Pubdate: Mon, 14 Jan 2013
Source: Pottstown Mercury (PA)
Copyright: 2013 The Mercury, a Journal Register Property
Contact:  http://www.pottstownmercury.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2287
Author: Evan Brandt

PROPOSAL TO LEGALIZE POT IN PA. DRAWS COMMENT

In the wake of state-wide referendums to legalize marijuana use in
some form in Colorado and Washington, not to mention New Jersey, state
Sen. Daylin Leach, D-17th Dist. has vowed to once again introduce a
bill legalizing marijuana use in Pennsylvania.

Reaction to the news on our Facebook page and on pottsmerc.com was
varied, with some agreeing with Leach, some opposing the idea and many
somewhere in between, but the majority was tipped in favor of the idea.

"I beat kidney cancer, but I have paid a huge price," Cynthia Schwenk
wrote on The Mercury web page. "I have chronic pain and permanent
nerve damage from removing a kidney and rib. I am currently at the
legal daily limit for morphine and on 3200 mg neurotin a day. I am
highly in favor of passing this bill! Pot has been proven to help/cure
chronic pain in all types of situations. If it is not passed here, I
will be moving to Colorado; I have no other choice at this point."

"Progressives such as Leach are hellbent on destroying this country,"
wrote a commenter named Kathleen3. "We have almost half of our
citizens on some form of prescribed, governmentapproved mind altering
drug and it is estimated almost half of our society has or does take
some form of illegal drugs. This has to account for the apathetic
society we now have who follow the directives of politicians such as
Leach. It is these same sheep who elect people the caliber of Leach."

Previously, Leach has introduced bills to allow the use of marijuana
for medical reasons, but in a statement released Wednesday Leach said
his bill would "legalize the consumption of marijuana for adults over
the age of 21, without regard to the purpose of that
consumption."

In an opinion article published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Leach
wrote that marijuana compares favorably to alcohol and tobacco use.

"The facts are that unlike alcohol, you simply cannot overdose on
marijuana," Leach wrote.

"Unlike alcohol and tobacco, marijuana is not physically addictive.
Studies have show that people on marijuana are much less likely to
behave violently or recklessly than people who are drunk," he wrote.
"There is simply no way that marijuana does, or ever can, come close
to killing the 1,100 people per day that tobacco does."

More than a dozen states have legalized marijuana use under different
circumstances, many of them for medical use, and the National
Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws is predicting that at least 10
more states - including Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island,
New Hampshire, Alaska, Hawaii, Arizona, Montana, Minnesota and Nevada
- - are likely to pass similar laws in 2013.

But no one is putting Pennsylvania on that list any time
soon.

A 2010 Franklin & Marshall poll found that only one in three
Pennsylvania voters favor the outright legalization of marijuana.

However, while most Pennsylvanians oppose legalizing marijuana, they
also overwhelmingly favor permitting its medicinal use. In the same
2010 Franklin & Marshall poll, 80 percent supported making medical
marijuana legal.

"There is no way this bill will get passed - not in this decade,"
political scientist G. Terry Madonna, director of Franklin & Marshall
College's Center for Politics and Public Affairs, said in an article
on Lancasteronline.

Madonna said even if Leach finds like-minded colleagues to support the
bill, it most likely will never come up for a vote.

"Pennsylvania is a very culturally conservative state; with little
support from residents and lawmakers, it won't get far," Madonna told
the Lancaster news site.

But Leach is out to put Pennsylvania on that list, arguing that the
effort to enforce marijuana laws is costly and unnecessary. "For the
past 75 years, our marijuana policy has been foolish, ill-conceived,
costly and destructive, and it must end. We have been waging a "war on
drugs" that includes treating the use of Marijuana as a matter for the
criminal justice system. We have spent billions of dollars
investigating, prosecuting, incarcerating and monitoring millions of
our fellow citizens who have hurt no one, damaged no property,
breached no peace. Their only "crime" was smoking a plant which made
them feel a bit giddy," Leach wrote.

"According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, in 2006, an
average year, 24,685 marijuana arrests were made in Pennsylvania at a
cost to the taxpayers of $325.36 million. Each year we not only waste
a similar amount, we leave several hundred million dollars on the
table in taxes that we do not collect because marijuana is illegal,
rather than regulated and taxed. Aside from the moral issues involved,
we simply can no longer afford the financial costs of prohibition," he
wrote.

"Further, prohibition of marijuana has done what it did in the case of
alcohol in the 1930s. It has created a dangerous black market with
violent and bloody turf wars that kill many people in our country and
elsewhere. The original prohibition brought us the St. Valentine's Day
Massacre. The modern prohibition has brought us gun battles in the
streets between drug cartels. The murders associated with the sale of
alcohol ended with prohibition. The same will be true of marijuana,"
wrote Leach.

Reaction on Facebook was voluminous.

"How on earth a plant ever came into the human domain of law? I will
never understand," wrote Ray Constanzo. "It's a plant. It's being made
illegal should be illegal. And note that I have zero interest
whatsoever in this plant in my personal life."

"It's long overdue. It has a place in modern medicine," posted Rob
Valine.

"My father died an excruciatingly painful death from lung cancer...
Maxed out on extremely powerful pain drugs... Pot could have lessened
his pain... I'd vote yes..." wrote Richard Favinger Jr.

"I think if it were legal, it would save the economy," wrote Lindsay
Price. "It could be greatly taxed, and those tax dollars could go to
schools, or other places that actually need money."

"The money saved on law enforcement, imprisonment, probation, and
court time would more than convince anyone with any fiscal
responsibility," posted Claudia Cooney Walsh-Loesch. "If one sane act
comes from this damned recession, let this be that act."

"The argument of saving money by legalizing marijuana is absurd. There
may be legitimate arguments but that isn't one of them," wrote Andrew
J Curtis III.

"In reading the comments, it is easy to say that legalizing pot will
bring in so much money for the government; but what concerns me is
that the government will screw it up somehow," wrote Deb Yost Bingham.
"They always do with taxing, etc. I think this can present another set
of problems if legalized through the state."

The same guy that wants to limit my second amendment rights wants to
legalize pot (in violation of federal law). Go figure. Leach is a
DOPE," wrote Brian W Young Jr.

"I grew up around high people and it was not good. We are supposed to
have sound minds so we can make the best choices and decisions in
life," posted Shalyse Rianheart Wilks. "What I saw from it was messed
up minds that made very bad decisions which in the end caused harm."

"The longer this harmless plant continues to be illegal, the more
power and money will go to Mexican drug cartels to fuel the cocaine,
meth and heroin trade," Kevin Brett. "Not to mention the violence that
goes along with the fight for control of the illegal markets."

"I see the good on it. Helping many with anxiety and sleep problems
get comfort as well as reducing jail crowding and court dockets,"
wrote Katherine Michele. "Not sure I'm in support of it still."
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D