Pubdate: Sat, 12 Nov 2011 Source: Wenatchee World, The (WA) Copyright: 2011 World Publishing Company Contact: http://wenatcheeworld.com/section/editor Website: http://wenatcheeworld.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/494 Author: Lorraine Kile NO LEGALIZED MARIJUANA Chelan County has normally been a very conservative area of the state of Washington , but the current political activities within this state are now commencing to make themselves more visible here. Read the headlines in The Wenatchee World. Harriet Bullitt from Leavenworth has now donated $100,000 to New Approach Washington to legalize marijuana in the state (Initiative 502). She joins fellow liberal, Progressive Insurance Chairman Peter Lewis, a primary financial donor to the Democratic Party for years. Apparently Initiative 502 is having difficulty obtaining enough signatures to earn a place on the ballot. Congratulations to Harriet Bullitt. I am sure the Democrats applaud you. The rest of the conservatives in this country and this state do not! I was actually born in the hospital at Leavenworth (my parents lived in Dryden at the time), but liberals from the Seattle area have co-opted the entire Leavenworth area, and made it into their own liberal domain. I have ranches in the Dryden, Cashmere and Entiat areas. Leavenworth, before the liberals moved in to gain control, was formerly a very quiet logging and farming area. Not any more. I did spend 50 years as a teacher and a school counselor at Eastmont, Cashmere, Peshastin-Dryden and Wenatchee school districts, so I have directly experienced the negative impact of drugs -- usually beginning with marijuana and then progressing to stronger drugs. And, yes, I have seen students at school actually "stoned," and I have had teachers call me and ask me to remove a "stoned" student from their class. There was a time at Wenatchee High School when we as counselors were required to patrol the back parking lot to "break up" the students who were using drugs on school grounds. In this state and the nation as a whole, at least some progress is being made to make smoking less attractive to teenagers and young adults. The very last thing that we need to promote is the introduction of smoking again -- and certainly not smoking marijuana and glamorizing the use of drugs. Please do not sign Initiative 502 and work with me to openly criticize those people who are attempting to legitimize the use of illegal substances. Lorraine Kile Wenatchee - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.