The recent decision of Muskegon Circuit Court Judge James Graves to shut down yet another medical marijuana safe access point in Muskegon County has frightened patients. ("Judge makes closure of medical-marijuana dispensary in Norton Shores permanent," Nov. 18.) With only one of these safe access points left in Muskegon County, patients now fear having to go to black market dealers to acquire their medicine, at least until their own plants will provide them with their medicine of choice.

I don't agree with this. When a case like this goes into court, the ruling is not supposed to be based on opinion, but the actual written law itself. It is the court's job to interpret the actual language contained in a statute. Yes, the law says that a caregiver can only possess 2.5 ounces of marijuana for up to five patients that he or she is connected to through the registration process, and that a caregiver may only grow up to 12 plants for each patient. But, Section 4(e) of the law states that a caregiver may receive compensation for costs associated with assisting a qualified registered patient, and that any such compensation shall not constitute the "sale" of marijuana.

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Last month I wrote a letter postulating that by decriminalizing prostitution and drug use and treating these things as health issues that we would actually decrease the number of addicts, reduce prison overcrowding and increase public safety. In fact the experiment in Portugal, where possession and use of illicit street drugs has been decriminalized, has shown the validity of this approach. Recent news of record marijuana busts in tunnels supplying the United States from Mexico have prompted me to write again.

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John Sinclair had the worst seat possible for the freedom rally held in his own name at Crisler Arena on Dec. 10, 1971.

But he didn't miss a minute of the show.

Sinclair, then 30, was sitting in his cell at the state prison in Jackson throughout the concert, serving 10 years for giving two joints to an undercover police officer. But he was listening in on a transistor radio to the WABX-FM broadcast of the event, which featured, among others, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Bob Seger and Phil Ochs.

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BIRMINGHAM -- In his 33 years in law enforcement, Isaiah "Ike" McKinnon wrestled with his fair share of drunks.

"They're aggressive and want to fight," said McKinnon, former Detroit police chief and now an associate professor of education at the University of Detroit Mercy.

But people who were using marijuana weren't as much trouble, he said. Arresting them, McKinnon believes, is a "waste of law enforcement efforts."

On Tuesday, McKinnon will step out and discuss the benefits of decriminalizing marijuana at the Baldwin Public Library at 300 W. Merrill in Birmingham.

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And to Think, Americans Don't Want This Source of Tax Revenue!

Highest greetings from the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam, where I'm enjoying the heady ambience of this society where they just don't care if you want to get high and where a couple thousand American youths are staggering around this week flashing their judge's badges and sampling the wares of the city's 250 coffee shops.

About 10 percent of Amsterdam's coffee shops pony up the entrance fees required to be showcased by High Times in its growing and consuming competition and thus gain the patronage of the American weed tourists during the week of the cup - and indeed all year round. The winning coffee shops get the business when the drug tourists come to town, the winning strains get purchased over the counter, and the winning seeds are prized by the international growing community.

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Re: Larry Gabriel's Higher Ground column for Nov. 16, Michigan state Attorney General Bill Schuette is apparently so blinded by his reefer madness campaign that he has forgotten that marijuana prohibition is based on racist lies and ridiculous myths about ultra violence caused by smoking cannabis.

"Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men's shadows and look at a white woman twice." (Hearst newspapers nationwide, 1934)

"There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana can cause white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others." (Federal Bureau of Narcotics Director Harry J. Anslinger)

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Mexican drug cartels are no doubt thrilled with state Attorney General Bill Schuette's efforts to undermine Michigan's voter-approved medical marijuana law. As long as there is a demand for marijuana, there will be a supply. This is basic economics. Replacing domestic growers with organized crime groups that also sell cocaine, meth and heroin is not necessarily a good thing. Marijuana prohibition is a gateway drug policy. Your tax dollars at work.

- --Robert Sharpe, policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington, D.C.

[end]

Tax and regulate all cannabis use, possession, transportation and sales. Cannabis prohibition is a travesty propagated by lies, hyperbole and misinformation in order to protect industries that are threatened by it, namely the petroleum industry, the alcohol industry, pharmaceutical industries, textile industries, big tobacco, logging and paper industries, the privatized prison industry, prison guards, law enforcement, judges, prosecuting and defense attorneys and other ancillary judicial professions (court reporters, bailiffs, etc.), addiction specialists and more.

- --Wayne Reiss, Brooklyn, N.Y.

[end]

Holland Township - I applaud Lindsay Lohan's efforts in demonstrating the absurdity of our legal system. Because of prison overcrowding and her ability to pay bail, she served less than five hours for her latest sentence of 30 days. Her escapades involving our legal system beg the question: Why is it that in spite of having more prisons than any other country, we still experience overcrowding?

