million Americans have used marijuana. Thinking people do their own research and many times conclude that the laws against marijuana are arbitrary.
SIEGEL: From Brooklyn, New York, listener Bill Hamilton(ph) says he appreciated our desire to give balanced attention to those both for and legalization. But he writes this: The gentleman who referred to increased visits to the emergency room takes your story from a possible future to outright lies and fantasia.
NORRIS: Listener Malachi Rogers(ph) of Tampa, Florida, took us to task on a few counts. He writes: The piece noted that Mexican cartels would recover from the economic blow of legalization by diversifying into kidnapping and selling more powerful strains of marijuana at lower prices. First of all, the cartels are already kidnapping at record rates. Phoenix has become the kidnap capital of the U.S. Mexico City, the kidnapped capital of the world. Secondly, the marijuana coming out of Mexico is cheap brick weed. The high quality strains come out of Canada and the United States. The idea that Mexican cartels could supply marijuana more cheaply than domestic markets is silly.
SIEGEL: Finally, one of the few letters we've received that was against legalization. It comes from Rose Rosetry(ph) in Virginia. She emailed to tell us that she reads auras professionally. She writes: From my perspective, pot is very, very dangerous. It's a slow poison that has very specific consequences for all long-term users as well as very individual and heartbreaking consequences for each user. Miss Rosetry goes on to say until all NPR listeners can read auras, invaluable for all holistic forms of healing, as well as many other practical uses, with all respect non-aura readers will perceive only the surface problems with marijuana and other recreational drugs.
NORRIS: Well, since we can't read auras, we really need to hear from you and we need to hear from you directly. So, please send us your email by going to our Web site npr.org and click on Contact Us. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.