Readers sound off on legal cannabis, honoring the AR-15 and safety regulations

Washington: Proponents of cannabis criminalization desperately want to portray the legalization and regulation of marijuana products for adults as a public health failure (“Marijuana policy has gone to pot,” op-ed, Feb. 19). In fact, public support for legalization has never been higher. Further, none of the 21 states that have enacted adult-use legalization have ever repealed or even rolled back their laws. This is evidence that these policies are largely working as politicians and voters intended and that they are preferable to prohibition.

Moreover, Kevin A. Sabet’s allegation that legalization is causing an uptick in youth cannabis use or access is categorically false. Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that the percentage of high-schoolers who report having used cannabis over the past 30 days fell from 23% in 2011 to 16% in 2021. This downward trend overlaps with the period that nearly half of U.S. states have implemented legalization.

It is time to move away from the failed policy of prohibition and move forward in a different direction — one that legalizes, regulates and educates. Ultimately, the establishment of a pragmatic regulatory framework allowing for the legal, licensed commercial production and retail sale of marijuana to adults best reduces the risks associated with the plant’s use or abuse and acknowledges the reality that consumers’ demand for marijuana is here to stay. By contrast, advocating for continued criminalization denies this reality and compounds the public safety risks posed by the illicit, unregulated marketplace. Paul Armentano, deputy director, National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)

Manhattan: Second chances are hard to come by with a criminal record, but there is a way to wipe the slate clean. Join New York State Assembly Member Inez E. Dickens with Judge Althea Drysdale as they moderate a panel of experienced legal professionals on the issue of record sealing for nonviolent felonies and misdemeanors. It’s at the Adam Clayton Powell State Office Building, 163 W. 125th St., on Thursday, March 2, 6-9 p.m. Mistakes of the past do not have to hold you back from a clear future. Lermond Mayes, chief of staff for Assembly Member Inez E. Dickens

Brooklyn: By the time R. Kelly gets out of prison, he’ll forget what his dingle-dangle is all about! Good for that perv! Rita Nanes

Ozone Park: Re “Santos hit over ‘All-American gun’ law push,” (Feb. 24): Some dumb hick from Alabama wants the AR-15 to be the national gun of the U.S. George Santos is supporting this garbage piece of legislation. This is from someone who claims he knew four people who died in the Pulse nightclub shooting. What purpose do these killing machines have but to serve as weapons of murder? Santos says the AR-15 is completely made in the U.S. That is part of his rationale for making it the national gun. Heaven help us for electing these incompetents. Ray Hackinson

Brooklyn: What is wrong with George Santos? This is a man who got into office by lying about every aspect of his life. Nothing he has ever said is the truth. Now he wants to take a weapon of war, the AR-15 assault rifle, and elevate it to the status of the U.S. national weapon. First, there should never be a national weapon. Second, are we to honor a weapon made to kill the most amount of people in the least amount of time? A weapon used to slaughter innocents in schools, concerts, bars, supermarkets, etc. Please, somebody sit him down and tell him how absurd this all is. Families are grieving and he wants us to honor the weapon used to kill their loved ones. God help us. Andrea Allen

South Hempstead, L.I.: It would be great if Gov. Ron DeSantis marches in New York’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade with the NYPD Emerald Society. Michael Quane

Yonkers: To Voicer Doug Slotolowicz: So you consider the FDNY firefighters “white male, white-haired old farts” because they object to Laura Kavanagh’s appointment to commissioner of the FDNY? The firefighters are objecting to a commissioner who has never been in a burning building to fight a fire. This appointment is much more consequential than an invasion of “their sandbox.” The firefighter’s job is fraught with danger, and it is time that the “new-age” mayor starts choosing commissioners based on experience rather than gender or color. On 9/11, many of those “white male, white-haired old farts” disregarded their own lives and ran into the twin towers. Many never came out. Did you consider the firefighters “old farts” then? You may consider yourself a “white male, white-haired old fart” but don’t compare yourself to the heroic firemen. You obviously don’t have the courage they display under the most risky circumstances. Nicholas Maffei

Jersey City: With the ongoing complaints you’re always getting from extremists who object to the reporting of any well-documented facts that don’t support their distorted worldview or faulty memories of a past where their biases went unchallenged, I felt I should thank you for your accurate and complete reporting, or at least as complete as a tabloid newspaper can manage. Even buried late in the coverage, it’s valuable to point out the factual errors and actual lies that demagogues like Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis or Georgia’s Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene push in their never-ending drives to foist a minority agenda on the nation — facts like the overwhelming success of New York’s reformed bail system (whose sole constitutional purpose is to ensure the accused return for trial without destroying their lives before they are convicted of anything) and the simple fact that the crime rate is actually lower now than during the conservative (pre-reform) 1980s. John Esche

Jamaica: To Voicer Marilyn Levin: Did you just find out there is a Malcolm X Blvd.? You are right, Malcolm X did not hide his feelings about Jews and white people. But his eyes were opened on his pilgrimage to Mecca where he learned about true Islam, which included people of all colors. It was one of the reasons he broke with the Nation of Islam and founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc., a religious organization of Afro-American unity, a group that advocated Pan-Africanism. Ms. Levin, if you get a chance, read “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” Joseph Stanislaus

Western Springs, Ill.: Sensible regulations could have prevented the Norfolk Southern Railway train derailment and spill of toxic chemicals in Ohio near the Pennsylvania border and many of the more than 1,000 other train derailments every year. Any community near railroad tracks could be next. After the Obama administration proposed improved train braking systems, the railroad industry lobbied against it as too expensive and contributed $6 million to Republican candidates in 2016. President Donald Trump repealed the brake rule and the Biden administration did not restore it. Norfolk Southern recently reported record profits as its rate of accidents increased in each of the last four years. Politicians should not be funded by those they regulate. It is clearly a conflict of interest. If we want sound regulations that protect the public, we must have public funding of election campaigns so debate is fair and government decisions are based strictly on merit. Richard Barsanti

Suffern, N.Y.: The Feb. 12 Crossword II has a clue, “Jesus’s last meal,” and the answer given is “Last sup.” I find this treatment of a major event in Christianity to be offensive. You would never accept this flip treatment of Judaism or Islam or any other world religion. Your puzzle editor needs to show greater sensitivity in editing clues. Don Bruce

San Francisco: To Voicer James Hyland: I say this with honest respect — you are a rare breed. Except for that part about the “corrupt and shallow frontman for the radical left sitting in the Oval Office,” I agree with your letter completely (although maybe for different reasons). Again, no sarcasm intended: Are you the ever-elusive, almost mythic, sensible Republican? We’d like to hear from you guys more often. Jimmy Layton