Regarding your Dec. 17 editorial ("NH should legalize medical marijuana"), if health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal and there would be no medical marijuana debate.

Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Marijuana can be harmful, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents.

The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican immigration during the early 1900s despite opposition from the American Medical Association.

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The President Talks A Nice Game About Marijuana, But That Doesn't Mean Much

As the presidential election was unfolding, and it started to look like an Obama victory, cannabis advocates across the nation started wondering what the Choomer in Chief would do about the drug. It was looking like voters would make it legal for recreational use in Colorado and Washington and maybe Oregon, too.

President Obama had offered a few hints about how he feels, never advocating full legalization or even directly backing the medical paradigm, but saying he thinks the Department of Justice should consider it a low priority to bust medical-marijuana establishments in states where it's legal. It was a weak endorsement, of sorts. Some thought his post-election lame-duck status would allow him the freedom to revert to his high school days and come out for legalization. Then on Election Day, all hell broke loose when voters (the smart ones, anyway) gave the nod to recreational use in Washington and Colorado, prompting my daughter to say on Facebook, "Everyone is going to move to Colorado now and the current residents are going to be like 'wut is going on' and it's going to be a huge mess." I don't know how many people are planning to move, but I do think a huge mess is developing.

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A Note From the State to Participants Inadvertently Showed E-Mail Addresses and Even Some Full Names.

Lisa Segal prays that those who inadvertently obtained the names of New Jerseyans approved by the state to buy medical marijuana will maintain the privacy she says those seriously ill patients deserve.

The state Department of Health apologized Wednesday for an e-mail sent to more than 400 marijuana program participants in which the recipients' e-mail addresses were plainly visible. Some addresses incorporated the patients' full names.

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5-Year Probation, $25,000 Fine

First to Be Sentenced on Federal Charges

Just a year ago, Brionne Corbray was a flashy entrepreneur in the Seattle medical-marijuana market, with a late-model Mercedes-Benz and three storefront dispensaries to his name, including a White Center smoking lounge he described as "like a bar, without the alcohol."

On Wednesday, he gained a new distinction - the first local owner of a medical-marijuana dispensary to be sentenced on federal drug-dealing charges.

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So, the Mexican drug cartels are growing marijuana in our national forests but no tobacco that contains nicotine. Why? Tobacco is a deadly and addictive substance.

If we were to criminalize tobacco that contains nicotine would it disappear? No.

Would criminal gangs control and distribute it? Yes.

Kirk Muse,

Mesa

[end]

Now that Yuba County supervisors have amended a medical marijuana growing ordinance to make it slightly less restrictive, the onus is on those who grow it to fall in line, supervisors said.

Both supervisors John Nicoletti and Mary Jane Griego said it'll be up to groups such as the Yuba County Growers Association to get information out there before a small-scale farmer gets a knock on his door from county code enforcement.

"The problem will not cure itself on the course it is now," Nicoletti said, referring to low levels of compliance sheriff's deputies encountered this year when they investigated growing operations.

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The Murrieta City Council on Tuesday, Dec. 18, granted its attorney power to move to shut down any medical marijuana dispensaries that open in the city.

The new rule would allow the city attorney, after consulting with the police chief and city manager, to seek injunctions to close dispensaries without asking for permission from the council beforehand. The vote was 4-1, with Harry Ramos opposed.

The city has barred dispensaries since 2005. Last year, the council passed a temporary moratorium on dispensaries to keep new ones from opening in the event the California Supreme Court rules citywide bans illegal. The moratorium, which has been extended until next September, would allow the city time to draft regulations before any dispensaries could open.

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Why the misinformation about marijuana, its use, history and benefits? Doctors and patients are discovering the curative and palliative benefits that traditional medicine has practiced for about 5,000 years. Who wouldn't support legalization?

Except the drug lords who take in about $5 billion annually, banks that launder the cash and are too big to indict, politicians profiting from "political contributions," enforcement agencies warring against drugs and confiscating property, even U.S. growers who don't want things to change.

It is time to end prohibition.

Steve Smith

Spokane

[end]

When Colorado voters legalized marijuana, they set the stage for another great states rights battle with Uncle Sam. President Barack Obama weighed in last week, saying on Friday he is willing to consider relaxing federal enforcement of marijuana laws for those who possess small amounts.

"It does not make sense from a prioritization point of view for us to focus on recreational drug users in a state that has already said that under state law that's legal," Obama told ABC News.

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A dispensary in Essex County sold the drug to 300 people after a long fight to legalize sales.

When Jay Lassiter took his first-ever toke of medical marijuana Tuesday evening, he knew it would relieve the nausea he experiences from the nine prescription drugs he consumes daily to treat HIV.

For years, the political consultant has kept a marijuana-filled pipe in his Cherry Hill kitchen to calm his frequently upset stomach and to nudge him to eat when his appetite flagged.

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In Exchange For Him Waiving Right To Appeal

In a highly unusual move, federal prosecutors have agreed to drop six of eight marijuana convictions for Christopher Williams in exchange for his agreeing to waive his right to appeal.

In addition, the government has agreed to ask U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen to dismiss the $1,728,000 criminal forfeiture awarded to the government by a jury earlier this year.

The agreement was outlined under a settlement filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court. In the document, signed by Williams, U.S. Assistant Attorney Joe Thaggard, and federal public defender Michael Donahoe, they note that this agreement "constitutes the final and best offer to resolve this matter."

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MONTCLAIR - Jay Lassiter has been HIV positive for 20 years, and for just as long, he has been a self-described "criminal" for buying pot to ease the gut-wrenching nausea he suffers because of his treatment.

