Re: "Tenn. Should Embrace Legalized Weed," by Cecily Friday, Shamim, Nov. 30.

Ms. Shamim's positions on this issue are expected. As a physician, I am fully aware of the benefits and harms of marijuana.

Ms. Shamim cites the benefits only but also makes changes to suit. If we consider the first few of her points, it will become clear that the rest do not merit consideration.

Ms. Shamim cites a "placebo controlled" study of marijuana in PTSD patients in ScienceDaily that showed positive results. A "placebo control" for marijuana is not possible.

[continues 201 words]

Re: "Haslam: Medical marijuana unlikely to pass soon," Dec. 1.

Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey believes "even the states that have done that (legalized marijuana) are having second thoughts." That's not the case.

Take Colorado, the first state to legalize. The initiative passed three years ago with 55 percent of the vote. The latest statewide poll shows support for legal cannabis has grown to 62 percent.

Coloradans see that crime is down, as are traffic fatalities and overdose deaths from prescription narcotics - a terrible problem in Tennessee.

[continues 142 words]

Why do families have to wait until their husbands, brothers, sons or fathers die before they can talk about the disease that killed them?

On Nov. 2 the National Academy of Sciences released the study "Rising Morbidity and Mortality in Midlife Among White Non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st Century," which was co-authored by one of the recent winners of the Nobel Prize in economics.

The study discusses the causes of premature death for middle-aged men but failed to mention the stigma associated with the diseases that killed them.

[continues 126 words]

Memphis

In reference to the Oct. 25 article a=C2=80=C2=9CThe bipartisan marijuana

myth,a=C2=80=C2=9D in 1937 Harry Anslinger testified before Congress on t he evils of marijuana. Congress made it illegal (The Marijuana Tax Stamp Act of 1937). He later admitted his testimony was not true and in fact marijuana was relatively harmless. The La Guardia Commission report on marijuana also found it was relatively harmless.

This law was declared unconstitutional in 1970. That led to President Nixon signing the 1970 Controlled Substances Act. Marijuana has been a Schedule 1 controlled substance since then. Under President Nixon the Shaffer Commission issued a report and also determined that marijuana was relatively harmless. Of course, Nixon buried the report.

[continues 97 words]

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen added his voice Friday to the growing number of officials calling for reforms to end the nation's high rates of incarceration for nonviolent and lower-level drug offenders.

In a speech to the criminal justice section of the American Bar Association's fall institute in Washington, Cohen, D-Memphis, also called for the collection of national statistics on the use of deadly force by law enforcement agencies. He said a bill he has introduced called the National Statistics on Deadly Force Transparency Act would give lawmakers and the public "the numbers we need to measure the problem so we can figure out how best to address it."

[continues 181 words]

Violent Crime, Not Dope, Keeps Our Prisons Full

Drug offenders account for only 19.5 percent of the total state-federal prison population, most of whom, especially in the federal system, were convicted of dealing drugs such as cocaine, heroin and meth, not "smoking marijuana."

It seems that no presidential debate this year would be complete without denunciations of the drug laws, which, it is alleged, result in long prison terms for thousands of people, disproportionately African-Americans, who are guilty only of low-level offenses, thus fueling "mass incarceration."

[continues 761 words]

Re: "Pot battle gears back up in California," Oct.12.

In all of the thrilling excitement of marijuana legalization, no one has had the integrity recently to mention the Northwestern Medicine/Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School series of studies of 2012, 2013 and 2014 which prove that "casual use of marijuana is related to major brain changes."

For previous pot users, "memory-related structures in their brains appeared to shrink and collapse inward," even two years after quitting pot.

The study also linked pot abuse to schizophrenia development.

[continues 63 words]

Police Issue Warrant for Suspect in Slaying of Officer

Memphis police were looking Sunday for a 29-year-old bank robber they believe shot and killed one of their own after a traffic stop Saturday night.

In a Sunday evening news conference, officials identified the suspect as Tremaine Wilbourn, who was convicted of robbing the Friendship Bank in Covington in 2005. He was on supervised release after being sentenced to 10 years for that robbery.

Police believe Wilbourn is the man who shot Sean Bolton, who was gunned down just after 9:15 p.m. Saturday at 4871 Summerlane in Parkway Village. By late Sunday, Wilbourn remained on the run, accused of first-degree murder. A reward of $10,000 has been posted for his capture, and that is expected to grow to $20,000.

[continues 542 words]

Regarding the letter of Mr. Siebold of June 8 about legalization of pot, at the time those that are not in jail committed their crimes, a law was on the books stating the status for their disobedience, which means a disrespect for the law by the lawbreakers. Mr. Siebold dismisses not only the legality but also the morality of the crime. Marijuana is a drug. It sounds as if he wants it to be legal to get high (which is the main reason for its use), and then when something bad happens, he can blame it on the drug instead of personal actions.

[continues 110 words]

Could Be Rx for Kids' Seizures

It's now legal to use cannabis oil for limited medical purposes in Tennessee.

And the Mathes family is ready. The East Tennessee family already had the oil and a recommendation from a doctor before Monday. Their 1-year-old daughter, Josie, still has the seizures that have plagued her short life.

They just needed Gov. Bill Haslam to give final approval to arguably Tennessee's first broader step toward legalizing a marijuana product for medicinal use.

[continues 486 words]

Legalizing cannabis oil for use as an alternative medicine is coming up for a full vote in the Tennessee legislature on Monday after sailing through every committee.

