American, Mexican citizens join forces in march across Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge as part of Caravan for Peace

As a law enforcement officer, Neill Franklin said he was responsible for locking up a lot of people, many of them for activity related to illegal drugs.

But, on Wednesday, Franklin walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma and drove into Montgomery with a caravan of people pushing for the United States and Mexico to reconsider their drug policies.

Franklin, who advocates legalizing and regulating drugs, said the war on drugs is expensive and is failing. He added that the war has led to the drug cartels murdering 60,000 people in Mexico, is spreading in the United States, and has led to the incarceration of thousands of people for nonviolent crimes.

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Some Cleburne County parents are calling on their local school board to release a recently hired third-grade teacher who has a misdemeanor drug offense on his record.

At a Cleburne County School board meeting Monday, parents told the board that it has a responsibility to select quality employees to teach children and that, in their view, it had recently failed to do so. One month earlier, the board selected Frederick M. Berry, who had pleaded guilty to second-degree possession of marijuana in August 2007, to serve as a third-grade teacher at Cleburne County Elementary School.

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MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Players testing positive for marijuana in the mighty Southeastern Conference do not face the one-year suspension that comes from getting busted by the NCAA.

In the most successful league of the BCS-era, players routinely get third, fourth and even fifth chances before they're booted from the team; failed drug tests administered by the NCAA result in the automatic suspension.

The finding comes from an Associated Press examination of the drug policies at 11 current members of the SEC. Vanderbilt, a private institution, declined to make its rules available.

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If the U.S. Congress was smart, it would jump on legalizing the marijuana plant and start two profitable businesses that could give a boost to our economy instead of a boost to China's and the cartels' economy.

One business opportunity could be producing industrial hemp like we used to do. Hemp is a certain strain of the marijuana plant that has a low content of tetrahydrocannabinaol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. Hemp is grown for industrial purposes such as making paper, textiles and biodegradable plastics, and it is environmentally friendly, as it requires few pesticides and no herbicides. Hemp can also be used to produce bio-diesel fuel.

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The Alabama Legislature recently passed a bill banning a wide range of synthetic drugs.

If the bill is signed into law by Gov. Robert Bentley, as expected, the bill will ban dozens of substances used to make items such as "synthetic marijuana," "spice" and other illicit drugs.

Synthetic marijuana has been on the rise in Shelby County, as it has been across the state, and can cause seizures, stomach and kidney issues.

However, banning such synthetic drugs has been problematic up until now, because if an ingredient in a synthetic drug was banned, drug suppliers would simply change the ingredient to make the synthetic drug legal again.

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Re "Be wary of marijuana talk" (Speak Out letter, Feb. 8):

I'm writing about the not-so-thoughtful letter from Speak Out writer Judy Lovejoy Elliott. There was no mention in her letter as to why adult citizens should be subject to arrest and jailed for growing or using a natural herb that has never killed a single person in the 5,000-year history of its use.

How about no jail time for crimes that should not be crimes?

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Re "Be wary of marijuana talk" (Speak Out, Feb. 8):

That all the seed-bearing plants are good is so clear that there is little room for "interpretation" to "disagree" with it.

Speak Out letter writer Judy Lovejoy Elliott's disagreement isn't with me but rather God. That it is told on literally the very first page of the Bible is no accident.

Who is twisting words? It seems Elliott is using Scripture to support caging humans for using a God-given plant - a plant that hasn't "kill"(ed) anyone in more than 5,000 documented years of usage. That's safety on a biblical scale.

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Supporters of a bill to legalize medical marijuana in Alabama are tweaking the legislation to make it more palatable to lawmakers.

The changes may not be enough to address local law enforcement concerns, however.

Rep. K.L. Brown, R-Jacksonville, filed a bill this legislative session to legalize marijuana for medicinal uses only. The Alabama Medical Marijuana Coalition, which composed the bill, is working on amendments to address concerns from other lawmakers. One amendment would add a 5 percent tax to medical marijuana sales that would be distributed to city and county law enforcement agencies in the state to combat the trafficking and production of illegal drugs. Another would define the relationship between patients and doctors to curb possible abuse of the system.

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Don't "throw the baby out with the bathwater" in regards to medical marijuana in Alabama. Educated discussions and debates should continue as we move past the need to call it "pot."

State Rep. K.L. Brown, R-Jacksonville, sponsors HB66, and Rep. Patricia Todd, D-Birmingham, sponsors HB25. Each bill allows regulated medicinal marijuana to qualified patients who have a recommendation from a doctor. Republicans and Democrats can work together to pass comprehensive legislation.

