Your Views for January 14

Aloha to spare

Thank you, Hilo! On New Year’s Day, I went for a walk to Rainbow Falls on my lunch break to see the rapids after the rain storm. Two people driving by stopped along the way and asked me if I needed a ride.

Maybe they stopped because of a New Year’s resolution to be kind to their neighbors. Or maybe they thought I was a road hazard since there was no sidewalk and I was carefully picking my way along the soggy, muddy shoulder.

Perhaps they stopped because I have white hair and thought I might be Madame Pele? Since this is not the first time a stranger has asked me if I wanted a lift while I’ve been out walking, I think it was just because people in Hilo have so much aloha.

Sylvia Dahlby

Hilo

Time for a change

In 1971, Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs,” principally focusing on marijuana. Forty-three years later, more people use marijuana than ever.

Forty-three years of this war on marijuana has accomplished nothing but ruined lives and wasted dollars. It’s time for a change.

Why does Hawaii persist in spending precious tax dollars on arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating people for non-violent marijuana offenses when we could not only save tax dollars now wasted on this fruitless “war,” but also gain tax revenue on the sale of marijuana to adults while simultaneously making it more difficult for children to obtain, just like tobacco?

Is it merely a lack of knowledge on the part of our legislators, or a lack of courage that stands in the way of an enlightened approach on this issue?

Russell Wichman

Keaau

Too harsh?

What good does it do to throw the book at an obviously desperate woman who sold a few pain pills to undercover cops (“Manners sentenced,” Tribune-Herald, Jan. 9)? The prosecutor wanted 40 years!

When prosecutors personally build the jails to house all these drug people, I’ll support it. We pay for these people in prison — or do the courts forget that?

Bob Wahler

Pepeekeo