First off, let me say how unfortunate it is that Allen Tingley has been affected so much by marijuana in the last year ("Losing friends, career paths to marijuana proves to be sobering reality," Feb. 3). All of the scenarios he described were the absolute extremes of marijuana use. Although it may not be obvious to him, it is obvious to many other people who smoke or know people that smoke that those situations are unlikely to happen.

Thousands of people on this campus smoke fairly regularly and don't let it take over their lives or get arrested, as Tingley's friends did.

I have a friend -- we'll call him "Friend P" -- who is a physics major. "P" makes time in his life for studying, hanging out with his friends and smoking "nooch," as Tingley put it.

My other friend -- "O" -- writes for his school paper while taking bong rips, and he still gets his articles into the paper, while maintaining a good GPA.

The writer of this letter -- we'll call him "T" -- has gone through different phases of marijuana use in his life. There have been times when "T" smoked several times daily and times that he didn't smoke for months.

Basically, Tingley's article came off saying everyone who smokes becomes a loser. It seems that his friends made poor choices in how they used marijuana recreationally and eventually let it take over their lives.

His story is unfortunate, but the people he described are not in the majority of pot smokers.