SentLTE-Digest Tuesday, October 6 2015 Volume 15 : Number 029
001 LTE: Re: ''KETTLE FALLS FIVE' MEMBERS GET PRISON TIME IN FEDERAL MARIJU
From: Kirk Muse <>
002 LTE: Letter to the Editor / re: 'Former UMass graduate student Jesse Ca
From: "Robert Merkin" <>
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Subj: 001 LTE: Re: ''KETTLE FALLS FIVE' MEMBERS GET PRISON TIME IN FEDERAL MARIJUANA CASE' (10-2-15).
From: Kirk Muse <>
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 2015 14:01:05 -0700
To the Editor of The Spokesman-Review:
It seems to me prison space should be reserved for people who harm others
against their will. Not gardeners. There was no mention as to who the
unwilling
victims where. That's because there were none.
Kirk Muse
1741 S. Clearview Ave.
Mesa, AZ 85209
(480) 396-3399
Thank you for considering this letter for publication.
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Subj: 002 LTE: Letter to the Editor / re: 'Former UMass graduate student Jesse Carrillo ...' (Gazette 1 October)
From: "Robert Merkin" <>
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2015 18:13:05 -0700
Letters to the Editor
The Daily Hampshire Gazette
Northampton, Massachusetts
To the Editor:
A common, typical heroin overdose death: The victim's friends panic and either flee, or delay calling 911, because they know punching those three digits (thus saving their friend's life) is a near-guarantee of being arrested for drug felonies.
And now two-fisted First Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Steven E. Gagne is robotically fulfilling his promise to kill more of our neighbors struggling with heroin as their friends flee without calling emergency responders. ("Former UMass graduate student Jesse Carrillo denies involuntary manslaughter, heroin distribution in death of Eric Sinacori," Gazette 1 October.)
Convicting Jesse Carrillo of involuntary manslaughter and heroin distribution will recharge the brilliant flashing sign over Heroin Highway I-91:
LET THEM O.D. -- DON'T PHONE 911
Our prosecutors continue to forbid and punish any discussion that treats drug use/abuse as a public health issue. Inside the Northwestern District Attorney's Northampton office, it's still rigidly 1985, and all heroin addicts must be fast-tracked to felony prison.
The calendar police agencies use, however, increasingly says 2015. More and more police agencies are equipped with and trained in the use of Narcan, the "magic bullet" that resuscitates heroin O.D. victims from the brink of death. So are public schools ("Area schools explore keeping narcotic overdose-reversal Narcan on hand," Gazette 5 October).
A.D.A. Gagne clearly advocates pushing O.D. victims over the death brink. To Gagne, death and prison is where all junkies belong. Though our Commonwealth has consistently rejected the death penalty, Gagne and his colleagues wallow in a loophole that lets them execute our neighbors and relatives.
It is more than relevant to note that, with the advocacy of (rather than opposition by) the Northampton Police Department, Northampton is one of the rare Massachusetts municipalities to have opted for a clean needle exchange. Six blocks from the deadly and ignorant policies within the Northwestern District Attorney's office is a police department that advocates life-saving policies.
New England is in the midst of a heroin epidemic. In his State of the State address, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin said it must be addressed now. The finger-pointing blame game just wastes time in which our neighbors' and relatives' lives are being destroyed and lost.
But a path to a healthier and safer Massachusetts could start with smart, medical-based policies in the Northwestern District Attorney's office.
Now is the season to buy new calendars, and theirs should say 2016, with a public health theme.
Robert Merkin
Chesterfield, MA
====================
LTE Editor:
17 Indian Hollow Road
Chesterfield MA 01012
413-296-4097
(previously 30-year Northampton resident)
====================
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End of SentLTE-Digest V15 #29
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