SentLTE-Digest Sunday, November 29 2009 Volume 09 : Number 072
001 LTE: Re: 'Welfare recipients face drug tests' (11-25-09).
From: Kirk Muse <>
002 LTE: Re: 'Jail is not a pot deterrent'
From: Kirk Muse <>
003 LTE: Re: '2 TOLEDO OFFICERS FAIL RANDOM TEST FOR DRUGS, ARE RELIEVED OF
From: Kirk Muse <>
004 LTE: Re: 'Legal marijuana would be a menace'
From: Kirk Muse <>
005 LTE: Re: 'Marijuana reform no longer just a pipe dream'
From: Kirk Muse <>
006 LTE: George Will's Rocky Mountain Medical Marijuana High
From: Richard Lake <>
007 LTE: Re: 'Pragmatism spurs debate of marijuana laws'
From: Kirk Muse <>
008 LTE: Re: 'Medical marijuana mocks the idea of lawful behavior'
From: Kirk Muse <>
009 LTE: Re: 'Rocky Mountain medical high'
From: Kirk Muse <>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subj: 001 LTE: Re: 'Welfare recipients face drug tests' (11-25-09).
From: Kirk Muse <>
Date: Thu, 26 Nov 2009 16:20:19 -0800
To the Editor of The Arizona Republic:
Re: "Welfare recipients face drug tests" (11-25-09).
As the parent of an 18 year old, ideally my son will never use any
illegal drugs. However, if he does use an illegal drug, I would hope
it's marijuana and only marijuana.
Drug testing discourages this because marijuana is fat soluble. As a
result marijuana stays in a persons system for up to several weeks. On
the other hand, drugs like meth, cocaine and heroin exit the body within
a few hours because they are water-soluble.
Drug testing discourages marijuana use and encourages use of much more
dangerous drugs like meth, cocaine and heroin.
People use marijuana for the same reasons people use alcohol.
Marijuana is substantially safer than either tobacco that contains nicotine
or alcohol. Shouldn't adults citizens have the right to use the much safer
alternative to alcohol?
Kirk Muse
1741 S. Clearview Ave.
Mesa, AZ 85209
(480) 396-3399
Thank you for considering this letter for publication.
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------------------------------
Subj: 002 LTE: Re: 'Jail is not a pot deterrent'
From: Kirk Muse <>
Date: Thu, 26 Nov 2009 16:36:58 -0800
To the Editor of The Boulder Weekly:
I'm writing about Robert Sharpe's thoughtful letter: "Jail is not
a pot deterrent" (11-25-09).
According to a recent Rasmussen poll 44 percent of adults believe that
pot is just as, or more dangerous, than alcohol.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/general_lifes
Until this false belief can be changed, marijuana will probably remain
a criminalized substance. The fact is, marijuana is an extremely safe
product. (No reported deaths in the 5,000 year history of its use.)
People consume marijuana for the same reasons they consume
alcohol. Why not offer adults the much safer alternative to alcohol?
Kirk Muse
1741 S. Clearview Ave.
Mesa, AZ 85209
(480) 396-3399
Thank you for considering this letter for publication.
Feel free to edit.
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------------------------------
Subj: 003 LTE: Re: '2 TOLEDO OFFICERS FAIL RANDOM TEST FOR DRUGS, ARE RELIEVED OF DUTY'
From: Kirk Muse <>
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:02:57 -0800
To the Editor of The Blade:
I'm writing about: "2 TOLEDO OFFICERS FAIL RANDOM TEST FOR DRUGS, ARE
RELIEVED OF DUTY"
(11-25-09). If cops are allowed to drink alcohol during their off duty
time, they should be allowed to smoke pot
during their off duty time.
Marijuana is substantially safer than either tobacco that contains
nicotine or alcohol. (No reported deaths
in the 5,000 year history of its use).
Why not re-legalize marijuana so it can be sold in licensed, regulated
and taxed business establishments?
People consume marijuana for the same reasons they consume alcohol. Why
not offer adults the much safer
alternative to alcohol?
Kirk Muse
1741 S. Clearview Ave.
Mesa, AZ 85209
(480) 396-3399
Thank you for considering this letter for publication.
