Buying marijuana on the street and in the black market is not safe. Anyone who has ever purchased marijuana from a drug dealer can tell you this. Not only do you run the risk of arrest or being caught up in drug violence, you also have no way of really knowing what’s in your marijuana. Unlike many medical marijuana dispensaries, drug dealers don’t have their product tested in laboratories.

Some dealers lace their marijuana with other drugs; PCP is a common one. And it was this combination that led to a brutal crime by Osvaldo Rivera, who killed 6-year-old Dominick Andujor and critically wounded his 12-year-old sister while they slept in their New Jersey home Sunday, according to police.

Once the PCP and marijuana combine, it is no longer marijuana, but some mutant hybrid chemical concoction that often leads to extreme violence.

Yet another reason to legalize marijuana. Regulate it and sell it in stores, where quality and purity can be more assured. After all, do you buy all your produce off of people standing on the street or do you go to the grocery store? Which one is likely to have a higher quality product?

- Joe Klare

- make sure you check out our brand new Forums and our “Stop The Ban in L.A.” Facebook page!