WE'LL PAY FOR HEMP VOTE

I am so shocked at the decision against Ballot Measure 5, which would have
legalized hemp and hemp-made products in Alaska, including marijuana. I am
outraged that the people of Alaska cannot see that we are spending money to
fight an ongoing war against drugs when we have children that have
overcrowded classrooms and a lack of teachers. Look at it in my view, people
are going to smoke weed regardless.

We are spending $30,000 per year to board a prisoner on hemp charges when we
Alaskans should spend that money on real crimes such as rape, child abuse,
murder, and robberies; but instead we worry about weed. For what?

Now we Alaskans can be really proud that now we have the highest pregnancy
rate, sex crimes, and drug rate per-capita.

Why did we vote against Ballot Measure 5 when there are people sitting on
welfare who can't get a job due to the fact of the lack of day care? Do you
know $11 million could have employed a good bit of those welfare recipients
and would have opened more day cares; it could have fixed the streets of
Anchorage, which we all complain about; we could have hired a few more
teachers; but now we still must worry about who is smoking weed in the
privacy of their own homes and worry about if our children are going to
school and getting what we want them to get, an education.

Ballot Measure 5 should have passed and now we all will pay for it one way
or another.

- -- Jerika N. Ezell