If the bill passes, it would have far reaching effects throughout the state. It would affect law enforcement, health care workers and, maybe most importantly, seizure patients. An amendment was added to the bill during the House Health Committee which added access to people suffering from epilepsy, opening up the number of patients who could potentially have access to the oil.

[continues 849 words]

The medicinal effects of marijuana are no joke to Rita Moore, education services director for the Epilepsy Foundation of Southeast Tennessee.

"If they'd found [the medicinal effects] first," she says, "it would be a miracle drug. We have to get past this."

The "this" is what you already know - the casual "high" you get from smoking marijuana, its ability to impair your judgment, its addictive qualities, its potential to be a gateway to other drugs, plus the jokes about "the munchies," Cheech & Chong, and Bob Marley music.

[continues 653 words]

At long last, a medical marijuana bill is scheduled to be discussed Wednesday in the Tennessee House Health Committee and also is expected to be presented in the Volunteer State's Senate House and Welfare Committee.

Medical marijuana in oil form has been shown to significantly lessen epileptic seizures, especially in children like 5- year-old Cora Vowell, a local girl who last year suffered an accident that required her to wear a helmet contantly to protect her head against the nine to 12 seizures she now has each day.

[continues 514 words]

Medical marijuana will soon be legal in Georgia, and that's a good thing.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal on Friday signed the hard-fought bill that was two years in the making. Now state agencies will prepare to implement it. The Peach State becomes one of 24 states plus Washington, D.C., to legalize marijuana for certain medical uses.

The Georgia House voted 160-1 to approve a Senate compromise. The bill originally made people with nine medical conditions eligible for treatment with cannabis oil that has a minimal level of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the chemical that makes pot users feel high. The compromise deleted one illness - fibromyalgia. The remaining eight conditions are seizure disorders, sickle cell anemia, cancer, Crohn's disease, Lou Gehrig's disease, multiple sclerosis, mitochondrial disease and Parkinson's disease.

[continues 173 words]

Another important reason to allow sick people to use cannabis (marijuana) that doesn't get mentioned ("2 Widely Different Medical Marijuana Bills to Butt Heads," March 10) is because it is biblically correct since God (The Ecologician) created all the seed-bearing plants, saying they're all good, on literally the very first page of the Bible.

Further, many people know of cannabis as the tree of life, and the very last page of the Bible indicates the leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations. Christ Jesus risked jail in order to heal the sick.

Not one single person has died using cannabis in more than 5,000 years of documented medical use; that's safety on a biblical scale. A sane or moral argument to cage sick citizens who use cannabis doesn't exist.

Stan White

Dillon, Colo.

[end]

DALTON - The Dalton Police did almost everything by the book. Almost.

As part of an investigation into Eric Ashton, detectives allegedly purchased marijuana from Ashton during an undercover operation, then obtained a search warrant for his home at 1150 Whittle Drive.

They scoped out the home Tuesday evening to make sure Ashton's truck was in the driveway and that there were people in the residence. By 11 p. m., they had assembled enough officers to take down the man they believed to be a drug dealer. So far, so good.

[continues 173 words]

A series of articles in The Washington Post exposed the problem last fall, and U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder announced recently that federal agencies, with few exceptions, will no longer take possession of assets seized by local law enforcement agencies when no crime has been proved.

Tennessee officials say the decision will have little impact on the activities of local law enforcement agencies, but the attorney general's decision to step down from the widespread use of civil asset forfeiture should prompt close scrutiny of the practice throughout the state and beyond.

[continues 372 words]

(AP) - Tennessee's Department of Agriculture says it is accepting applications from those interested in growing industrial hemp. The department says it is developing a licensing and inspection program for the production of industrial hemp in Tennessee. Officials say industrial hemp is the same plant species of marijuana, but it has a significantly lower content of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. It can be used in a variety of products, including fabric, textiles, fibers and foods. Those interested can download an application and memorandum of understanding at the department's website.

[end]

The last 90 years have been a historical aberration in the 5,000 years of medical cannabis use. It is tragic to have prohibited such use in the same world where pharmaceuticals account for more deaths annually than all illicit drugs combined. While pharmaceuticals have their place, the numbers show that cannabis can save lives when legalized as medicine.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Every day in the United States, 113 people die as a result of drug overdose, and another 6,748 are treated for the misuse or abuse of drugs. Nearly 9 out of 10 poisoning deaths are caused by drugs ... in 2011, of the 41,340 drug overdose deaths in the United States, 22,810 (55%) were related to pharmaceuticals." Of those deaths, 74 percent were attributed to prescription opiates.

[continues 173 words]

The Sept. 14 Free Press editorial opposing the legalization of marijuana was laughable. The writer cites studies that show that marijuana isn't good for you. The writer seems to ignore that all of the points he makes are also true for alcohol, which is even more dangerous. I doubt he would ever write an editorial arguing that legalization of alcohol for recreational use didn't make sense.

Personally, I think marijuana is boring. But I think that as long as they're not harming others, people should be allowed to choose their own entertainment, regardless of whether what they choose is good for them. I don't care if it's marijuana, alcohol, greasy food, gambling, or sitting on the couch and watching TV all day.

That's what being a free human being, and living in a supposedly "free" country, is all about: making your own choices, without the government imprisoning you just because a majority of people don't share your preferences.

LARRY MENDIZABAL Ooltewah

[end]