Re: "Marijuana legalization arguments are not valid," Jan. 17 U-wire column.

I have received several calls and e-mails stemming from my column in The Daily Collegian and most seem to ask questions about whether or not I am qualified to make the conclusions about the issues of addiction, user profile and potency of drugs.

Regardless of the specific example I used, an ounce of pot is considerably more potent than an ounce of alcohol or an ounce of tobacco.

Marijuana has been steadily gaining in potency for the last 40 years, and is significantly stronger today than it was in the 1960s.

Although, at this time, I have no hard statistics on deaths relating to marijuana vs. those related to alcohol or tobacco, it is obvious that the debilitating effects on judgment that marijuana has would be correlated to increased fatalities in car crashes and/or on-the-job accidents should the drug be decriminalized or legalized.

In short, society already has serious problems with substance abuses and addictions and adding fuel to the fire because it's fun isn't going to make the situation better