I am writing in response to Eric Swankoski's opinion about marijuana usage.

To Eric's dismay marijuana is a "gateway drug". Because Eric has read a few statistics, he saw that in some cases marijuana has led to use of other harder drugs. Yes, there are some people that are abusing more than just weed. I'm not pushing for legalization of heroin or cocaine here, I'm talking strictly marijuana. Nothing else. I know many people who use marijuana and nothing more.

I can argue the same point that video game violence has led to shooting deaths of people. So should we eliminate video games? Make them illegal? Or maybe we should ban the sale of cigarettes, for studies show that most teens have used cigarettes before trying marijuana. We should just ban alcohol as well too, because statistics have shown that it has resulted in over 200,000 deaths per year in the United States.

How many deaths have occurred from marijuana? Please show me the statistics Eric. Or maybe you forgot to include the one that it is scientifically proven you cannot overdose on marijuana as compared to other drugs. The only "severe consequence" marijuana has is a large 2-topping pizza from Gumby's.