Editor: This is in regard to the "pot crime" letter to the editor. I have recently moved back to Red Bluff after several years living out of state. Every day I read the Daily News and I am shocked at the level of crime that goes on in this small town. It seems every week there is another car stolen, vehicles broken into, houses burglarized and people assaulted just for walking down the street after the sun goes down. It seems in the time I was living elsewhere that Red Bluff has become quite a lively place for criminals to gather. [continues 349 words]
Editor: I have been reading the opinions regarding medical cannabis use all summer. Some letters are well-written, informative and factual. Other letters seem to propagate the idea that all marijuana users are violent criminals, and that marijuana itself is dangerous. These ideas seem to come right out of the "Reefer Madness" era of government propaganda which falsely portrayed marijuana as a highly addictive substance that would incite the user to violence against others and the user himself. If I recall, marijuana was outlawed in 1937, much to the delight of the tobacco companies who wanted the weed to be made illegal. Marijuana was also connected with the influx of Mexican families coming here for work at that time and racial intolerance was high - another reason to make the weed illegal. [continues 475 words]
