Pubdate: Tue, 22 Mar 2011 Source: Missoulian (MT) Copyright: 2011 Missoulian Contact: http://www.missoulian.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/720 Author: Jeff Stevens HYSTERIA IN HELENA ABOUT MARIJUANA I voted for the Medical Marijuana Act and still support it today, along with proposed restrictions that would ensure that only people who really need it would have access to it. Such restrictions could have been passed years ago by our increasingly inept legislature. So far this session, they have been too busy trying to secede from the Union to give the issue much intelligent consideration. In testimony before that same state Legislature, Missoula Police Chief Mark Muir compared medical marijuana to the recent massive Gulf oil spill. That statement would be laughable if it were not so illogical, inappropriate and offensive. A legislator in Helena, whose name I have thankfully forgotten, compared medical marijuana to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. The folks in Helena appear to be partaking of some really strong stuff. Muir went on to tell the City Council that, "The idea of dispensaries in the state of Montana has got to be something we wash out of our minds." I find this statement to be alarming. The suggestion of mind control and brainwashing does not fill me with enthusiasm. This is redolent of a tin pot dictator in a banana republic police state. Jeff Stevens Missoula - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.