SHERIFF SEEMS TO FORGET WHO ENACTED LAW ON MARIJUANA

Ingham Voters Clearly Favor 'Insane' Law

Ingham County Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth appeared in a Feb. 23
segment on WLNS about a medical marijuana club in Williamstown
Township. As part of this piece, Wriggelsworth was asked his take on
the club's existence.

He called the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act an, "insane law."

I think the sheriff needs to understand that the people who put him
in office are the same people who passed this law. The law passed
with more than 66 percent of Ingham County voters in favor. The
sheriff garnered less than 4 percent more support than this law did
in Ingham County.

It is unfortunate that the sheriff is not in support of a law passed
by the people using the public initiative mechanism.

In the TV interview, Wriggelsworth said the law will be hard to
enforce because it is hard to verify whether someone is a legitimate
patient. Since when do we, as a people, decide whether a law that
grants us more freedoms, should be passed based on whether it is as
easy as pie for law enforcement to enforce?

A ban on texting while driving will also be hard to enforce. Unless
one of the sheriff's deputies pulls up beside someone and sees the
person texting just before he causes an accident then they will have
to do some investigating to figure out if, indeed, the person was texting.

But does the difficulty in enforcing this type of law mean it should
not be passed? Of course not. It just means the sheriff will need to
make administrative decisions as to allocation of resources and
decide when such an investigation is warranted. Maybe if it was an
injury accident then you investigate?

What I do know is that the difficulty of investigating should not
decide whether the people of Michigan should be given more freedoms
that the people themselves decide they want.

I have heard officials go as far as to say that the people didn't
know what they were voting for with the medical marijuana law. I
think the ballot language was pretty clear. I also think that the
same people who "didn't know what they were voting for" also voted
for certain sheriffs.

I am not a medical marijuana patient nor will I likely ever be one.
However, I support the right of the people to vote and to grant
themselves freedoms as they see fit.

Wriggelsworth should make no mistake: The same "insane" people who
voted for the Medical Marijuana Act also voted for him. Maybe they
did that so he could protect us from ourselves?

James Smith

East Lansing