INITIATIVE 692

DO RIGHT FOR THE SICK

All the shrieking and lamentations against Initiative 692 (medical
marijuana) are cruel, illogical and hypocritical.

First, the cruelty: Would you like to have your spouse prefer death
from cancer (as many do) because the endless, violent retching caused
by chemotherapy simply can no longer be tolerated? How about seeing
your kid go blind from glaucoma when a toke or two each day would save
his or her sight?

Now for the illogic: All pain killers and anesthetics can be – and
often are – used for recreation. If we are to follow the line of
reasoning put forth by the opponents, then we must deny all pain
killers to all people under all circumstances. To proscribe one drug
out of so many makes as much sense as saying it's OK to drive down to
the grocery in a Chevrolet or a Ford, but illegal in a Plymouth!

And finally the hypocrisy, inadvertent though it may be: I know a few
people who are foaming at the mouth over the possible use of medical
marijuana and they are the very ones who, at the first sign of a cold,
head home for a few stiff belts.

Let's end the "reefer madness." Let's do the right thing for the sick
and hurting and vote for I-692.

THOMAS H. LaBELLE
Clearview

Checked-by: Patrick Henry