Pubdate: Fri, 04 May 2012
Source: Daily Sentinel, The (Grand Junction, CO)
Copyright: 2012 Cox Newspapers, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.gjsentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2084
Author: Ralph Hicks

KING'S BILL SETS ARBITRARY LIMITS

The "Driving-while-high" headline May 2, was misleading and 
misrepresents Sen. Steve King's attempts to further a bill, so out of 
line that no other member of Congress would add their name for sponsorship.

King's word choice shows his overzealous attempts to stop medical 
marijuana. He misappropriates influence for impairment and implies 
they mean the same when that's not true at all. Not true when his 
basis is a study he says states 1 nanogram constitutes under the 
"influence". and making it equally false is no information of 
seriously ill patients, like myself.

A more appropriate headline for the bill would be "Driving under the 
influence according to Steve King." King unethically chose an 
unsubstantiated level of 5 nanograms, rushed the process while a 
public comment period was immorally refused, and produced no facts 
while fear-mongering a "dramatic rise" in fatal accidents involving 
marijuana. We know, two of the only three examples he could produce a 
short time ago for his commentary, were below his new law's level, 
but over the permanent zero tolerance he quietly incorporated into 
the new bill. What is King's "dramatic rise"? All three of his (2006, 
2009, 2010) misleading "examples" plus one, raising fatalities to 
four since 2001, or misrepresenting that as a 25 percent increase?

5 nanograms apply only to licensed Medical Marijuana patients for 
which no studies exist. 5 miniscule nanograms is an arbitrary number 
that lacks sufficient evidence without further study and information. 
Ever since the Schedule 1 classification, we've been told alcohol and 
marijuana are totally different but now King picks a number, refuses 
to pursue any technology, and plans to wield it like alcohol to 
destroy lives. Another example of the over-zealousness that cost an 
innocent man nearly 16 years in prison.

RALPH HICKS

Clifton
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