Chapter 8 bust was an over-reaction

The photo of a deputy gazing triumphantly at a tiny bottle of pot on page 8 of the Aug. 14 Acorn stands as a testament to what is considered front page news in suburban America and to our skewed sense of priorities.

In a state where rapists and murderers serve an average of five to seven years, do we really have time for this?

A long suppressed study by the National Traffic Safety Review Board stated that drivers under the influence of marijuana tend to follow other vehicles less closely, to decrease speed and that in general these variations in behavior are noticeably less pronounced than the impairments exhibited by subjects under the influence of alcohol.

Also, that unlike subjects impaired by alcohol, those under the influence of pot tend to be aware of their impairment and compensate for it accordingly.

We need to grow up as a society and quit posturing. The reality is that every legislator, from the city to the national level, has a son or daughter or niece or nephew who smokes weed, if they do not in fact smoke it themselves, and yet are too cowardly to openly admit that it's a tempest in a teapot.

The sexual predator that both raped and murdered Polly Klass was released after only eight years in prison to make room for those who committed nonviolent drug offenses, many of which involved only marijuana.

The notion that law enforcement, courts and penal institutions spend vast resources on pot smokers is ludicrous.

I do not smoke marijuana nor do I advocate it, but I do advocate that we remove our collective heads from where the sun doesn't shine and re-evaluate our priorities. Larry Brown Agoura Hills