POT CRIME EXISTS

Editor:

This is in regard to the "pot crime" letter to the editor. I have
recently moved back to Red Bluff after several years living out of
state. Every day I read the Daily News and I am shocked at the level
of crime that goes on in this small town.

It seems every week there is another car stolen, vehicles broken into,
houses burglarized and people assaulted just for walking down the
street after the sun goes down. It seems in the time I was living
elsewhere that Red Bluff has become quite a lively place for criminals
to gather.

Yet people seem so worried that having medical cannabis dispensaries
in town will rain crime down upon the city. But all the crimes I've
just mentioned - grand theft auto, burglary, physical assaults - have
nothing to do with marijuana. Why aren't more people concerned that
Red Bluff is like a little Dodge City?

Are they living in a daydream thinking their little town is mostly
crime free and that allowing medical cannabis will suddenly turn Red
Bluff into a small version of LA? Please. Criminals who rob cannabis
growers are after money, not pot. They figure growers must have stacks
of money in their houses because they grow medical marijuana.

The legalization or decriminalization of marijuana would put a stop to
crimes related to pot because the value of marijuana wouldn't make the
crime worth doing. The taxation of marijuana would greatly benefit
cities, counties and the state economically as well as benefitting
medical cannabis patients.

The American Medical Association has finally decided it is time to
take a second look at marijuana for medical use. It seems to have
finally heard what patients have been saying for years: that cannabis
is a very effective medicine for a number of health complaints, with
very few side effects compared to pharmaceutical medicines.

Reclassification of marijuana as a schedule I drug would also be
beneficial for those farmers who could grow hemp, a billion dollar
crop, for use as paper, clothing, rope, etc. The U.S. imports all its
hemp products because of the marijuana classification. Growing hemp
would benefit the whole country.

More and more Americans support the legalization of marijuana - even
Americans who don't smoke it. And once it's legal, crimes attributed
to marijuana would cease.

But having medical cannabis cooperatives and dispensaries won't create
more crime in Red Bluff - the crime already exists here, getting worse
every day. Maybe people should focus their energies into trying to
stop the regular crime occuring here everyday, instead of demonizing
medical cannabis and its patients.

Jaime Cowley

Red Bluff