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------------------------------
Subj: 004 LTE: Re: 'Legal marijuana would be a menace'
From: Kirk Muse <>
Date: Sat, 28 Nov 2009 07:24:01 -0800
To the Editor of The Daily Herald:
I'm writing about Nancy J. Thorner's not-so-thoughtful letter:
"Legal marijuana would be a menace" (11-28-09).
Marijuana is the foundation of our so-called war on drugs. Remove
marijuana from the equation and the whole drug war will collapse.
The so-called war on drugs is a huge industry and huge bureaucracy.
Victory in the drug war is not possible, nor is it the goal. Victory
in the drug war would mean that the drug war industry and bureaucracy
are out of business.
There are basically two kinds of people who support the so-called war on
drugs:
Those who make their livelihood from it. This includes politicians and
bureaucrats who are probably on the payroll of the drug cartels. Al
Capone had hundreds of politicians and prohibition officials on his
payroll.
Idiots - taxpayers who have bought into the lies and propaganda of the
drug-war industry and bureaucracy.
Idiots - who are willing to deny liberty and freedom to others but
think that their own liberty and freedom will never be in jeopardy.
Idiots - who believe that criminalizing a substance will make it go
away. Idiots - who think that drug prohibition somehow protects children.
Idiots - who think that giving criminals control of dangerous drugs
somehow protects children and our society.
Idiots - who think that they live in a free country even thought the
United States is the most incarcerated nation in the history of human
civilization.
Kirk Muse
1741 S. Clearview Ave.
Mesa, AZ 85209
(480) 396-3399
Thank you for considering this letter for publication.
- --
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or send a message to containing the command:
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------------------------------
Subj: 005 LTE: Re: 'Marijuana reform no longer just a pipe dream'
From: Kirk Muse <>
Date: Sat, 28 Nov 2009 10:02:20 -0800
To the Editor of The Jewish Journal:
I'm writing about: "Marijuana reform no longer just a pipe dream"
(11-25-09).
According to a recent Rasmussen poll 44 percent of adults believe that
pot is just as, or more dangerous, than alcohol.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/general_lifes
Until this false belief can be changed, marijuana will probably remain
a criminalized substance. The fact is marijuana is an extremely safe
product. (No reported deaths in the 5,000 year history of its use.)
People consume marijuana for the same reasons they consume
alcohol. Why not offer adults the much safer alternative to alcohol?
Kirk Muse
1741 S. Clearview Ave.
Mesa, AZ 85209
(480) 396-3399
Thank you for considering this letter for publication.
- --
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or send a message to containing the command:
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------------------------------
Subj: 006 LTE: George Will's Rocky Mountain Medical Marijuana High
From: Richard Lake <>
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 06:13:40 -0800
GEORGE WILL'S ROCKY MOUNTAIN MEDICAL MARIJUANA HIGH
**********************************************************************
DrugSense FOCUS Alert #421 - Sunday, 29 November 2009
Today the Washington Post Writers Group syndicated columnist George
Will's column about Colorado's medicinal marijuana law, below,
appeared in many newspapers.
The issues and the spin in the column should provide fodder for any
letter to the editor writer.
Below is a list of newspapers we know printed the column with the
newspaper's title, the article title used, the date printed if not
today, and the contact for sending your letters.
Norman Transcript (OK) Printed Sat, 28 Nov 2009
Rocky Mountain Medical High
Columbia Daily Tribune (MO) Printed Sat, 28 Nov 2009
Legal 'Medical' Pot A Dangerous Farce
Abilene Reporter-News (TX)
Rocky Mountain Medical High
Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL)
A Dubious Medical High
http://www.heraldtribune.com/section/opinion04
State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL)
Pitfalls of Legalizing Medical Marijuana
http://service.sj-r.com/forms/letters.asp
Post-Star, The (Glens Falls, NY)
The Leaf Offers False Hopes
http://www.poststar.com/app/contact/?form=letter
Dayton Daily News (OH) Printed Sat, 28 Nov 2009
Are Medical Marijuana's Customers Really Sick?
http://www.daytondailynews.com/opinion/send-a-letter-to-the-editor-659
Tribune Review (Pittsburgh, PA)
Rocky Mountain Medical High
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/letters/send/
Washington Post (DC)
Rocky Mountain High
San Angelo Standard-Times (TX)
The Rocky Mountain Medical High
http://www.gosanangelo.com/forms/lettertoeditor/
Grand Forks Herald (ND)
Drop 'Medical' From Medical Pot Laws
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/contactForm/email_id/2/
If MAP's Newshawks find additional newspapers that printed this
column they will appear here http://www.mapinc.org/author/George+Will
**********************************************************************
DENVER -- Inside the green neon sign, which is shaped like a
marijuana leaf, is a red cross. The cross serves the fiction that
most transactions in the store -- which is what it really is --
involve medicine.
