7/1/2009 6:00:00 AM Letter: Marijuana is a benevolent plant
Last year, the Florida Medical Examiners Commission released a report on autopsies performed in 2007. Not a single fatality was due to marijuana (Damien Cave, The New York Times, "Legal Drugs Kill Far More Than Illegal, Florida," June 14, 2008).
I am appalled that Port Townsend Police use such draconian measures as to arrest the local folks who have an amount of marijuana when we all know that marijuana is a God-given natural plant that creates benevolence for the ill and infirm.
I had the poignant experience to have a 40-year-old client who eventually died of lung cancer brought on by the legal cigarette trade. That nicotine, which has been known to be laced with all kinds of toxic substances, including asbestos and arsenic, is a horrible addictive drug that kills in the most disgusting way. It also just stinks. Marijuana is a happy plant.
Let's inform the local police that this is Port Townsend, the city of dreams and creativity, and repression never works. Here in Port Townsend, we have more important things to do with the police force. They can teach the children how to help others. The times they are a-changing. It is time to stop the use of senseless conflict as an instrument of repression.
By the way, marijuana helps the mitigation of the pain of cancer. We ought to be handing out lids of pot for all the suffering people in our community who want a safer, gentler pain relief rather than the pharmaceuticals that have a laundry list of contraindications. We live across the way from one of the largest depleted uranium containment centers on the planet. It is time to have greater discernment of where the real problems lie.
Taking hemp/marijuana out of its illegal status would actually bring our economy into a more stable situation. Hemp oil makes your skin feel like silk; it has the same ratio of essential fatty acids as the human body needs. The hemp seed protein is far superior to that of any animal product, and it grows on marginal lands and actually heals the earth.
ROBIN SHARAN
Port Townsend
Reader Comments
Posted: Friday, July 10, 2009
Article comment by:
Amy Smith
A "hop head" is a beer lover. A "pot head" is a marijuana smoker. I have had both good and bad interactions with the police department in Port Townsend. They are people, just like any other people, and have good and bad days. The law, however, is too strict. I think that using as a prescription drug is past due--but that smoking and driving should be similar to a DUI. There needs to be more middle ground.
Posted: Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Article comment by:
John Redcorn
To mike and skip, are you both dense. First of all Skip has obviously never been behind the wheel high because it is nothing like being intoxicated. And mike you are just being plain old ignorant.
Posted: Saturday, July 04, 2009
Article comment by:
Tom Camfield
We have a great police force. Our officers vigorously pursue the law, protecting the public as family. Skip has a good point--that pot should be regarded in the same category as alcohol. It belongs in the DUI category. But the difference is that one is not arrested for illegal possession of beer, or possession of beer with intent to sell. Beer from Mexico is legally imported and sold alongside its American counterparts. Meanwhile, many believe, I somewhat among them, that marijuana should not be lumped into the same category as more-dangerous drugs, many of them prescription--pain-killers and what-have-you. Witness Michael Jackson. And there do seem to be medicinal benefits . . . and the continuing expensive problem for law enforcement, which is frustrated by the whole philosophical imbroglio.
Posted: Thursday, July 02, 2009
Article comment by:
Skip Knudtson
I have to agree with Mike on this one. What in the world are you thinking? Pot is illegal, for many reasons. And just like beer, wine, and other spirits, once you get behind the wheel of a car, you become a ticking time-bomb. Would you be just as quick to think it's ok if you were stoned and got into a car and killed another human? Like a child? Or perhaps backed out of your driveway and backed over your own child? Are you an idiot? Or just someone who doesn't care about human life? Either way, I think the Police Dept. SHOULD arrest and immediately convict anyone with ANY amount of pot, and the sentence should be as harsh, if not harsher than a DUI. Immediate and lengthy jail time.
Posted: Thursday, July 02, 2009
Article comment by:
Mike Mahoney
Are you serious? Were you stoned when you wrote this? I've heard nothing but good things about the Port Townsend Police and my intereactions with them have been nothing but positive. Draconian? Instrument of repression? I think your letter serves as a perfect example as to why nothing good comes out of being a hop head.....
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