Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Eugene Monroe missed most of the 2015 National Football League season after he tore a shoulder ligament against the Arizona Cardinals last October.

After having the torn labrum surgically repaired in December, doctors prescribed Monroe the usual gamut of opioid painkillers like oxycodone to manage his pain.

Pain is an accepted part of the profession for Monroe and other athletes. Before NFL games even start, players are shot up with the drug Toradol, which helps numb the body and relieve pain, he said. But Monroe said those numbing effects can be so strong that players often get seriously injured without knowing, sometimes not discovering the injury until days later.

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Recently we received a letter to the editor in response to Brad Bynum's report "Licensed to ill" (cover story, April 28). The letter claimed, "California medical marijuana cards are only good in California as Nevada medical marijuana cards are only good in Nevada."

Pam Graber, spokesperson for the Nevada program, reports in a prepared statement:

"The following states have medical marijuana programs and issue medical marijuana cards: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington. The Medical Marijuana dispensaries of the State of Nevada are authorized to sell medical marijuana to card holders from the states above if the patient presents a state or local government-issued medical marijuana card."

The Nevada card may not be recognized in some states.

[end]

Editor:

Nevada voters should brace against millions of dollars from out-of-state "Big Marijuana" interests supporting legalization of recreational pot on the November ballot.

These corporate pot promoters will try to repeat what worked for them in legalizing marijuana in Colorado in 2012. There, they financially overwhelmed opponents by 5 to 1, spending $3.4 million (90 percent from outside Colorado) in passing legalization.

The enormous financial advantage for pro-pot advertising in Colorado overcame opposition to legalization from most all public officials -- across the political spectrum from liberal Democrats, like Denver Mayor Hancock and Colorado Governor Hickenlooper, to Republicans, like Attorney General Suthers and Tea Party favorite Congressman Buck.

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A Down and Dirty Guide to Getting a Medical Marijuana Card in Nevada

It took me a grand total of about two hours and less than $70 to get my medical marijuana card. And then I was able to go to a dispensary, buy pot, and smoke it-fully compliant with Nevada law.

The part of my brain that regularly corresponds with my inner teenager checked in with 15-year-old me, and, between spins of Nirvana's In Utero, the young dude confirmed he was stoked.

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Jim Hartman is mistaken (Legal Pot - Bad For Nevada, Apr. 2, 2016) regarding many aspects of legalized cannabis (marijuana) in Colorado. Claiming "alarming growth in underage marijuana use" is patently false as noted in the Denver Post (http://www.denverpost.com/marijuana/ci_29313651/after-two-years-debate-remains-over-marijuana-legalizations) reported by Larry Wolk, the head of Colorado's public health department who said, "There's really no statistically significant data yet to demonstrate that there is increased use among adults or teens."

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Medical marijuana establishments authorized to cultivate or dispense marijuana products were authorized in 2013 by Senate Bill 374. They had to be in unincorporated areas. On Washoe County's website, look up the MME map and you will find almost every parcel in Old Washoe City has been so approved! We have several grow facilities and a proposed 6,500-square-foot grow and dispensary building.

Why? Because we are centrally located, have a highway and lots of unused commercial zoning.

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Out-of-state pot industry promoters are pouring millions of dollars into Nevada to legalize recreational marijuana in this state. To qualify for the ballot, these promoters raised nearly $800,000, with 60 percent from outside Nevada - given by pot industry corporate donors from California, Colorado, New Jersey, Illinois, Texas, Missouri, Massachusetts - and including $250,000 from the Washington D.C. pro pot lobby group, Marijuana Policy Project.

Nevadans need to know what this initiative is NOT. This initiative is NOT a Nevada-based libertarian "live and let live" effort to permit limited "backyard marijuana grows." Instead, the initiative will require the Nevada Department of Taxation to be radically transformed into a massive bureaucracy and become the single most powerful agency in state government.

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While Nevada looks to the prospect of legalizing recreational marijuana, the state is also gazing into a future that puts its teenage population at risk for higher drug use and high school dropout rates if what's happened in Colorado and Washington are any indication of what's destined to occur in the Silver State.

According to statistics in those states, the legalization of recreational marijuana resulted in a significant increase in teen marijuana use - Colorado rose to 18.9 percent and Washington is at 17.5 percent. The 2013 Nevada Kids Count data indicate nearly one in five Nevada youth ages 12 to 25 already smokes marijuana one or more times a month.

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This November, Nevada voters will not only help elect the next president and select our newest U.S. senator, we will also decide whether or not Nevada joins the small but growing ranks of states that have legalized recreational marijuana. I am not a gambling man, but would be willing to wager that Nevada voters will approve the Nevada Marijuana Legalization Initiative on the upcoming ballot.

If approved, the measure would legalize one ounce or less of marijuana or cannabis for recreational use for people at least 21 years old. It would also levy a 15 percent excise tax on wholesale sales of marijuana and direct revenue generated from these taxes to support K-12 education.

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Paiute Dispensary to Be Built on Tribal Land Near Downtown

The Las Vegas Paiute Tribe is primed to open the state's first medical marijuana facility on Native American lands.

Right next to Downtown Las Vegas.

Tribal Chairman Benny Tso on Monday announced the tribe's plans to jump into the Southern Nevada medical marijuana industry full-bore this year.

