President's full statement on marijuana sent message kids might listen to I read with interest "Public deserves apology from Obama on marijuana" (guest column, Feb. 5) and wonder why the President's entire statement regarding marijuana is not included in this piece? He is quoted out of context. President Obama went on to clarify his marijuana-less-dangerous-than-pot position by stating "in terms of its impact on the individual consumer. It1s not something I encourage, and I've told my daughters I think it1s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy." Now that's a message our kids might believe. Peter Christopher, Locust, N.J. [end]
I read with interest Assemblyman Declan J. O'Scanlon Jr.'s telling missive, "Medical marijuana: the facts," July 20. A harsh reality for our state's medical marijuana patients is that they are still on the drug war battlefield despite a New Jersey medical marijuana law that is supposed to serve their needs. Imagine if we had to procure medications from the street, or worse yet, manufacture them? Most remember John Ray Wilson, a Franklin Township multiple sclerosis patient who grew marijuana as his medicine and was met with the full force of prosecutors from Trenton. He went to prison, as do other patients. It might be best to divert our sick and most vulnerable from the criminal system. [continues 140 words]
Nicole Brochu's telling missive, "Florida lawmakers tilting at windmills with medical marijuana bill," reminds us of a century of propaganda. The overwhelming majority of pot smokers do not move to harder drugs and are subject to arrest, asset forfeiture and incarceration for a substance that never killed anyone and might well prove to be the link to a cure for cancer if allowed to be fully studied. Furthermore, we must try something other than fear-mongering and make-work efforts for the law enforcement industrial complex. [continues 66 words]
I read with interest George Will's column, "Dose of realism in a drug war" (Oct. 29), and hope the day is coming soon whereby science rules over ideology. It is past time we face our drug situation with facts and ideas that work for our people and not bureaucrats or ideologues. Our legislative testimony process has been bastardized by well-meaning but money-hungry lobbying efforts by law enforcement, the prison industry and a drug-abuse industrial complex so hungry for our dollars that it often distorts truth and relies on gutter science providing cover for the mess we are in called a "drug war." [continues 62 words]
I read with interest at story in the July 29 Times-News by Keren Rivas, Dozens of marijuana plants found in county. Unless you are in complete denial, the 1937 Congressional Record tells us America prohibited pot without any real scientific testimony, no medical expertise and a media campaign based on bigotry three generations ago. Meanwhile, science finds all over again a host of medical conditions that marijuana treats effectively and every objective review of the past century finds it less harmful than tobacco or alcohol products. [continues 124 words]
Meanwhile, science finds all over again a host of medical conditions that marijuana treats effectively. Every objective review of the past century finds it less harmful than tobacco or alcohol products. Why are we waiting to re-legalize this plant? Peter Christopher Hurdle Mills [end]
Dear Editor: I read with reat interest, your editorial, Drugs, Amusement Parks and Exotic Countries, as I did the letters from Mr. Alan Randell and Mr. Russell Barth, and I must side with their more progressive approach. They see our current zero tolerance approach fuels prohibition. George Boom Boom Chuvalo may have been the toughest heavyweight in the sport, but like a just-say-no position on kids and drugs, times are different and the way we handle our children and drugs must change for successs. [continues 91 words]
Unless you are in complete denial, the 1937 Congressional Record tells us America prohibited pot without any real scientific testimony, no medical expertise and a media campaign based on bigotry three generations ago. Meanwhile, science finds all over again a host of medical conditions that marijuana treats effectively and every objective review of the past century finds it less harmful than tobacco or alcohol products. What are we waiting for? Tell your elected representative if you agree with Jean Marlowe ("Fight to legalize moves forward," April 16). Thank you, Ms. Marlowe, for your continuing efforts to help many who cannot, or are too afraid to, speak out more on this topic. Until it means lost seats in statehouses and Congress, it's political football as usual. Peter Christopher Hurdle Mills [end]
I read with interest your pieces commemorating the repeal of alcohol prohibition and especially the letters responding (Dec. 13). One in particular is a reply from Mr. Jon Walker against drug legalization. Although crack and other more heavily processed hard drugs are a direct cause of drug prohibition, plant coca and marijuana are in fact "time immemorial," to use Mr. Walker's words. They have been a part of societies world-wide, though maybe not his. Unless you are in complete denial, the 1937 Congressional Record tells us America prohibited pot without any real scientific testimony, no medical expertise and a media campaign based on bigotry three generations ago. Peter Christopher Hurdle Mills, N.C. [end]
I read with interest a telling missive by Norfolk County Anti-Crime Task Force Director, Deputy Chief William G. Brooks 3rd, "How weed was decriminalized" (Nov. 3), responding to a Massachusetts Election Day referendum and wonder about his outrage when ONDCP spends scarce taxpayer funds to promote his position despite what we know about the extravagances of drug war? Pointing the finger at well meaning philanthropy to help jump start what we now find is the will of your people, almost 70 percent, is the real travesty. Mr. Brooks, get used to it, the people have spoken and it is also the sentiment of America. [continues 86 words]
