Pubdate: Fri, 24 Sep 2010 Source: Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO) Copyright: 2010 The Gazette Contact: http://www.gazette.com/sections/opinion/submitletter/ Website: http://www.gazette.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/165 Author: Bill Carmody THIS MUST STOP On the ballot this fall is a county measure placed by the county commissioners called 1A. It is a measure to keep medical marijuana dispensaries from being allowed in unincorporated El Paso County. There is a similar measure on the ballot in Fountain called 2G. Pot shops have sprung up all over the place. Whenever you see a green cross on a sign and/or a building in El Paso County that is code for pot. This must stop. If you look at the Independent newspaper, at least 10 pages are ads for pot shops. If you read the ads closely, you will see some of them have doctors on site to write prescriptions. How did we get here? First, we must look at Amendment 20 that was passed by the voters of the State in 2000. It allowed people with so-called severe pain and cancer patients to use pot for medicinal purposes. This was always a ruse. The pro marijuana crowd knew they couldn't legalize pot on a straight up or down vote. So they used the sick and the dying as political cover to open a beachhead in their quest to legalize pot. The idea was first and foremost, they were under a doctor's care and a caregiver would provide the pot to the sick person. Ideally, this would have been one-on-one care. Yet, the law said no more than five patients per caregiver. I am certain there were some abuses like there is abuse with all legalized drugs. Yet, for the most part, everything was fine until 2008. What happened in 2008? President Barack Obama was elected and told the American people he would not enforce the federal drug laws concerning pot. Thus, pot shops were created. Pot shops opened up with no regulation and no oversight. Senator Romer investigated the situation and found that six doctors wrote about 85 percent of all the prescriptions for pot throughout the state. This was not the way the people envisioned this would work when they voted for this in 2000. Yet, I believe this is exactly what the pro pot people expected. They want pot legalized. The state Legislature passed a bill concerning pot shops and gave local government the power to ban pot shops in their local area. A yes vote on 1A and 2G will send a clear message to pot growers and producers: not in our town, not in our county. I have witnessed personally the pot shop on the corner of 14th Street and Colorado; 99.9 percent of the people who went in there were young and otherwise healthy. They were using this as a back door to smoke pot recreationally. Please vote to stop this. Vote yes on 1A and 2G (Fountain city). Fr. Bill Carmody Diocese of Colorado Springs - --- MAP posted-by: Matt