Honolulu Prosecutor Steve Alm wrote a commentary imploring the Legislature not to legalize pot (“Legalizing marijuana will cause harm,” Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Oct. 8).

It’s like he started with the proposition that pot is bad and then worked backward to find supporting reasons. One of his reasons is that it will hurt tourism because the Japanese don’t like pot and therefore will not visit here. However, legalizing pot in California hasn’t dampened the more than half-million Japanese visitors there every year.

I won’t take apart the other nine specious reasons he gives because I only have 150 words here.

He totally misses mentioning the reason in favor of legalizing pot, namely, this is supposed to be a country where individuals are free to do what they want as long as they are not harming others.

Richard Manetta

Wilhelmina Rise

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