ugmjfarmer
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hxxp://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081022/OPINION04/810220330/1215/NEWS15 (note about the link, the Free Press notoriously removes articles quickly.)
FROM OUR READERS | STATE PROPOSAL 1
Tell truth about legal marijuana
October 22, 2008
As a retired chemical dependency therapist, I might have been more impressed by the Oct. 15 column by Dr. Daniel Michael and Judge Bill Schuette if they hadn't resorted to fear-mongering ("Medical marijuana proposal has unhealthy side effects for all").
They breathlessly told us about North Hollywood, Calif., having more pot shops than Starbucks, about a security guard being killed outside a pot shop, and that medical marijuana has "brought chaos" to that state. My California family and friends tell me that last claim is a gross exaggeration.
I would submit that every town has more bars than Starbucks stores, and people get shot outside bars all the time. And the reality is that alcohol is thousands of times more dangerous to society than marijuana will ever be. Yet it's a legal drug, is entrenched in our culture, and causes daily "chaos" in every state in the country.
But let's deny sick people any relief from their suffering that medical marijuana may bring them. Perhaps we should either tell them that suffering is noble, or to just get themselves drunk to relieve their suffering.
Bernie R. Klein
Ann Arbor
Skip the exaggerations
The big reason some of us feel like voting in favor of this proposition is the over-the-top opposition. There may be problems of one sort or another with the proposition as currently constituted, but when the right wing takes its predictably sky-is-falling stance, I tend to get as unyielding as they are.
I'm still having trouble understanding why a lot of drugs can't be handled like our national drug of choice, alcohol -- legalize and regulate. If someone abuses it to the point where they endanger others, then land on them hard.
Of course, you don't do things like let people smoke in no-smoking areas, even medicinal herbs. That's a detail. Details can be worked out. And I don't really have a dog in this fight. My drug of choice is caffeine. It just seems like so many decisions get made on the basis of some irrational prejudice that has nothing to do with the facts of the situation.
Rusty Hancock
Madison Heights
The truth in California
I know a number of judges and doctors. The good ones have some respect for the truth. Not so with Bill Schuette and Daniel Michael. Their first misstatement was that California has seen a dramatic increase in drug use because of Prop 215. The truth is that teen use of marijuana has actually dropped since Prop 215 was passed.
Their second bogus statement was that California is in "chaos" because a security guard at a marijuana dispensary was killed. If this reasoning made sense, then liquor stores should be banned everywhere.
I have gone to many of these dispensaries and interviewed store owners and their neighbors. In every case, the stores were either not noticed or were a welcome addition to the local community. In some cases, the stores are anchor tenants that have filled empty storefronts and brought new business to the neighboring businesses. Many of their neighbors mentioned they especially appreciated the fact that the stores spent a lot of money on security, including video cameras that watched common areas for all the businesses.
Clifford A. Schaffer
Director, Schaffer Library of Drug Policy
Agua Dulce, Calif.
Show some compassion
The limitations in life for those afflicted with debilitating diseases like multiple sclerosis, ALS, Crohn's disease and many others are significant. They endure pain so intractable their doctors write multiple prescriptions for narcotics just so they can make it through the day.
Many of these patients have a very low quality of life, yet they have a strong will to live and fight their diseases. For some, the only relief they can get is through medical marijuana. It alleviates chronic pain, eliminates nausea almost instantly, and helps patients who experience spasms and other symptoms.
Proposal 1 was written with these patients in mind. It will allow them to quietly and privately get the relief they need.
Lee Wilson
Bloomfield
FROM OUR READERS | STATE PROPOSAL 1
Tell truth about legal marijuana
October 22, 2008
As a retired chemical dependency therapist, I might have been more impressed by the Oct. 15 column by Dr. Daniel Michael and Judge Bill Schuette if they hadn't resorted to fear-mongering ("Medical marijuana proposal has unhealthy side effects for all").
They breathlessly told us about North Hollywood, Calif., having more pot shops than Starbucks, about a security guard being killed outside a pot shop, and that medical marijuana has "brought chaos" to that state. My California family and friends tell me that last claim is a gross exaggeration.
I would submit that every town has more bars than Starbucks stores, and people get shot outside bars all the time. And the reality is that alcohol is thousands of times more dangerous to society than marijuana will ever be. Yet it's a legal drug, is entrenched in our culture, and causes daily "chaos" in every state in the country.
But let's deny sick people any relief from their suffering that medical marijuana may bring them. Perhaps we should either tell them that suffering is noble, or to just get themselves drunk to relieve their suffering.
Bernie R. Klein
Ann Arbor
Skip the exaggerations
The big reason some of us feel like voting in favor of this proposition is the over-the-top opposition. There may be problems of one sort or another with the proposition as currently constituted, but when the right wing takes its predictably sky-is-falling stance, I tend to get as unyielding as they are.
I'm still having trouble understanding why a lot of drugs can't be handled like our national drug of choice, alcohol -- legalize and regulate. If someone abuses it to the point where they endanger others, then land on them hard.
Of course, you don't do things like let people smoke in no-smoking areas, even medicinal herbs. That's a detail. Details can be worked out. And I don't really have a dog in this fight. My drug of choice is caffeine. It just seems like so many decisions get made on the basis of some irrational prejudice that has nothing to do with the facts of the situation.
Rusty Hancock
Madison Heights
The truth in California
I know a number of judges and doctors. The good ones have some respect for the truth. Not so with Bill Schuette and Daniel Michael. Their first misstatement was that California has seen a dramatic increase in drug use because of Prop 215. The truth is that teen use of marijuana has actually dropped since Prop 215 was passed.
Their second bogus statement was that California is in "chaos" because a security guard at a marijuana dispensary was killed. If this reasoning made sense, then liquor stores should be banned everywhere.
I have gone to many of these dispensaries and interviewed store owners and their neighbors. In every case, the stores were either not noticed or were a welcome addition to the local community. In some cases, the stores are anchor tenants that have filled empty storefronts and brought new business to the neighboring businesses. Many of their neighbors mentioned they especially appreciated the fact that the stores spent a lot of money on security, including video cameras that watched common areas for all the businesses.
Clifford A. Schaffer
Director, Schaffer Library of Drug Policy
Agua Dulce, Calif.
Show some compassion
The limitations in life for those afflicted with debilitating diseases like multiple sclerosis, ALS, Crohn's disease and many others are significant. They endure pain so intractable their doctors write multiple prescriptions for narcotics just so they can make it through the day.
Many of these patients have a very low quality of life, yet they have a strong will to live and fight their diseases. For some, the only relief they can get is through medical marijuana. It alleviates chronic pain, eliminates nausea almost instantly, and helps patients who experience spasms and other symptoms.
Proposal 1 was written with these patients in mind. It will allow them to quietly and privately get the relief they need.
Lee Wilson
Bloomfield
