The response to the People United for Medical Marijuana petition from the Florida Sheriffs Association president Sheriff Grady Judd is carefully crafted, with cherry-picked facts that tell a half-baked story. I first challenge that those debilitated by serious illnesses will not be truly helped by this initiative. The sick who need medical cannabis are directly harmed by resorting to the black market for medicine. They risk arrest. They risk losing access. They are faced with inconsistent or contaminated product-with no legal recourse when something goes wrong. Passing the initiative changes this situation. [continues 340 words]
Columnist Thomas Sowell joins other critics of Justice Anthony Kennedy's negative comments about mandatory minimum sentencing in confusing readers about the nature of such sentencing. His references are to the victims of crimes against person and/or property and to beleaguered neighborhoods too often kept in bondage to the criminals among them. Unmentioned is that in the vast majority of mandatory minimum sentencing cases, the crime being charged is that of simple drug possession or sale of drugs, often small amounts. [continues 145 words]
Recent letter-writer Claire Mirolsky urged a tougher stance on drug users and pushers because they hurt people. I think it would be more appropriate to say, "Be harder on drug users and pushers who hurt people." It would be even better to say, "Be harder on people who hurt people." People on drugs are not always held accountable for their actions, other than being on drugs. Too often, criminals escape the justice system because they were on drugs at the time of the crime. This should not be allowed to happen. [continues 103 words]
In response to a recent letter by Robert Sharpe, and Ira Adams' Dec. 24 letter "Easy access aids teens' pot smoking," I am quite pleased to see so much debate. It is a metaphor for the bigger picture of what is happening with the drug policy debate in general. This is not to say that the situation is two-sided -- it is multifaceted and quite complex -- but what I see here is a representation of the two major, widely accepted schools of thought on the matter. [continues 218 words]