All of the "straw man" arguments supporting the drug war do not remove the fact it is not working and is costing more in money, lives and civil liberties each year. Steve Johnson is wrong in his July 3 letter "Not A Victimless Crime." We need look no further than Prohibition to find the reason why those addicted females turned to prostitution or gangsters shoot it out. The real truth of the internecine relationship of guns, money and drugs worldwide may be that they can only be reined in through drug regulation and treatment no matter what testimony the drug abuse-law enforcement-prison industrial complex provides our elected or drug war cheerleaders to spout. Peter Christopher, Hurdle Mills, N.C. [end]
Kudos to David Lefkowitz for his thoughtful letter regarding drug legalization. Every commission empaneled in the past century has recommended a drug policy much different from what we have today. Our "tough-on-crime" politicians, backed by a drug-abuse industrial complex hungry for our tax dollars for programs and grants, more or less exacerbate the drug war and solve little. You can read about past drug commissions at: http://www.druglibrary.org/Schaffer/LIBRARY/studies/cu/cu60.html. The real truth of the internecine relationship of guns, money and drugs worldwide may be that they can only be reined in through drug regulation and treatment, no matter what testimony the drug-abuse, law-enforcement, prison industrial complex provides our elected officials and the double-talk we get as a result. Cui bono? Peter Christopher [end]
Dear Editor, I read with interest Mr. Sizemore's letter entitled 'I ran a drug enforcement team,' 19 April 2008. America is ever so slowly waking up to the folly of drug prohibition, especially marijuana, and may one day come to know they have been propagandized into a $42B/year "Blackwater" operation that is never supposed to end complete with asset forfeiture, corruption, expanding prisons and drug testing. It tears us apart as a country and we must fix it. The internecine relationship of guns, money and drugs worldwide can only be reined in through regulation and treatment. [continues 70 words]
There is much overlooked finding solutions to our nation's drug woes. Politics outweighs science or common sense. Rarely is it mentioned every drug commission empanelled in the past century to recommend solutions to drugs in society call for something much different than what we have today. Big government has always turned a blind eye to the more sensible approach of harm reduction and regulation. The real truth of the internecine relationship of guns, money and drugs worldwide is that they can only be reigned in through drug regulation and treatment no matter what testimony the drug abuse-law enforcement-prison industrial complex provides our elected. You can read about past drug commissions at: http://www.druglibrary.org/Schaffer/LIBRARY/studies/cu/cu60.html. How is it information like this always escapes government testimony and especially the knowledge base of those fighting this war? "Cui bono?" Peter Christopher, Hurdle Mills [end]
Deepest sympathy to the family having lost members in a recent SWAT police raid in Lima, Ohio. When will this domestic civil war end that gives police carte blanche executing search warrants, resulting in the horrors just inflicted in Lima? Across America, police are involved with drugs and crime and never is a "dynamic entry" used when dealing with bad cops. Never. The division between the common man and police is widening each day this is allowed to happen. Senators (for example, Ted Stevens of Alaska) get a telephone call notice before a raid and the common man gets guns and flash grenades. [continues 85 words]
Dear Editor, I read with interest Mr. Eric Myrholm's telling missive War On Drugs Better Than Legalization, Dec. 17. What a cynical read on "the facts." Mr. Myrholm wants his argument to prevail so badly he does not weigh all sides of the story. Just remember a few things Eric, before changes in U.S. drug law we had about 1.5 per cent drug addicts in the U.S. and after half a trillion dollars wasted in anti drug bureaucracy, we are no closer to our goal of a drug free America and the number of addicts is the same 1.5 per cent. [continues 298 words]
I am dumbstruck by a recent letter writer's not-so-thoughtful letter headlined "Obama's drug use is mostly ignored." Unless you have been asleep this past decade we have had two presidents dancing around the truth of their past drug use, and their stories have been accepted by the American people. Bill Clinton didn't inhale and George Bush would never come clean about his irresponsible youth, depending solely on his father's influence to get out of drunk driving and worse. [continues 80 words]
(Re: "The people want pot," In Case You Missed It, Nov. 15.) No truer words are spoken when you say, "The people want pot," and Washington politics as usual is the reason why marijuana is the backbone of the drug war and medical marijuana is under siege. Drug issues are so easily jumbled in our drug policy, and we have so little meaningful debate. Myths about the world's No. 1 illicit drug trump science. Law enforcement claims "we do not make the laws," yet each time, as if on-cue, they are available to espouse many myths as drug experts in the witness process where government considers laws. The drug war is a sacred cow no one will talk about honestly. It is only when marijuana and harm-reduction issues result in congressmen losing elections will things change. It is for our children we should have a regulated marijuana market and keep it out in the open. Peter Christopher Hurdle Mills, N.C. [end]
I read with interest the events leading to the incarceration of a law enforcement officer ("Former deputy sentenced to 20 years in prison," Oct. 17), and it reminded me of the first time I came to know police corruption. When I was a college freshman in 1973, the Durham vice squad was on a self-serving rampage similar to that of the former Robeson County deputies, sans the kidnapping and shooting. I thought then that only Hollywood law enforcement was capable of such acts, but again, I was a naive 17-year-old. Police corruption seems commonplace when fighting drugs these past 35 years. Haven't we learned by now that prohibition supports an internecine relationship with guns, money and drugs around the world? There is a way out of this mess. Regulation and treatment. Take the money and cops-and-robber game off the table and things might change for the better. Can't get much worse. Peter Christopher [end]