His criminal activity ended at 2:45 pm today, when he walked out of Greenleaf Compassion Center after making his first legal marijuana purchase at the Bloomfield Avenue shop.

Greenleaf, New Jersey's first alternative treatment center - what the state is calling dispensaries - opened Dec. 6. Registered patients have been seen by appointment only so far.

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Why Oregon, California And More Are Likely To Follow Colorado And Washington Toward Legalization

The Berlin Wall of pot prohibition seems to be crumbling before our eyes.

By fully legalizing marijuana through direct democracy, Colorado and Washington have fundamentally changed the national conversation about cannabis. As many as 58 percent of Americans now believe marijuana should be legal. And our political establishment is catching on. Former president Jimmy Carter came out this month and endorsed taxed-and-regulated weed. "I'm in favor of it," Carter said. "I think it's OK." In a December 5th letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) suggested it might be possible "to amend the Federal Controlled Substances Act to allow possession of up to one ounce of marijuana, at least in jurisdictions where it is legal under state law." Even President Obama hinted at a more flexible approach to prohibition, telling 20/20's Barbara Walters that the federal government was unlikely to crack down on recreational users in states where pot is legal, adding, "We've got bigger fish to fry."

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"Mandatory sentences breed injustice," Judge Roger Vinson told the New York Times. A Ronald Reagan appointee to the federal bench in Florida, Vinson was railing against a federal system that forced him to sentence a 27-year-old single mother to prison life without parole because her dealer ex-boyfriend had stored cocaine in her house.

Note to D.C. Republicans: This would be a great time to take on the excesses of the war on drugs.

The Times was writing about conservatives, including Jeb Bush and former Watergate conspirator Chuck Colson, who advocate for smarter, more humane incarceration policies under the rubric "Right on Crime." In light of the GOP's need to woo more young voters, drug-war reforms offer an ideological good - limited government - and also might be politically savvy. Think: Ron Paul and his rock star status on college campuses.

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And then there was one.

Effective Jan. 1, New Hampshire will be the only New England state in which patients cannot receive safe, legal access to medical marijuana.

Last month, Massachusetts joined Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, Vermont and a growing number of other states by voting to protect seriously ill patients from arrest when their doctors recommend marijuana for treatment.

So much for "Live Free or Die."

As residents of New Hampshire, we've heard the motto a million times. But when we look at the states around us, and the actions they are taking to allow their residents to live more freely than we do, we start to wonder if we're losing our "live free or die" spirit.

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"Mandatory sentences breed injustice," Judge Roger Vinson told the New York Times. A Ronald Reagan appointee to the federal bench in Florida, Vinson was railing against a federal system that forced him to sentence a 27-year-old single mother to prison for life without parole because her dealer ex-boyfriend had stored cocaine in her house.

Note to D.C. Republicans: This would be a great time to take on the excesses of the war on drugs.

The Times was writing about conservatives, including Jeb Bush and former Watergate conspirator Chuck Colson, who advocate for smarter, more humane incarceration policies under the rubric "Right on Crime." In light of the GOP's need to woo more young voters, drug-war reforms offer an ideological good limited government and also might be politically savvy. Think: Ron Paul and his rock star status on college campuses.

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While Homeland Security and its allies are busy congratulating each other on intercepting 3,000 pounds of marijuana, do they really think they have kept all the other boats from landing?

The panga boats will not stop. Marijuana use is not going down.

Until our federal leadership legalizes the sale and consumption of marijuana, brave men like Terrence Holmes will die "protecting" us from marijuana, and Homeland Security will waste time and money going after marijuana smugglers instead of terrorists.

- - Michael Walker,

Ventura

[end]

President Barack Obama broke the silence late last week on how the federal government will respond to voter-approved measures in Washington and Colorado that legalized adult recreational use of marijuana.

The president said it is not a priority of the federal government to prosecute recreational marijuana use in the two states.

Perhaps more importantly, the president acknowledged it's time for Congress, the Justice Department and others to tackle the question of how to reconcile a federal law that still says marijuana possession is a federal offense with state laws that say it isn't.

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Everett voters approved marijuana legalization by a healthy margin last month, but now it's December and the City Council is about to do something that will make all those voters quite unhappy.

Council is set to enact a so-called "nuisance ordinance" that would so drastically limit where medical cannabis collective gardens might locate that it would create an effective ban on safe access for patients in the city. It would also likely ban any Everett marijuana retail locations for recreational users that the State Liquor Board might wish to license when it begins to issue licenses for those in about one year. Many thousands of Everett voters will find council's action a nuisance, but, rest assured, black market pot dealers will be thrilled.

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Watching the contortions that Arizona - and now the nation - are struggling to sort out on whether marijuana is legal or illegal is comparable to 8-year-olds playing Twister.

Now comes a report from The Arizona Republic that banks and credit card companies are staying away from handling transactions at medical marijuana dispensaries, thereby creating cash-only economies for these businesses.

Think for a moment of the dangers and criminal opportunities created by forcing a business to deal only in cash. Buying marijuana at a dispensary is comparable to the price of many medications now being purchased at your local pharmacy - it can easily cost several hundred dollars. Customers will be bringing cash to the counter. The burden on the business side is no less worrisome, the Republic article states, with owners constructing safehouse structures and relying on armed transport for the currency generated by the business. Paying employees, taxes and trying to convince the utility company that you will be a reliable cash account is significantly more difficult when banks and credit agencies will not handle your business.

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