HOW TO FIGHT DRUG CARTELS Two days ago, during a political discussion about border problems toward the end of a Sierra Club outing to look for Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies at the Beazell Memorial Forest in Oregon, I mentioned that the Mexican drug cartels have won. There is insufficient political and […]

WAR ON DRUGS NO ANSWER Thank you for the editorial, Insite’s proven benefits ignored in political fray (SP, April 25). The safe injection site operates in Vancouver with the support of local and provincial governments, but is under continual assault by the federal Conservatives. Insite has kept operating only through […]

MARIJUANA NON-THREAT Marijuana is medicinal, but it’s not for everyone. Pills aren’t for everyone either. Suffering with chronic pain in my pectoral muscle is not cancer, but it’s not enjoyable for me to be hurting, either. If I take too many pills to alleviate the pain, there’s a great chance […]

INSITE: SAVING LIVES IN VANCOUVER Re: Injection Site Cuts Fatal Overdoses By 35, April 18. I am a doctor at Vancouver’s safe injection site, Insite, and I would like to address some misinformation about it. No one who works in harm reduction thinks that it is a replacement for rehab […]

DRUG FIRMS AGAINST PATIENTS GROWING MEDICINE Did you know the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved pill form of marijuana (Marinol) only contains one of the compounds or cannabinoids that are found in the marijuana plant? That compound is tetrahyrdocannabinol or THC. Recent research in marijuana has shown it has many […]

LEGALIZE MARIJUANA AND BE DONE WITH IT So the new legislation “that would allow those caught with small amounts of marijuana to avoid punishment altogether if they can convince a judge that they used the drug out of medical necessity” is supposed to be a “middle ground on marijuana?” Get […]

DESPITE MARIJUANA, BRECKENRIDGE IS PLENTY SAFE Re. “Potheads ruining Breckenridge” by Lorie Willis, letters, March 21 I would like to thank Lorie Willis of San Antonio, Texas for her pleasant description of Breckenridge. It is beautiful, and we do love it here. I am concerned about a few points in […]

STOP PUTTING GARDENERS BEHIND BARS It looks like the taxpayers of Illinois are going to be paying for the room and board of another felony gardener. ( “Area drug agents seize cannabis plants, suspect still at large” 3-10-11 ). Have your local police solved all of your rapes, robberies and […]

CRIMINAL PROHIBITION MAKES CANNABIS WORTH FIGHTING FOR In attempting to blame cannabis consumers for black market violence (“Violence follows industry, cops warn,” March 9), RCMP Cpl. Peter DeVries came tantalizingly close to understanding the problem. DeVries remarked “because of its monetary value as a commodity, marijuana is inextricably tied to […]