SELF-MEDICATION SHOULD BE A RIGHT

I am extremely disappointed that the East Valley Tribune would oppose
Prop. 203, the medical marijuana initiative. I thought the Tribune
was pro freedom. Apparently I was wrong.

Prop. 203 is substantially different from the medical marijuana laws
in California, Colorado and Montana. If people are opposed to the
use of marijuana for medical reasons, they should not use it. But
don’t dictate to me what I may put into my own body in the privacy of
my own home.

It seems to me that the right to self-medicate should be a
fundamental right. Apparently the East Valley Tribune disagrees.

Kirk Muse

Mesa

Pubdate: Wed, 27 Oct 2010

Source: East Valley Tribune (AZ)

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n867/a05.html

Cannabis Cat and Mouse

Pushing 60 now, I’ve long been tired of the cat-and-mouse game that
using cannabis invokes. I totally lost any respect for the law at a
tender age. Faith in government? What, the government that wants to
see me in a cage? The prohibition has been quite corrosive on my and
many of my comrades’ patriotism.

We can restore respect for law, and law enforcement, as well as faith
in the American way by ending this prohibition. We could even end up
like the Dutch–who’ve managed to make pot boring in the eyes of that
country’s youth and whose rates of use are but a small fraction of ours.

The war on cannabis has its roots in racism, and is now the new Jim
Crow. It has been a handy cudgel to whup on Mexicans, blacks and
those darn hippies. Despite the claims, it has never had anything to
do with public safety.

This war on our own citizens can be ended. The passage of Prop. 19
will force a large crack in the dike. Much of the delay, deceit, and
obfuscation seen after the passage of Prop. 215 should be
neutralized by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s recently introduced
legislation to create a uniform statewide regulatory system. “If 19
passes, we’ll be ready,” he asserts. Prop 19 includes language that
allows modification by the Legislature. This was missing in 215.

My ballot is marked Yes. I hope yours is, too.

Jay Bergstrom

Forest Ranch

Pubdate: Thu, 21 Oct 2010

Source: Chico News & Review, The (CA)

WE SHOULD RECONSIDER WHAT’S DRIVING OUR DRUG POLICY

Bravo to Mary O’Grady for focusing on the economics of U.S. drug
policy ( “The Economics of Drug Violence,” Americas, Oct. 11 ).

In 1975 I was the lead Office of Management and Budget person on an
interagency drug interdiction task force involving the White House
Office of Drug Policy, the OMB, Justice Department ( Immigration
Service-Border Patrol and Drug Enforcement Administration ) and
Treasury ( Customs Service ). We presented conclusions to White
House staff and to Treasury and Justice leadership based on estimates
that we were interdicting about 5% of marijuana and about the same
single-digit percent of “hard” drugs coming across U.S. borders.

Resources devoted to the drug interdiction strategy were already
enormous at that time. Officers of the U.S. government ( Border
Patrol, Customs and DEA ) were actually involved in incidents of
shooting at each other, in connection with claiming the enforcement
“turf” between the ports of entry. Moreover, we estimated that a
doubling of resources devoted to this interdiction task would yield a
negligible increase in seizures and interdiction effectiveness, with
a then unknown increase in profit margins to traffickers.

U.S. drug enforcement policy has been tragically wrong-headed for
more than a generation for several reasons. Foremost is the failure
to look at drug policy with an economic, rather than an ideological,
lens. Our policies of increasing investment in interdiction have
raised profit margins for narco-terrorists, state-terror groups and
criminal syndicates. Our policies of increasing “investment” have
been driven by federal agency union leadership interested in
increasing membership and the scope of their mission. Our inability
as a nation to look at the deteriorating world of drug-financed
terrorism and lawlessness may be the result of our policy of
incremental increases. We are like the frog in the pot slowly being
boiled to death. It is certainly a result of our failure to think
seriously about supply and demand effects of U.S. drug policy.

Like another conservative economist and observer of our failed
policy, George Shultz, I favor legalization of marijuana. I will
vote in favor of Proposition 19 on Nov. 2, as one step in the right
direction.

John A. Fisher

Menlo Park, Calif.

Pubdate: Thu, 14 Oct 2010

Source: Wall Street Journal (US)

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n826/a02.html

IT’S TIME TO STOP THE WAR ON DRUGS

Editor:

Regarding “Prop. 203 is a wolf in sheep’s clothing”: Calling someone,
or something, a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” implies dishonesty, an
attempt to deceive. But the pro-freedom lobby has never tried to hide
the fact that they see medical marijuana as a stepping-stone to true
legalization. Their motives are quite clear.

What’s not so clear are the motives of people who refuse to legalize,
even for medical use, the one drug that has never killed anyone. The
people who say they want to reduce drug use by continuing the policies
and procedures that have failed, for 30 years, to reduce drug use. The
people who say they want to protect us from our own choices by leaving
in place laws that do only harm. If you’re going to question motives,
question the motives of those who stand against freedom, not those who
are trying to restore it.

The war on drugs is a forever war. It can’t be won; it can only be
stopped. And the time to stop it is now. Not another 30 years; not
another trillion dollars from now. Not another million prisoners in
the U.S. from now. And not another 28,000 dead in Mexico from now.
Now.

Lora Lee Nye believes that Big Brother should hold dominion over how
you live and how you die. Those she calls “wolves” believe that you
are competent and entitled to make your own choices. What say you?

