PEOPLE WILL DECIDE, NOT LEGISLATORS

The Kalamazoo Gazette's report that seven out of 10 southwestern
Michigan legislators oppose the Michigan Medical Marijuana ballot
initiative was informative. I wonder, though, if you didn't miss the
forest for the trees.

The real story is how, once again, the Michigan Legislature is
completely out of touch with the people who put them there.

Seventy percent of our representatives oppose the initiative, which
allows a small number of terminally and seriously ill people to use
marijuana in private if it helps treat the symptoms of their disease.
Yet more than 60 percent of voters are in favor of protecting patients
and their caregivers from being dragged through the muck of the
criminal justice system for choosing to use a natural plant when other
pharmaceuticals have failed.

Michigan legislators had many opportunities to act. They refused. Now
a grassroots coalition has used the initiative process to take the
question directly to the people. Next November, the voters will have
the final word. Not only is the Legislature out of touch; on this
matter, they are irrelevant. This is what it looks like when the
people take back their own government.

Greg Francisco

Paw Paw