I have deep respect for Conrado De Quiros, a former columnist of TODAY who now writes for the Inquirer. He has written some wonderful and hard-hitting pieces. His June 6 column, however, is one that I take exception to.

     Entitled “Legalize it,” Conrado writes, “Smoking pot is a crime only because we make it so. Which brings me to my point: I cannot for the life of me imagine why we make it so.”

     What causes Conrado to get very upset is the toughness of the penalties that are meted out to some people (especially the poor) who are caught pushing or growing marijuana. He cites the case of Abe Valdez, a “22 Years-old dirt-poor tenant farmer who was arrested by cops after he was found to have a plant of marijuana in the small plot of land he was tilling in Nueva Ecija. He was hailed to court where the judge ruled that he had committed a heinous crime and so sent him to death row.”

     I fully agree that this and other extreme cases are definitely examples of excessive penalties for violations of our drug laws. No question about it. But then, Conrado goes on making a case for the legalization of marijuana, saying that “Marijuana belongs to the same category as cigarettes and alcohol.” True inasmuch as it does harm to your health. It’s also true that tobacco does more harm (it kills) worldwide than marijuana ever will. And alcohol too cripples more people than we can ever imagines.

     But the fact that we do not and perhaps could not ban them if we wanted to does not make them good. Nicotine has now been proven to be addictive. At least 50 preventable diseases are attributed to smoking. We all know that alcoholism kills too. (My dad was a victim). If only tobacco would disappear from the face of the earth, countless lives would be saved. Smoking serves absolutely no good purpose except to give smokers an addictive high that damages their health and possibly directly or indirectly kills them sooner or later.

     If people would only drink in moderation, they wouldn’t become alcohol addicts. But they do. Do we now want to add marijuana to the list? Conrado is correct when he states that “marijuana is not cocaine, heroin, or opium which are chemically manufactured drugs that fry the brain … and induce antisocial behavior. I do buy the idea that they induce people to crime.”

     He goes on to say that “including marijuana among the list of dangerous drugs is crazy (in the drug-crazed sense of the word) and merely distracts the law enforcers … from throwing their undivided attention to the real menace.”

     But marijuana is a hallucinogenic drug. Marijuana comes in different strengths. All you have to do is get a copy of High Times sold over the counter in the States (perhaps also found on the Internet) to see just how varied it can be in terms of potency. And if you use marijuana you shouldn’t drive because it alters your perception.

     More than that, however, marijuana is considered by experts working in the field of drug rehab as a “gateway drug.” Marijuana is almost always the first drug used by hard-core drug addicts. And its use usually begins in high school.

     This is not to say that everyone who uses marijuana will necessarily go on to other more dangerous drugs like heroin and shabu. Many do not.

What marijuana does, however, is introduce the youngster to the drug subculture where he will undoubtedly find people who do use shabu and other drugs. And since drug taking at the start happens among friends (drug users always begin because of friends) there is ample opportunity and strong pressure put on everyone to join the fun.

     What’s more, if you like the pot high, wait till you try shabu, which gives a much stronger kick. For example, every single addict in my Nazareth rehab center started with marijuana. In every single case, they were introduced to shabu and other drugs by people who first used marijuana.

     If Conrado checks this out, he might pause and rethink his proposal to legalize marijuana.

More tomorrow.