Rita Stricker

Chino Valley

Pubdate: Thu, 7 Oct 2010

Source: Daily Courier (Prescott, AZ)

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n768/a08.html

LETTER OF THE WEEK

POT DISASTER DIDN’T HAPPEN

It’s hardly surprising that growing numbers of Californians want to
legalize marijuana for adults.

When Proposition 215 passed in 1996, legalizing medical marijuana,
prohibition supporters issued dire warnings of increased crime, teen
drug use and traffic fatalities.

None of these things happened, and life has gone on as normal. With
Proposition 19, prohibition supporters are again crying wolf and
again being ignored – as they should be.

Anders Froehlich, San Rafael

Pubdate: Wed, 29 Sep 2010

Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)

LETTER OF THE WEEK

DRUG WAR HAS FAILED

Though I don’t agree with Debra J. Saunders on many issues, her
writing consistently shows that she truly understands that the drug
war and marijuana prohibition have failed and that these policies
lead to real-life, devastating consequences.

Saunders pokes holes in the opposition’s arguments (including this
newspaper’s) that fear change, and she points out the hypocrisy and
harm of keeping in place laws that don’t work.

She gets that Prop. 19 is the way out of this mess. It’s the way to
stop wasting tax dollars and resources on ineffective policies and to
reduce the threat to public safety posed by cartels that the current
prohibition enriches and empowers.

Further, it’s plain wrong to criminalize responsible, adult use of
cannabis when it is arguably safer to use than alcohol and denies
equal rights to good people who would prefer a toke over a drink.

Marijuana is here to stay, and people are going to consume it, so
taxing, controlling and regulating cannabis now is the sensible thing to do.

So let’s end marijuana prohibition and generate some revenue for the
state in the process.

Mikki Norris, El Cerrito

Pubdate: Wed, 22 Sep 2010

Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n764/a05.html

Published Letters Awards www.mapinc.org/lteaward.htm

Newshawk: Published Letters Awards www.mapinc.org/lteaward.htm

LETTER OF THE WEEK

LEGALIZE MARIJUANA: TIME TO ACT IS NOW

Your editorial against Proposition 19 (“No on Prop. 19,” Sept. 16)
once again shows that The Chronicle clearly hasn’t done its homework
with regard to marijuana policy.

Indeed, the devil is in the details, and with closer review, you
would have understood that Prop. 19 is more than just a “slogan or
concept.” It is an opportunity to overturn the utter failure of years
of marijuana prohibition.

I introduced AB390 nearly two years ago not only to address
California’s economic crisis but more importantly to begin a rational
discussion about how best to regulate the state’s largest cash crop,
estimated to be worth roughly $14 billion a year.

The reality is clear: Marijuana is a huge part of our state’s
economy, and we can no longer afford to keep our heads in the
sand. The time to act is now. No bill or proposition is perfect,
and certainly Prop. 19 has some flaws, but to agree that the “war on
drugs” has been an abject failure yet refuse to take action to change
it simply defies all logic and common sense.

LETTER OF THE WEEK

LIKE USING GAS TO PUT OUT A FIRE

RE: “Murderous Mexican standoff,” Sept. 5:

The article by Mercedes Stephenson concludes with a passionate
plea. “Helping our Mexican neighbours to develop long-term judicial
and police reforms to defeat vile cartels that prey on human misery
and suffering is a win for everyone.” Over the past four decades
we’ve increased the number of drug offences in the Controlled Drugs
Act, we’ve increased per capita the number of police officers
enforcing our drug laws, raised the sentences for drug offences, and
given police as much power to fight the drug war as we dare without
tossing human rights out the window. Those enhancements haven’t
brought us any closer to winning the drug war. Why would we assume,
therefore, that we have any valuable advice to give Mexico on this
subject? The federal government is calling for yet more drug
offences, harsher penalties, more police and other armed forces, more
prisons, and broader enforcement powers. It’s like using gas to put
out a fire. No, we can’t help our Mexican neighbours.

Mike Bryan

Pubdate: Sun, 12 Sep 2010

Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB)

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n728/a01.html

Newshawk: Published Letters Awards www.mapinc.org/lteaward.htm

LETTER OF THE WEEK

MEXICAN KILLINGS: LEGALIZE DRUGS

In Thursday’s Voice of the People [“Drug Users, Cartel Killings”],
Lakeland resident Frances Clark wrote, “Innocent people are dying by
the thousands in Mexico because of the drug cartels, and we must ask why.”

The why is money. Illegal drugs make money for gangs and cartels
because they are illegal. Marijuana ( hemp ) represents 60 percent
of the money earned by Mexican drug cartels. Members of said cartels
are already upset by California’s legalization of marijuana for
medical purposes because it is cutting into their profits.

States should “think about the innocent people who are dying each day
by these murderers in order to get their ‘product’ across our
borders,” Clark wrote. That is because the drug cartels have no
incentive to smuggle legal drugs.

Alcohol prohibition created the economic base for Al Capone and his
like to control citizens, politicians and police. The war on drugs
has created the same environment.

It’s past time to end the War on Drugs. In our economic climate,
it’s time to legalize and tax them.

Glenn Festog

Lakeland

Pubdate: Sun, 5 Sep 2010

Source: Ledger, The (Lakeland, FL)

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n000/a038.html