OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

Editor: Mr. President, I must tell you that you made a dreadful and
tragic mistake when you publicly announced that you will not
prosecute so called "medical marijuana" dispensaries and grows unless
both state and federal laws are broken. This was a most inappropriate
and stunning statement for a president to make of an addictive drug.

In effect, it gives drug dealers an out. What was the purpose of such
a statement? Are you not concerned with the problems associated with
drugs? There is no such thing as "medical marijuana." Marijuana is
marijuana - nothing else and most certainly not a medicine. It does
not cure, it just numbs the mind.

The various labels peddlers attach to marijuana are potency
designations, not indications of what type of ailments they relate
to. For decades, uses of marijuana have been chipping away at our
social structure to convince the people and, sadly to say, some
elected officials that there is nothing wrong with smoking marijuana.
Some refer to it as a recreational drug. Their aim, of course, is
total legalization without any restrictions. They are very shrewd in
referring to it as "medical marijuana. " The problems associated with
this drug are immense.

It leads to the harder drugs and is the beginning of the end for the
victims. Countless lives have been destroyed, especially among our
young. In their journey to justify its use, drug dealers and addicts
claim a myriad of ailments that inflict pain, one of which I glaucoma.

I had glaucoma; there was no pain.

Should it come to anyone's surprise that there are all kinds of
medications, bother over the counter and prescription that will cure
or relieve any conceivable ailment?

To simply illustrate how addiction consumes a person's life, consider
the agony and torture smokers of the ordinary cigarette go through in
attempting to kick the habit and how they will pay any price to
continue their addiction. Mr. President, I urge you to use every
conceivable authority you have to put an end to this drug menace.

Remove the peddlers from our midst.

Joe Canzoneri

Paradise