COUNTY OVERSTEPPING BOUNDS ON CANNABIS

I'm writing due to the unresearched, fear-driven and just silly
proposal to ban medical marijuana dispensaries in Kern County. Local
media are really pushing this agenda by highlighting negative growers
and criminals that abuse the right. Most cardholders are law-abiding,
taxpaying citizens who don't deserve to be told to go out of the
county to purchase their medicine. Trying to pass us all off as cartel
workers or drug dealers is not only untrue, it's childish and
irresponsible.

As for myself, I'm a prior-service Marine and a disabled veteran of
Operation Iraqi Freedom as well as a father. I can't afford to drive
out of county to go refill my cannabis, and not everyone owns their
own property to cultivate. This is just conservative ol' Bakersfield
doing what it does best: staying behind the times and playing catch-up
with neighboring counties who happen to be doing just fine.

I think Sheriff Donny Youngblood and others who want to close these
stores down just need to do their jobs. Yes, there will be citizens
who abuse the right; so arrest them! Why are they complaining about
doing what they're paid to do? I can only imagine complaining to my
staff noncommissioned officer about going to Iraq or doing my job.

No one is against enforcing the law, but the state already has spoken.
It's the county's job to enforce what the state has already allowed,
not abolish freedoms.

NICHOLAS MIRANDA

Bakersfield