Re: "'Prince of Pot' defiant after arrest in Montreal" (Montreal Gazette, Dec. 19) I am dumbfounded that even my brightest friends call Marc and Jodie Emery's move to open six marijuana dispensaries and get arrested a brash move. It's really just a well-crafted publicity stunt - cheap advertising. But there's something much less talked about: How will we protect our kids in a legalized marijuana environment? Fact: 90 per cent of adult addicts started off by smoking marijuana before the age of 18. [continues 90 words]
The liberal media has demonized mandatory minimum drug sentences, referring to them as punishment for 'nonviolent' crimes. What about the violence that illegal narcotics have done to a large segment of our population? Comparing the cost of incarcerating drug offenders with the cost of drug damage would be instructive. Mandatory minimum sentences played a major role in reducing the flow of illegal drugs into Florida and the rest of the country. We seem to have lost that bit of history. I spent seven years interviewing federal drug prisoners for intelligence on successful drug smuggling. The information was obtained at little cost. None of these inmates would have cooperated were it not for their attempts to reduce sentences. Charles M . Fuss Jr., St. Pete Beach [end]
Re: $2M in pot seized (Jan. 24) Twenty police officers were spotted at a restaurant last Saturday night having coffee and doughnuts. One officer looked as if he was 250 pounds and his plate sported six sprinkly doughnuts. Doughnuts were 60 cents each. Wanting to aggregate total consumption and cost I figured we could multiply 20 officers by six doughnuts for a total consumption of 120 doughnuts. Therefore 120 doughnuts multiplied by 60 cents equals a total cost of $72 at that night's coffee break. [continues 81 words]
The summary of Amendment 2 (Medical Marijuana) is misleading. If you read the entire amendment you will learn the following: (1) Possession of marijuana is still a federal crime. (2) There is no age restriction on who may be issued a marijuana "certificate." (3) Doctors issuing medical certificates and state workers issuing medical marijuana ID cards aid in the commission of a federal crime. Medical marijuana treatment centers by their very existence violate federal law. (4) Non-Florida residents can buy marijuana if they have a "certificate" from a doctor. (5) Anyone over the age of 21 can be a "personal caregiver," even a felon. (6) If you are harmed by authorized products, centers, physicians and state employees are exempt from liability if they operate in compliance with regulations and you may not seek relief in the courts. [continues 100 words]
You can be sure of one thing. That those politicians have their windows open up in the state capital in Nashville, smelling that sweet smell of marijuana from Colorado. It will only smell like more easy money to them. Kind of like the lottery. CHARLES WIDGER, Spring City, Tenn. [end]
Recently some have advocated for the legalization of marijuana to stop young people from going to jail. A better idea is to find ways to stop young people from trying drugs. We want our young people and in fact our population as a whole to have a better chance at a future. Anyone who seriously believes marijuana is harmless needs to Google "marijuana effects" and select the National Institute of Drug Abuse, a division of NIH. There are many negatives and no proven positives. Charles Skinner Midland [end]
For the past four months, Sarah Callaway has had to watch as her daughter Greylynn's body has been wracked by uncontrollable spasms several times a day. "They don't hurt her. But they scare her, and she cries. And you can't do anything for her except comfort her," said Callaway, a Chatsworth resident. "That's the most frustrating part. I just say to her, 'I'm sorry I can't do anything for you. I'm sorry.'" When Greylynn was born six months ago, doctors diagnosed her with a brain malformation and gave her only weeks to live. She survived, but her condition has left her with a form of epilepsy called infantile spasms. She's currently on two different anti-seizure medications, one of which could possibly leave her blind. But they only control the spasms. They don't stop them. [continues 1101 words]
TAUNTON - It's within the realm of possibility that Massachusetts could follow Colorado's example by legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. But the potential financial ramifications of such a move are unknown. Sixty-five percent of Bay State voters, after all, voted in 2008 to decriminalize possession of cannabis to a civil offense, with a fine of $100 for being caught with an ounce or less. Four years later, voters passed a ballot initiative legalizing the use of medical marijuana by a margin of 63 to 37 percent. [continues 530 words]
TAUNTON - The City Council wants to make sure downtown Taunton doesn't become known as a legal pot zone. Three years after a methadone clinic opened at 66 Main St. despite an outcry from local elected officials, the City Council is taking steps to block the possibility of a medical marijuana clinic from following suit. The council voted Nov. 27 for city planning/zoning/conservation director Kevin Scanlon to provide information for ways to restrict medical marijuana treatment centers in the city. [continues 254 words]
"God damn the pusher man!" That's Steppenwolf on drug dealers. We all know how dangerous drugs are. All you have to do is look into the hollow stares of the heroin addicted. Tombstones in their eyes. But instead of getting real help, addicts are being enabled by mindless bureaucrats. There's a growing movement underway to turn provincial governments into the biggest drug pushers of them all. Vancouver's Insite heroin shooting gallery started all of this, giving free syringes to junkies, along with a quiet place to inject poison into their veins. [continues 458 words]
