LEGALIZATION: Gateway Confirmed

Drug Use: Legalizers admitted they’d start with legalization of pot, but their intention was to make ALL DRUG USE legal.   People across the nation are beginning to speak out about the foolishness of legalization of marijuana, but are they connecting the dots to “The Gateway Effect“?

Following are 2 local (Erie) Letters to the editor:  //  PUBLISHED: DECEMBER 05. 2013 12:01AM – Erie Times-News

Heroin addiction affects many

My best friends in elementary school, the kids I grew up with, and the kids I would play with outside all day — it is so sad to think about how many of them are now addicted to heroin.

When I think back to elementary school, I can remember being taught “drugs are bad.” I cannot recall being educated about the amount of damage heroin or any other drug addiction can do to the body.  I think that if children were taught at a very early age about the full extent of drug addiction, not just sugar coated with the phrase “drugs are bad,” there would be fewer drug addicts.

Young children should also be taught that drugs not only affect them, but they affect everyone around them.  Heroin or any other drug addiction can destroy relationships, friendships and marriages. I’m not trying to scare young children, but to show and teach them about the harsh reality of drug addiction.

People my age should be in the prime of their lives.  They are becoming independent, finishing up college, starting their careers and starting families.  Instead, too many of them are looking for their next heroin fix.

Chelsea (deleted), Erie

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Drugs, violence, must be confronted

We are going down the drain.  Erie is not some town with 30,000 people in it that you would call small. Erie is a town with more than 100,000 residents.  Some people who live here have pride in their town; it’s our own little secret.

People who don’t share this feeling complain about how there’s nothing to do here.  Let me remind you we have the beach, an amusement park, a mall and the movie theater, all luxuries most places in the U.S. don’t have, but it’s easy to forget that when you live here.  This used to be a place people wanted to raise their kids because it was quiet and safe with fun things to do.

Now, every day you turn on the news, someone is dead or wounded from an act of violence, and it is slowly becoming more “normal.”  We are doing very little to fix it.

I saw on the news the other day they were talking about how there seems to be a pretty good amount of drugs coming into the city over the last year.  In my opinion, fewer drugs equals less violence; fewer drugs equals greater emphasis on a real job, which in turn equals fewer gun-related crimes.

You can’t physically fight ignorance, but you can take steps to prevent it, and we are doing a poor job.

John (deleted), Erie