Pubdate: Sun, 17 Jan 2016
Source: West Hawaii Today (HI)
Copyright: 2016 West Hawaii Today
Contact: http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/contact_us/letters/
Website: http://westhawaiitoday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/644
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v16/n027/a07.html
Author: Joseph Appleton

LAST WORD ON THIS TIT FOR TAT, THEN WE'RE DONE HERE

Oh, how to respond to Mr. Coakley and his North Hawaii Community 
Associations letter to the editor on Jan. 13?

More 1950s reefer madness propaganda with unnamed certified studies 
and doom predictions if sick patients no longer have to grow their 
own pot and can purchase their legal medicine in a safe and secure 
location. Mainland pot interests intent on subverting our youth by 
subsidizing the dispensaries even though the DOH has not even 
selected who they will be.

Hide the women and children "they" are coming for them! All this 
baloney despite recent Pew studies that show 65 percent support for 
legalization among millennials. Just who is out of touch, me, or Mr. 
Coakley? Representatives of the people passed this dispensary law. Is 
Mr. Coakley a supporter of law, or only the laws he likes? I have no 
doubt that in the future marijuana will be legal everywhere. Women's 
rights, same-sex marriage, transgender rights, gays in the military, 
society changes and moves forward. Thank God!

The war on drugs has failed, year after year. It is an expensive war 
that consumes resources and stigmatizes our kids with arrest records 
and brutal incarceration instead of help. His mention of Ohio as a 
beacon of sanity cracked me up. What is Ohio famous for? Strudel? 
Washington state is a hub of employment, high-tech and creative 
innovation. I think it might be wiser for Hawaii to take some advice 
from Washington, not Ohio. Again, I take no position on legalization 
but I do take a stand for upholding the laws as they now stand. I do 
support a smarter approach to drugs. Harm reduction and treatment 
instead of criminalization and incarceration.

Joseph Appleton

Waimea
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom