HYSTERIA IN HELENA ABOUT MARIJUANA

I voted for the Medical Marijuana Act and still support it today,
along with proposed restrictions that would ensure that only people
who really need it would have access to it. Such restrictions could
have been passed years ago by our increasingly inept legislature. So
far this session, they have been too busy trying to secede from the
Union to give the issue much intelligent consideration.

In testimony before that same state Legislature, Missoula Police Chief
Mark Muir compared medical marijuana to the recent massive Gulf oil
spill. That statement would be laughable if it were not so illogical,
inappropriate and offensive. A legislator in Helena, whose name I have
thankfully forgotten, compared medical marijuana to the Japanese
earthquake and tsunami. The folks in Helena appear to be partaking of
some really strong stuff.

Muir went on to tell the City Council that, "The idea of dispensaries
in the state of Montana has got to be something we wash out of our
minds." I find this statement to be alarming. The suggestion of mind
control and brainwashing does not fill me with enthusiasm. This is
redolent of a tin pot dictator in a banana republic police state.

Jeff Stevens

Missoula