Medical conditions this pertains to include cancer, HIV/AIDS, cerebral palsy, Parkinson's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder and others. Traditional medicines are not always effective for these conditions; in many cases, not at all. Disabled and terminally ill patients are prone to insufficient treatment and a diminished quality of life. Appropriate marijuana use offers treatment with limited side effects. Marijuana has fewer and less severe side effects than many anti-pain and anti-anxiety medicines. There have been no fatalities directly associated with marijuana, and there are methods of intake other than smoking, including salves and tinctures.

The bills specify cultivation and distribution, laboratory testing and monitored services to limit abuse. Jobs would be created. Importantly, there would be legal protections for physicians and patients who choose legitimate means of health and recovery with marijuana.

Evan Haarbauer

Vestavia Hills

[end]

Re "Marijuana and the Bible" (Speak Out, Jan. 30):

My husband and I attended a conference Jan. 28 at Rock Springs Congregational Methodist Church in Milner, Ga., where Dr. James Merritt was the guest speaker. He spoke, mostly to church leaders and preachers, on II Timothy 4:1-5, where Paul warns Timothy, "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths" (verses 3 and 4, NIV).

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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 if abused, 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. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best. White Americans did not even begin to smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched federal bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda. Marijuana prohibition has failed miserably as a deterrent.

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I strongly support the Medical Marijuana Patients' Rights Act (HB66) in the Alabama Legislature.

I am a chronic pain patient and have tried all the strong drugs such as oxycontin, morphine, hydrocodone, valium and soma. Not to mention I've had 10 epidural injections and 12 nerve block injections. Nothing has helped, and I wish I had an alternative such as medical marijuana to try to ease the pain and suffering I live with daily.

Not many people know what is feels like to hurt so bad you wish you were somebody else. I urge everyone to talk to politicians, business leaders, clergy, friends and family to try and get this bill passed this year to help so many like me who are tired of being in pain every minute of every day.

Thank you, and God bless those of us who are suffering.

Greg Phillips

Oxford

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Rep. K. L. Brown, of Calhoun County, has filed legislation into the Alabama House of Representatives that would make medical marijuana legal.

As reported by the Aniston Star, Ron Crumpton, co-president and executive director of the Alabama Medical Marijuana Coalition, is optimistic about the legislation's chances.

"I don't think it will be that much of an uphill battle," Crumpton said. "Many of the Republicans who took over the Legislature in the last election are younger guys -- between 30 and 45 -- who don't associate the same stigma with marijuana that older people aE& do."

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You can't look me straight in the eye and tell me weed is "no big deal." You can't, because all I can think of is walking down a hall, looking at all the other families with their arms full of gifts--simple things like new underwear, cookies or a book from home that hasn't been read in a long time.

In other narratives like this people often say, "I don't know how we came to this point," or ask "How could we end up here?" But as I glanced around at the people and the building, which tried hard not to be, but so obviously was a rehab clinic, I didn't pretend to be stupid. It doesn't make me feel better.

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Re "Support medical marijuana bill" (Speak Out, Jan. 21):

Another reason to allow sick citizens to use cannabis (marijuana) that doesn't get mentioned is because it is biblically correct since God, The Ecologician, indicates He created all the seed-bearing plants saying they are all good, on literally the very first page (see Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-30).

The only biblical restriction placed on cannabis is to accept it with thankfulness (1 Timothy 4:1-5). And, "But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?" (1 John 3:17).

Further, many people know cannabis is the tree of life, and the last page of the Bible indicates the leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations.

Stan White

Dillon, Colo

[end]

In the upcoming session of the Alabama Legislature, Rep. K.L. Brown of Jacksonville will introduce the Alabama Medical Marijuana Patients' Rights Act, which, if passed, would make the medicinal use of marijuana legal in Alabama.

I believe marijuana is a better solution for chronic-pain patients than the traditionally prescribed drugs. Too many times, doctors prescribe Loritab, Percocet, Valium and Oxycotin for pain. Most of these drugs are addictive and contain acetaminophen. People on these drugs can become dependent on them, and the acetaminophen can cause deterioration of the kidneys -- not to mention that all these drugs have to go through the liver. Remember that some of these patients take these drugs for many years.

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Why are so many states interested in medical marijuana? As the Alabama Medical Marijuana Coalition (AMMJC) says: "Marijuana is medicine, and it always has been."

As 16 states have initiated legislation, there is a surge of interest in medicinal marijuana and the science of the endocannabinoid system. Alabamians are joining the coalition to support a medical marijuana bill that is sponsored by Rep. K.L. Brown, R-Jacksonville, and could pass in 2012. The Alabama Medical Marijuana Patients Rights Act is comprehensive legislation that would allow medical use of marijuana by verified patients.

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