Thanks for publishing Kathy Inman's outstanding letter: "Marijuana Solution" (Feb. 11). I'd like to add that about seven years ago before and after my hip-replacement surgery, I was taking about six Vicodin tablets every day.Now, thanks to medical marijuana, I take no pain pills. Vicodin can and does kill thousands of people every year. Cannabis, on the other hand, has never killed anyone. For those who oppose cannabis use don't buy it. Don't buy it. Don't grow it and don't use it. Period. Kirk Muse Mesa [end]
Regarding Bill Richardson'=C2=80=C2=99s March 8 op-ed, there is a middle ground between drug prohibition and blanket legalization. Switzerland'=C2=80=C2=99 s heroin maintenance program has been shown to reduce disease, death and crime by providing addicts with standardized doses in a clinical setting. The success of the Swiss program has inspired heroin maintenance pilot projects in Canada, Germany, Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands. If expanded, prescription heroin maintenance would deprive organized crime of a core client base. This would render illegal heroin trafficking unprofitable and spare future generations addiction. [continues 103 words]
The Tempe Police Department announced yet another big drug bust involving Mexican drug cartels. This has to be the third or fourth announcement by police touting monumental success in the "war on drugs." Police told the media the "30-month investigation that resulted in the dismantling of what investigators described as an extensive drug trafficking network that stretched from Sinoloa, Mexico, to Phoenix, Los Angeles and Indianapolis." After being involved in the "war on drugs" for the majority of my police and post retirement career investigating drugs and drug use for a major international corporation, my opinion of local law enforcement mounting time and cost consuming operations on major drug trafficking organizations based in Mexico, or any other country, is somewhat low. Drugs are here and they aren't going away, not now, not ever. I don't care how many flashy and boastful press releases the police make. [continues 535 words]
Mr. and Ms. Legislator: How NOT to fix Arizona's deficit - by pouring more money into private prisons. * Our tax dollars go to corporations outside of Arizona that post hundreds of millions in profits. * The jobs in private prisons do not pay well and have high prisoner-to-staff ratios, making them dangerous for prisoners and staff alike. * Careers and families are ruined with high incarceration rates for minor offenses because Arizona agreed to fill every bed or pay a penalty to the corporation. [continues 73 words]
Letter to the Editor I take exception to the Kirk Muse letter (Jan. 18), and his unsubstantiated claims. He stated that there are 2.2 million prisoners because of the "war-on-drugs policies" of the United States. He then claims that the "war" is an excuse to imprison "black and brown people." I would ask him to clarify a few things: Does he believe the large number of prisoners have nothing to do with a more permissive society? I suppose that means the lawyers and judges and their outrageous "exceptions and interpretations" do not encourage potential lawbreakers to suppose that all they'll get is a slap-on-the-wrist. [continues 124 words]
Thanks for publishing the outstanding letter from Mike Ross: "War on Drugs." In 1963, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I have a dream" speech, the United States had about 200,000 total prisoners. Today, largely because of our war-on-drugs policies, the United States has more than 2.2 million prisoners. It's obvious that the so-called war on drugs is actually a war on politically selected people, and black and brown people are the politically selected people. [continues 69 words]
Well one very good reason is the "War on Drugs" . According to U.S. Bureau of Prison statistics, 51 percent of the people in federal prisons are there for victimless drug war crimes. Again, per U.S. BOP statistics, 80 percent of of those in federal prisons are for simple possession of an illegal drug. At the state level it's even worse. According to Reason Magazine, 66 percent, or two thirds of Americans, are in state prisons for victimless drug war crimes. Because of the "War on Drugs" America has become the world's largest police state, with more people in prison than any other nation on the planet. Mike Ross Tempe [end]
Cannabis helps prevent diseases like Alzheimer's disease and many types of cancer. Cannabis is one of the most powerful anti-inflammatory substances on the planet. Chronic inflammation is the root cause of many, if not most, of the diseases of the human body. So why hasn't our government told us about the many health benefits of cannabis? Because they are prevented by law from doing so. The DEA, the Drug Czar's office and the National Institute on Drug Abuse and its employees are all prevented by law to investigate or research any of the many benefits of cannabis consumption. I strongly suggest that the readers read: Clint Werner's outstanding book: "MARIJUANA, GATEWAY TO HEALTH: How Cannabis Protects Us From Cancer and Alzheimer's Disease." Kirk Muse Mesa [end]
Regarding Linda Turley-Hansen=C3=A2=C2=80=C2=99s April 27 op-ed, like any drug, marijuana can be harmful if abused. Marijuana prohibition only increases the risk factor. Prohibition opens up a gateway to hard drugs by granting a monopoly on marijuana distribution to drug cartels that also sell meth, cocaine and heroin. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a grand success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. [continues 97 words]
I'm writing about Linda Turley-Hansen's not-so-thoughtful column: "Just like booze and porn, pot changes the brain" (April 27) Lots of substances and activities change our brains including music lessons and products containing caffeine. Like coffee and tea, small amounts of cannabis are beneficial to most adults. Cannabis is one of the most powerful anti-inflammation products on Earth. I used to have a supervisor where I worked who often boasted that he drank at least twenty cups of coffee every day. Unfortunately, he died of a heart attack in his mid forties. Does Turley-Hansen advocate the criminalization of coffee? [continues 125 words]
