I strongly support legalizing marijuana. Booze, cigarettes and prescription drugs kill millions worldwide every year, but I know of no one killed from using only marijuana.In the 1970s I took some tokes offered me, but I have never bought, never sold, never grown marijuana in my life.If I had a disease where my only choices were a prescription drug or medical marijuana, I would choose marijuana—no question. Eating it raw or vaporizing it is healthier than smoking it.More than 4,000 years ago, a leading Chinese doctor recommended marijuana for many of the same sicknesses doctors now prescribe it. Marijuana has [at least] 75 unique healing ingredients not found in any other plant. Marijuana is the single most versatile herbal remedy on Earth. No other plant contains as wide a range of healing herbal ingredients.Marijuana can help cancer, PTSD, chronic pain, nausea, inflammation, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer’s and other dementia, immunity, appetite, glaucoma, Lou Gehrig’s disease, peripheral neuropathy, anorexia, hepatitis C, Crohn’s disease, insomnia, arthritis, epilepsy, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis and hospice patients.I damn the racist US drug war devastating low-income communities of color. Far more African-American and Latino youth, percentage-wise, get locked up for marijuana than Anglo youth, even though rates of use are about the same. US hysteria against marijuana was rooted for decades in racism against Mexicanos and African-Americans and also in the greed of timber, petrochemical and drug companies. The last three US presidents—Clinton, Bush and Obama—all admitted to past use of marijuana. All three later were re-elected. If they had grown up low income or non-white in the inner city, they all might have lived in prison instead of the White House and in some states, never have been allowed to vote for president [again for] the rest of their lives—let alone become president!Until marijuana is legal in New Mexico, I refuse to risk arrest, court, fines and jail for myself or for whomever would sell marijuana to me—if I were to use marijuana without being approved for medical marijuana. I refuse to make my life more secretive and to increase my fear of police.Buying imported, illegal marijuana from Mexico pays for the drug gangs to mass murder thousands of people in Mexico.Except for the serious legal risks, I would infinitely prefer friends using their own homegrown, organic marijuana instead of smoking any cigarettes or drinking any booze.I highly recommend these books—Marijuana Gateway to Health by Clint Werner, The Great Book of Hemp by Rowan Robinson and The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander.
Letters: The Right To Inform The Right To Inform
Recently Kroger and Safeway both announced they will not sell genetically engineered salmon in their stores. The fish in question have had their DNA altered so they grow twice as fast. These announcements were preemptive, as the Food and Drug Administration has not even approved these salmon for market. Yet this action sends a strong message: Consumers are more thoughtful than ever about the food we are putting in our bodies, and retailers are starting to respond.As retailers, scientists and even ethicists consider the ramifications of GE animals and crops, there is a very simple step that retailers can take right now to appeal to conscious consumers: by labeling foods already on store shelves that contain these ingredients. By labeling their store-brand products that contain genetically modified ingredients, Kroger and Safeway and our local chains like Smith’s and Albertsons could take a great step towards empowering consumers to make fully informed choices in the grocery aisle.
Letters: Re: The Daily Word In Golden Parachutes, Flight Mh370 And Hawaii’s Prostitution Re: The Daily Word In Golden Parachutes, Flight Mh370 And Hawaii’s Prostitution
While even 3-inch, dull butter knives can be deadly, we have to come up with a better way of handling incidents where the police control as much of the time, distance and area as they did in the Foothills shooting.
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