LAWMAKER OUT OF TOUCH ON MEDICINAL CANNABIS BILL

Jeff Essmann R-Billings, shows again how out of touch he is with what
the majority of people in Montana favor by offering Senate Bill 423
with the unworkable provisions involved with it.

I am 68 years old with five deteriorated discs in my lower back, can
barely walk a block or wade a river anymore.

I use very little pot. However, at times it helps with sleeping and
walking and right now it is legal. To obtain a new card, to say
nothing of a provider, will be next to impossible if this bill is
enacted. There are many older folks like me in the same boat.

Essmann seems to think he can legislate marijuana out of existance. He
apparently does not know how easily it was for anyone over the past
several decades to obtain illegal pot. With pot out in the open now,
it seems it should be much easier for authorities to oversee
activities in this area.

If he succeeds in putting his thumb on the industry the distributation
and usage will just go back underground.

History dictates it will not just go away. The prices will double.
Enforcement costs will go up.

Many now legal jobs will be lost along with revenue the state and
local governments could derive.

Legalized marijuana is working just fine in 15 other states. Why can't
our legislators look to those states for realistic ideas on how to
fashion a sensible law that reflects the wishes of the people of
Montana and is workable? Thank God we have a realistic governor who
listens to thevoters.

Bill Hjorten

Butte