Pubdate: Wed, 09 Jul 2014
Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock, AR)
Copyright: 2014 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.
Contact: http://www2.arkansasonline.com/contact/voicesform/
Website: http://www2.arkansasonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/25
Note: Accepts letters to the editor from Arkansas residents only
Page: 4B

THANK YOU, ARKANSAS

But the Fight Is Still Far From Over

IT LOOKS as if this fall's ballot in the general election here in 
Arkansas may be free of anything about marijuana. Call it a 
smoke-free election. Which is good. There's enough mud in the air as it is.

Word began filtering out on social media Monday. Those who run 
websites proposing legalization of weed for medicinal purposes began 
thanking their supporters, but putting out what was, for them, the 
bad news: They didn't get enough signatures in time to make the 
November ballot. Word also began circulating that another effort, one 
to legalize weed altogether, also failed to get the required number 
of signatures. The good news just kept coming.

Yet it doesn't feel like a win for those of us who've opposed any 
step toward legalization of marijuana in this state. For one thing, 
the last time "medical marijuana" made the ballot, it got 49 percent 
of the vote. That election, back in 2012, was too close for comfort. 
Also, those who have been the most outspoken in favor of medical 
marijuana don't sound as sinister as they do misguided.

Let's just call it a bullet dodged. Maybe a couple of bullets. The 
good people of Arkansas saw what the petitioners were proposing, and 
not enough of them signed on to it. And most probably declined 
politely, this being Arkansas and most of us having been taught good manners.

The state will be better for that. For now, anyway.

Why is this good news? For starters, medical marijuana isn't the only 
way to get THC to patients who are suffering from illnesses that 
cause them to lose their appetites. There already are perfectly legal 
ways to get the drug-with a doctor's prescription and a trip to the 
pharmacist. For the Food and Drug Administration has already approved 
drugs that simulate medical marijuana-but that come in a pill. (The 
names of the drugs are only a Google search away.)

Even more important, how do we keep the kids out of the stash if 
medical marijuana is approved? Out in Colorado, where medical 
marijuana was legal before voters there agreed to all-out 
legalization, the kids have been getting into the weed for years. At 
one hospital in Colorado alone-Children's in Aurora-more than 1,375 
kids under the age of 12 were treated for unintentional ingestion of 
marijuana between 2005 and 2011. And that's just the unintentional use.

Early last year, another report came out showing that 74 
percent-three quarters-of teens being treated for substance abuse in 
metro Denver had admitted to using somebody's else's marijuana on 
purpose . . . more specifically, somebody else's medical marijuana.

DOPE already is a sufficient problem here in Arkansas without putting 
it in the medicine cabinet. As for those who'd just skip the 
medical-marijuana step and legalize weed in one giant step, well, 
some of us appreciate their candor. It's their judgment that's suspect.

But the debate, and the gathering of signatures, isn't over. The 
various camps supporting the legalization of marijuana, one way or 
another, vow to come back next year, clipboards in hands and smiles 
on faces. Some of us will count on it. And we'll be ready not to sign 
up again. But, this being Arkansas, we'll decline ever so politely.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom