BALLOT INITIATIVE

Re: "Wrong Way - Ballot initiatives generally aren't helpful," Editorials,
July 8. Your editorial on direct democracy was more a criticism of the
initiatives passed by referendum than of the process itself. You laud the
referendum on police and fire department pay in Dallas, but malign the
results of referendums in California.

Ballot initiative is not a way for citizens to usurp the authority of
legislators. It is an attempt to make the system work when it has failed.
Take the case of medical marijuana. For years polls have shown that more
than 70 percent of Americans favor allowing use of cannabis in a medical
setting. The major pharmaceutical companies are adamantly opposed. The
pharmaceutical companies spend millions of dollars every month to avoid
generic competition. Cannabis is the ultimate generic drug. It effectively
treats problems as divergent as migraine headaches, nausea, glaucoma,
spasticity and nail patella syndrome. Without prohibition, cannabis would
be monetarily nearly worthless. The pharmaceutical industry spends more
money on lobbying than any other industry. When it speaks, legislators listen.

Ballot initiatives for issues such as allowing medical use of cannabis are
helpful if we want government "of the people, by the people, for the
people" rather than government of the money, by the money, for the money.

Suzanne Wills

Drug Policy Forum of Texas, Dallas