The tribe partnered with New Mexico-based medical marijuana company Ultra Health to build the facility. Ultra Health operates six other facilities in Arizona and New Mexico.

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Sheriff Ken Furlong blamed a marijuana deal gone bad for a murder that occurred here last Monday morning. And that got me thinking about the "medical" pot shop that will open in Carson City later this year. It was going to open last year, but that didn't happen.

In a recent Appeal column, Jim Clark pointed out since marijuana is still illegal under federal law, "no state credit union is going to open an account" for a pot dealer, and that's true for states that have already legalized recreational marijuana, like Colorado and Washington.

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Re "Liberals should learn from pot regulation" (Let Freedom Ring, July 30, 2015):

While I agree with Brendan Trainor's premise that government can screw up policy implementation, I choose to not agree that all government participation in economic strategic planning is bad. Yes, Nevada has had numerous missteps rolling out the medical marijuana dispensaries, but does that really mean that they can do nothing well? What is the alternative to some degree of government oversight, a free-for-all? Government's role is to establish the rules of the game so people and the environment are not ruined by endless greed. Do they get too heavy-handed on occasion? Of course.

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Agency Should Get Own House in Order

Public support for the legalization of marijuana is on the rise. According to a recent Gallup poll, 58 percent of Americans think it should be legalized.

That's a 14 percent jump since Gallup polled Americans in 2009, and a 46 percent jump since Gallup first asked the question in 1969.

Recreational marijuana use is now legal in four states, and close to two dozen states have provisions allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

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Re "Marijuana slows achievers" (Upfront, Dec. 3):

There are too many variable factors to point toward different countries' educational statistics to rationally claim cannabis (marijuana) causes lower achievement, unless, truth be told, Washoe Assemblymember Pat Hickey is a Republican cannabis prohibitionist with an agenda. Further, using Colorado's example, once government is forced to regulate cannabis, adolescents have less opportunity to acquire the plant than when the black market regulates it. It's time to stop caging responsible adults who choose to use the extremely popular, relatively safe, God-given plant cannabis.

Truthfully,

Stan White

Dillon, Co.

[end]

Washoe Assemblymember Pat Hickey has come out against the marijuana legalization measure that will appear on next year's Nevada ballot.

In a prepared statement, Hickey-former Assembly Republican floor leader-said he took that stance in the interest of U.S. productivity after returning from a trip to Vietnam "where I witnessed firsthand the incredible strides our former enemy has made in overtaking America's educational status in the world."

Hickey took the position in his email newsletter. Quoting former Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown and California Gov. Jerry Brown, Hickey said pot and low achievement go hand in hand.

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Well, it's almost over. My class at TMCC called "Welcome to Wonderland-The Golden Age of Psychedelia '65-'67," which wraps up on Wednesday the 18th. This is the second time I've conducted this nostalgic bus ride back to a time that was just a little more remarkable than most, and it leaves me with some unanswered questions.

In the class, we re-live the lysergically enhanced music of that rich era (Beach Boys, Stones, Beatles, Dylan, Pink Floyd, etc.) that's now 50 years old. Fifty freakin' years!

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Civil asset forfeiture (CAF) goes back to our Revolutionary period. Government licensed privateers who raided British merchant ships. Privateers were not pirates.

Privateers were licensed by the state to attack and seize enemy assets.

Pirates are non-state outlaws who band together to seize any assets they want. There is a lot to like in pirate culture, as any fan of Starz' series Black Sails will attest. But there is even more to like about privateers. Privateers had to follow strict rules that limited collateral damage.

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Congress tried to end the Drug Enforcement Administration's war on medical marijuana last year. The DEA ignored the clear language of a new law in pursuit of a now-illegal agenda.

Now a federal judge has called out the DEA for its unaccountable overreach. Will the DEA ignore a second branch of government to continue one of the country's great policy failures?

As the nation's attitude toward marijuana has changed - first with acceptance of medical marijuana and then with the gradual decriminalization of recreational marijuana - the DEA's approach to pot hasn't shifted at all. It relentlessly prosecutes individuals and businesses engaging in commerce legal under state laws.

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Re "Yes, in your backyard" (Editorial, Sept. 17):

Interesting editorial on the marijuana dispensary on Mt. Rose Highway in your Sept. 17 issue, but you ignored a couple of facts.

First, the proposed owner/developer moved it there because the original location was too close to his home in Saddlehorn, and he got threatened. Five hundred people there signed a petition to move it.

Second, the owner/developer's lobbyist has told the legislature that this is a "nose under tent," and the intention is to sell recreational marijuana. Do the math; there aren't enough medical users per permit to even generate enough money to pay the property taxes. So it's not really medical marijuana establishment, it's a combination liquor store and vape parlor.

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There was nothing new in your most recent editorial about the federal government's war on drugs ("DEA whitewash," Monday Review-Journal). The logic for legalization of recreational drugs has been common knowledge for many decades, yet the reasons for government resistance have never been forensically addressed.

Law enforcement relies heavily upon informants, lots of government-laundered money and citizens who fear and respect the institution. The results of prohibition have been Whitey Bulgers, Drug Enforcement Administration parties and a rebellious population, all of which contribute to rotting the very soul of our once-great republic by undermining the national will.

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