Taunton -- A police drug search conducted Friday morning at Coyle and Cassidy High School failed to turn up any contraband, according to one relieved school official. "We usually do it once in the spring and once in the fall," said school principal Bob Gay, adding that "It's part of the culture of the school to ensure parents we're providing a safe environment for their kids." Gay said around a dozen law enforcement officers made up of Taunton police and members of sheriff's departments from Bristol and Plymouth counties took part in the search. [continues 470 words]
Surely Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette must have more important fish to fry than pursuing prosecutions of suppliers of marijuana to legal medicinal users ("Medical pot shops declared illegal," Aug. 25). While the law is badly written, these dealers have believed from day one that they were following the law. Schuette's vendetta is an unprecedented misuse of his office to countermand the intent of a large percentage of the Michigan electorate. Charles Gehringer Madison Heights [end]
The General Assembly may be taking a look in your medicine chest. Rep. Tom Weldon, R-Ringgold, said Thursday he will introduce legislation this year to battle "pill mills." "We don't have a searchable database that sheriffs and law enforcement can go in and see who has been buying meth products and who has been buying an excessive amount of pills," Weldon said at the Dalton-Whitfield Chamber of Commerce's Good Morning Dalton breakfast. "We've got a problem going up and down I-75, and our kids are being exposed to a lot of pharmaceutical drugs. We need to limit that," Weldon said. [continues 254 words]
Re Marijuana legalization: Lots of talk these days about legalizing marijuana and all the tax money that will come rolling in, maybe. But visualize this: Pot plants growing legal in backyards alongside the tomatoes and green beans. Teenagers going over fences in the middle of the night. The quiet of the night shattered by the sounds of barking guard dogs and shotguns. Ambulance and police sirens join in. Neighbors who were once friends, friends no more. Lawsuits of all kinds clogging our courts. Try taxing all of that. Charles L. Gunter, North Highlands [end]
The big problem with relaxing marijuana laws is not that it will make people fat. The big problem is a pervasive mindset against doing so. Somehow, we have gotten the mindset that opiates are OK, but cannabis and its derivatives are evil. This in the face of growing research data that shows cannabis and its derivatives are the solution to many forms of chronic pain. There is no rational reason why if we can allow opiates by prescription, we cannot also allow cannabis derivatives by prescription. [continues 67 words]
The teen's eyes stare at you from the photograph -- bloodshot and vacant over lips that are scabbed and peeling. "Actually, doing meth won't make it easier to hook up," reads the caption. That image and many others like it are part of a controversial advertising campaign aimed at deterring methamphetamine use among teenagers. First launched in Montana four years ago by the Montana Meth Project, the ads have spread to several other states. Next year, the nonprofit Georgia Meth Project will bring the ads to this state. [continues 997 words]
Re "730 in U.S. arrested in cartel probe," Feb. 26 The Times' map and article detailing the "success" in busting the Sinaloa drug gang in the United States seem to me to be instead an illustration of the abject failure of our drug policies. How in God's name can anyone associated with the anti-drug establishment think the fact that a single drug gang from Mexico was able to infiltrate so deeply into our country and operate long enough to amass billions of dollars demonstrates a shining example of the success of the "war on drugs"? I'm 71 years old and have been hearing about this war my entire adult life. In that time, the only accomplishment has been that many have had lifelong careers fighting drugs. Isn't it about time we tried something different? Charles Muser Irvine [end]
Taunton Police Chief Worries Over More Marijuana Consumption TAUNTON - The city's top cop says he doesn't want to see the Silver City go to pot. "I see big problems," Taunton Police Chief Raymond O'Berg said, when asked to comment on the repercussions of a new state law that took effect Thursday - decriminalizing possession of less than an ounce of marijuana to that of a simple civil offense. O'Berg believes the passage of ballot Question 2 by voters in November - - which stipulates that police issue a $100 fine in lieu of making an arrest - will only encourage public consumption of the Class D drug and contribute to a general sense of lawlessness. [continues 658 words]
Re: Canada shirks its duty in Prince of Pot case, Editorial, Jan. 16 This editorial got the point exactly right: Canada has exposed its feckless and incoherent approach to drug enforcement. When laws are enforced inconsistently and therefore unfairly, citizens become contemptuous of the law and of the government -- very unhealthy for a democracy. Add to this the obvious fact that, in this case, the Canadian government has allowed another government to dictate judgment and (overly harsh) sentence, and we are all left with a very ugly taste in the mouth. [continues 102 words]
ASPEN - Visit the John Denver Sanctuary and you'd think the iconic singer never smoked pot. John Denver will live forever in the minds and hearts of Coloradoans, but the lyrics etched in stone obelisks at the riverside park have been cleaned of scandalous references. In the song "Poems, Prayers and Promises," the verse about how Denver has "known my lady's pleasures" is missing. And instead of reading, "my friends and my old lady sit and pass a pipe around" as in the original, the stone reads, "my friends and my old lady sit and watch the sun go down." [continues 363 words]