The U.S. Justice Department recently announced that federal laws
against marijuana would not be enforced for possession of marijuana
that conforms to states' laws. In 2000, Colorado legalized medical
marijuana. Since Justice's decision, the average age of the 400
persons a day seeking "prescriptions" at Colorado's multiplying
medical marijuana dispensaries has fallen precipitously. Many new
customers are college students.
Customers -- this, not patients, is what most really are -- tell
doctors at the dispensaries that they suffer from insomnia, anxiety,
headaches, premenstrual syndrome, "chronic pain," whatever, and pay
nominal fees for "prescriptions." Most really just want to smoke pot.
So says Colorado's attorney general, John Suthers, an honest and
thoughtful man trying to save his state from institutionalizing such
hypocrisy. His dilemma is becoming commonplace: 13 states have, and
15 more are considering, laws permitting medical use of marijuana.
Realizing they could not pass legalization of marijuana, some people
who favor that campaigned to amend Colorado's Constitution to
legalize sales for medicinal purposes. Marijuana has medical uses --
e.g., to control nausea caused by chemotherapy -- but the helpful
ingredients can be conveyed with other medicines. Medical marijuana
was legalized but, Suthers says, no serious regime was then developed
to regulate who could buy -- or grow -- it. (Caregivers? For how
many patients? And in what quantities, and for what "medical uses.")
Today, Colorado communities can use zoning to restrict dispensaries,
or can ban them because, even if federal policy regarding medical
marijuana is passivity, selling marijuana remains against federal
law. But Colorado's probable future has unfolded in California,
which in 1996 legalized sales of marijuana to persons with doctors'
"prescriptions."
Fifty-six percent of Californians support legalization, and Roger
Parloff reports ("How Marijuana Became Legal" in the Sept. 28
Fortune) that they essentially have this. He notes that many
California "patients" arrive at dispensaries "on bicycles, roller
skates or skateboards." A Los Angeles city councilman estimates that
there are about 600 dispensaries in the city. If so, they outnumber
the Starbucks stores there period.
The councilman wants to close dispensaries whose intent is profit
rather than "compassionate" distribution of medicine. Good luck with
that: Privacy considerations will shield doctors from investigations
of their lucrative 15-minute transactions with "patients."
Colorado's medical marijuana dispensaries have hired lobbyists to
seek taxation and regulation, for the same reason Nevada's brothel
industry wants to be taxed and regulated by the state: The Nevada
Brothel Association regards taxation as legitimation and insurance
against prohibition as the booming state's frontier mentality recedes.
State governments, misunderstanding markets and ravenous for
revenues, exaggerate the potential windfall from taxing legalized
marijuana. California thinks it might reap $1.4 billion. But
Rosalie Pacula, a RAND Corporation economist, estimates that
prohibition raises marijuana production costs at least 400 percent,
so legalization would cause prices to fall much more than the 50
percent the $1.4 billion estimate assumes.
Furthermore, marijuana is a normal good in that demand for it varies
with price. Legalization, by drastically lowering price, will
increase marijuana's public health costs, including mental and
respiratory problems and motor vehicle accidents.
States attempting to use high taxes to keep marijuana prices
artificially high would leave a large market for much cheaper illegal
- - -- unregulated and untaxed -- marijuana. So revenues (and law
enforcement savings) would depend on the price falling close to the
cost of production. In the 1990s, a mere $2 per pack difference
between U.S. and Canadian cigarette prices created such a smuggling
problem that Canada repealed a cigarette tax increase.