Marijuana not as harmless as you thought? Years back, I worked with a man who dabbled in still-photography. He was a great fellow who enjoyed the artistic world. He also enjoyed his cannabis. I don't know how much of it he used, but it was enough that he confessed some time later that when he was "not high" he was surprised to discover that his photos were not as great as he thought at the time. When he proudly showed his work to me, I always thought the photographs were dark, but I brushed it off thinking deep shadows were his "technique." Turns out, it wasn't technique, it was illusion from a distorted perspective. I remember him saying he was "really embarrassed" to discover the truth. [continues 468 words]
It's back. Actually, it was never gone. I'm talking about heroin. The drug of choice for a growing number of people and I'm not just talking your poor white, Latin or African-American drug addict that's the favorite portrayal for a thieving heroin shooting junkie. The recent heroin overdose death of Philip Seymour Hoffman is an everyday occurrence, you just don't hear about it. Anyway, who really cares about a dead junkie except for maybe their family? [continues 556 words]
I just finished reading Radley Balko's outstanding book: "Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces" and I think I have a solution to ending our drug war and SWAT raids. Require that all SWAT raids be video taped before, during and after, with sound. These tapes must be available to the news media immediately after the raids. I believe that if all of the raids that involved the wrong address or the killing of any people or pets or in front of children, the public will be outraged and demand an end to them. [continues 55 words]
The rights of adults to purchase and use marijuana is about personal freedom - the freedom of adults to seek their own happiness the way they want as long as they are not harming someone else. Peanuts are lethal to some, but we don't cage peanut growers, sellers or consumers, and neither should we cage cannabis growers, sellers or consumers. Kirk Muse Mesa [end]
During the Vietnam War, our generals told us with a straight face that they had to "destroy the village to save the village" to justify the American governments burning to the ground of villages that had a few communist supporters in them. I suspect the real reason was to justify the Vietnam War, which was really a government welfare program for the folks in the military industrial complex. In her last editorial on the War on Drugs, Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk seems to have the same myopic, self centered view of we have to "put the children in prison to save them from drugs". [continues 91 words]
Common sense dictates that our police must be solving a much higher percent of homicides today as compared to the 1960s. After all, today's police departments have access to DNA evidence that didn't exist during the 1960s. And police departments today can run finger prints through high tech computers and find an exact match out of 100s of millions finger prints on file. Back in the 1960s this technology did not exist. So why do police only solve just over sixty percent of homicides today while during the 1960s, they solved more than ninety percent of homicides? [continues 83 words]
I'm writing about "Group pushing for broader medical marijuana laws" (Tribune, Sept. 15). If the marijuana legalization initiative calls for marijuana to be legally available to adults at hundreds of locations like tobacco and alcohol is, I will vote for and support it. If, on the other hand, legal marijuana will only be available at a very few monopolist locations like medical marijuana is today, I will oppose it and vote against it. I jumped through all the hoops and paid $150 protection money to the state of Arizona to obtain my medical marijuana card. Now I have the so-called privilege of paying $400 an ounce for marijuana that is available on the black market for around $70 an ounce. Kirk Muse Mesa [end]
I am writing about Bill Richardson's thoughtful column: "Our new crime-riddled 'Five C's' and what to do about them" (Commentary, Tribune, Sept. 18). I have no doubt that serious crime is linked to organized crime. From 1920 to 1933, the majority of our serious crime was linked to alcohol prohibition. When we terminated alcohol prohibition our overall crime rate declined dramatically. Do I suggest that all drugs should be sold like they were 100 years ago in grocery stores and pharmacies with no questions asked? No. For hard drugs like heroin, meth and cocaine I suggest that we adopt the Swiss drug policy. Switzerland used to have a very serious heroin addiction problem. Now their heroin problem is a small fraction of what it used to be. [continues 164 words]
Sheila Polk forget to mention what most police officers consider to the the greatest danger of marijuana in her recent editorial (The Arizona Republic's 'My Turn,' evtnow.com/5uw, Sept. 13). Legalize marijuana and next thing you will be ending the "War on Drugs", which is basically a full employment jobs program for cops. According to Federal statistics over 51 percent of the people in prison are there for victimless drug war crimes. Some statistics say over two thirds of the people in American prisons are there for victimless drug war crimes. [continues 62 words]
Let's not let Arizona's Medical Marijuana Act get in the way of the "War on Drugs", which is basically a full employment jobs program for cops. Proposition 203 clearly says that ALL forms are marijuana, which includes concentrated forms of pot like hashish and hash oil are legal for medical marijuana patients: "ARS 36-2801.7 'Marijuana' means all parts of any plant of the genus cannabis." But despite that the cops are falsely arresting medical marijuana patients who use concentrated forms of marijuana like hashish and hash oil and charging them with possession of CANNABIS, which the cops say ISN'T marijuana. [continues 240 words]
