LETTER OF THE WEEK

WHAT ARE THEY THINKING ABOUT MARIJUANA POLICY?

By Charles Johnson

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

Pubdate: Thu, 2 Jul 2009

Source: Progress-Index, The (VA)