Suthers has multiple drug-related worries. Colorado ranks sixth in
the nation in identity theft, two-thirds of which is driven by the
state's $1.4 billion annual methamphetamine addiction. He is loath
to see complete legalization of marijuana at a moment when new
methods of cultivation are producing plants in which the active
ingredient, THC, is "seven, eight times as concentrated" as it used
to be. Furthermore, he was pleasantly surprised when a survey of
nonusing young people revealed that health concerns did not explain
nonuse. The main explanation was the law: "We underestimate the
number of people who care that something is illegal."
But they will care less as law itself loses its dignity. By mocking
the idea of lawful behavior, legalization of medical marijuana may be
more socially destructive than full legalization.
**********************************************************************
Prepared by: Richard Lake, Senior Editor www.mapinc.org
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------------------------------
Subj: 007 LTE: Re: 'Pragmatism spurs debate of marijuana laws'
From: Kirk Muse <>
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 10:40:37 -0800
To the Editor of The Herald-Tribune:
I'm writing about Tom Tyron's thoughtful column: "Pragmatism
spurs debate over marijuana laws" (11-29-09).
Marijuana is the foundation of our so-called war on drugs. Remove
marijuana from the equation and the whole drug war will collapse.
The so-called war on drugs is a huge industry and huge bureaucracy.
Victory in the drug war is not possible, nor is it the goal. Victory
in the drug war would mean that the drug war industry and bureaucracy
are out of business.
There are basically two kinds of people who support the so-called war on
drugs:
Those who make their livelihood from it. This includes politicians and
bureaucrats who are probably on the payroll of the drug cartels. Al
Capone had hundreds of politicians and prohibition officials on his
payroll.
Idiots - taxpayers who have bought into the lies and propaganda of the
drug-war industry and bureaucracy.
Idiots - who are willing to deny liberty and freedom to others but
think that their own liberty and freedom will never be in jeopardy.
Idiots - who believe that criminalizing a substance will make it go
away. Idiots - who think that drug prohibition somehow protects children.
Idiots - who think that giving criminals control of dangerous drugs
somehow protects children and our society.
Idiots - who think that they live in a free country even thought the
United States is the most incarcerated nation in the history of human
civilization.
Kirk Muse
1741 S. Clearview Ave.
Mesa, AZ 85209
(480) 396-3399
Thank you for considering this letter for publication.
Feel free to edit.
- --
To unsubscribe from sentlte, visit http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
or send a message to containing the command:
unsubscribe sentlte
------------------------------
Subj: 008 LTE: Re: 'Medical marijuana mocks the idea of lawful behavior'
From: Kirk Muse <>
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:33:04 -0800
To the Editor of The Houston Chronicle:
I'm writing about George F. Will's not-so-thoughtful
column: "Medical marijuana mocks the idea of lawful behavior"
(11-29-09).
Most plants are good plants. I believe that some plants
such as Poison Ivy and Poison Oak are bad plants.
Millions of people believe that marijuana is a good plant.
Others believe it's a bad plant. My question is: Should people who use
or grow what other people believe to be a bad plant, be arrested and
jailed for doing so?
I believe that hot chili peppers are bad plants. Should people who
eat or grow hot chili peppers be arrested and jailed for doing so?
Kirk Muse
1741 S. Clearview Ave.
Mesa, AZ 85209
(480) 396-3399
Thank you for considering this letter for publication.
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------------------------------
Subj: 009 LTE: Re: 'Rocky Mountain medical high'
From: Kirk Muse <>
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:40:42 -0800
To the Editor of The Tribune-Review:
I'm writing about George F. Will's not-so-thoughtful
column: "Rocky Mountain medical high" (11-29-09).
Most plants are good plants. I believe that some plants
such as Poison Ivy and Poison Oak are bad plants.
Millions of people believe that marijuana is a good plant.
Others believe it's a bad plant. My question is: Should people who use
or grow what other people believe to be a bad plant, be arrested and
jailed for doing so?
I believe that hot chili peppers are bad plants. Should people who
eat or grow hot chili peppers be arrested and jailed for doing so?
Kirk Muse
1741 S. Clearview Ave.
Mesa, AZ 85209
(480) 396-3399
Thank you for considering this letter for publication.
- --
To unsubscribe from sentlte, visit http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
or send a message to containing the command:
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------------------------------
End of SentLTE-Digest V09 #72
*****************************
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Media Awareness Project /' _ ` _ `\ /'_`)('_`\
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URL: http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ (_)
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