WHAT ARE THEY THINKING ABOUT MARIJUANA POLICY?

To the Editor:

I was very disappointed to receive a letter from our congressman,
Republican Randy Forbes, recently in which he stated he is unalterably
opposed to marijuana legalization for medicinal or recreational use. I
was mostly disappointed, because in his letter he was not familiar
with drug classification in the United States by the Drug Enforcement
Agency. He referred to cocaine/crack as a schedule I narcotic and
looped it in with meth, PCP, marijuana, heroin and, as he put it, 100
other schedule I narcotics.

Marijuana is a Schedule I narcotic, however cocaine, even in its form
as crack, is a schedule II narcotic, according to the Drug Enforcement
Agency. This is one of the reasons we should be reaching out to our
representatives and citizens. I think education and awareness is the
best way to resolve this part of the war on drugs. Everyone knows
cocaine/crack is worse than marijuana. I have seen physical addiction
and overdoses first hand.

I have never seen a marijuana overdose or heard of physical addiction
to marijuana. I think any person who assumes the unalterable position
that marijuana is worse than crack cannot be effective in resolving
drug issues. I was also disappointed to hear him say; "Federal Health
Officials believe that the public is better served if science, rather
than the ballot box or the courts, were used to judge a drug's utility."

I didn't vote for a guy who wanted to do what he thought would be best
for the constituency. I voted for a guy who would listen to and
represent the wishes of the constituency with an open mind and from an
informed perspective. Republicans who share this unalterable view,
such as Republican Rep. Mark Kirk from Chicago who has called for
federal legislation to sentence certain first-time marijuana offenders
to up to 25 years in prison, are very disturbing. Locking up
non-violent people and throwing away the key is immoral.

What's more disturbing is that citizens in our communities are being
encouraged to spy on each other and threatened. They are told to be on
the look out and contact private e-mail addresses if they see
marijuana growing on their property or someone else's, otherwise, they
could lose their property through forfeiture laws. Marijuana users are
also portrayed as evil doers who smoke marijuana in front of their
children. A lot of people would say if you use tobacco or drink in
front of your children you're a bad parent. I personally do not share
that point of view. It is a matter of personal freedom and it's time
for the elected officials to listen, learn and represent the citizens.

There is a lot of stepped up rhetoric about marijuana these days. I
hope most people are too smart to listen to the William Randolph
Hearst propaganda tactics. This is 2009 not 1932. There were 50,000
alcohol poisonings in the United States last year. There were 435,000
deaths from tobacco, 7,600 from non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
such as aspirin and 0 overdoses or poisonings from marijuana. I cannot
believe our elected leaders don't have anything better to do. They
encourage us to spy on each other and report back to them. They
threaten us with up to 25 years in prison for non-violent offenses.
They deny citizens who are seriously ill a little comfort and relief
from pain. To take an unalterable and uninformed position on other
people's freedoms, privacy and comfort is unacceptable and we need to
vote these elected officials out.

Charles Johnson
Dinwiddie County