Both nationally and locally we have seen cases where sentences have been reduced and plea bargains accepted in an effort to reduce the strain on an overburdened corrections system. Seems odd that we also are the country with the most criminals. The United States has an incarceration rate of 743 per 100,000 nationally (as of 2009), the highest in the world. In comparison, Russia has the second highest 577 per 100,000. While Americans represent about 5 percent of the world's population, one-quarter of the world's inmates are incarcerated here.

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And Kalamazoo Voters, in Chater Amendment Question, Holding Firm

To legalize marijuana in Michigan or to decriminalize it, that is the question. Whether it is nobler in the state to suffer the indignity and second-class citizenship of decriminalization, or to take up arms and fight for full legalization.

The fight over medical marijuana in Michigan is truly Shakespearian, with opposing sides both believing they are right, a menacing federal government hanging in the shadows and ground skirmishes in the foreground.

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Re: "High stakes" (Nov. 2), the clear stupidity of people like state Attorney General Bill Schuette - in making a career of opposing marijuana - is seen when we examine a few facts. First off, contrary to any myths promoted by the drug warriors, cannabis is the least toxic drug known to mankind. There has never been a fatality attributed to marijuana in 5,000 years of recorded use.

Claims that marijuana is "dangerous" are myths and propaganda coming from drug warriors worried about losing cushy jobs chasing potheads, who need no protection from cannabis. It is long past time to abandon reefer madness and to set marijuana free.

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All of the praise of marijuana's powers to alleviate such a wide variety of ills merely serves as evidence of why the power of the corporate - read pharmaceutical - medical establishment uses its lobbying influence to insure that it will not compete with their products.

Look to the bottom line. In Australia and some European countries, strains of periwinkle are prescribed as effective cancer-fighters; in this country, however, scores of components of periwinkle have been extracted from their plant source and registered and marketed as cancer-fighting drugs. Not that this approach saves more lives, but it does effectively give monopolies (through patent) to pharmeceutical companies - for much higher prices than you'll see in your local health shop! (Look: The bottom line!)

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Your superb summary of the medical marijuana controversy featured the intransigence of AG Schuette, who bloviates, "Across Michigan, our communities are struggling with an invasion of pot shops near their schools, homes and churches,"

This statement is so oblivious to the facts that it is appalling from such an official.

Taxpayers have paid Monitoring the Future (MTF) to survey some 2 million teens aged about 14 to 18 since 1975 to provide regular reports. The short summary of that data is to say that virtually any teen who has wanted any drug for at least 35 years has been able get it by simply asking a few peers. In the words of MTF, "[M]arijuana has been almost universally available to American 12th graders over the past 33 years."

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Re: Police Chief Ike McKinnon's turnaround, it's commendable and it adds important credibility when law enforcement officers speak out against cannabis (marijuana) prohibition, persecution and extermination. The few to benefit from caging humans for using the God-given plant include the drug-testing industry, police unions concerned with job security and gangs concerned with profit. Nearly everyone else, including our children, suffers due to cannabis prohibition.

Ending cannabis prohibition is one of the most important issues of our time.

- -Stan White, Dillon, Colo.

[end]

In Higher Ground (Nov. 2), former Detroit Police Chief Ike McKinnon says, "I can't think of anybody who has died from marijuana." I also can't think of a case where somebody died from an overdose of LSD. The problem with marijuana, and LSD for that matter, is its effect on thinking and behavior. And it's this behavioral toxicity, such as impaired ability to pay attention while driving, that's the real problem with marijuana. The only reason marijuana is used in the first place is because it has a primary effect on the brain, the central nervous system. After all, people don't use marijuana because they like to have bloodshot eyes. The central nervous system effects include impaired attention, impaired depth perception, amotivation and more. Knowing these effects, I certainly do not want my doctor, dentist, police officer, child-care worker or professor to use marijuana.

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It's a surprise to hear that Dr. Isaiah "Ike" McKinnon, Detroit's former top cop, believes that marijuana should be legalized and is speaking out on the issue.

"I've never taken a public position on this, but I think it's time to do so," McKinnon says. "We have to stand up for things we believe are right. ... My position is, let's look at this realistically and honestly. Too much law enforcement money and resources are being used on this. There are better things to spend our money on."

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Now Three Years Old, Michigan's Medical Marijuana Law Is Still Getting Sorted Out

Marijuana has twice played a role in bringing significant changes to the life of Barb Agro.

The first time was a blessing.

A former police dispatcher, the 71-year-old great-grandmother from Lake Orion suffers from arthritis in both of her knees.

"It's really bad," she says.

Because she's allergic to aspirin, she used Tylenol to ease the pain for years. "But the amount I had to take was so much," she says. "I worried about it damaging my kidneys."

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The Global Commission on Drug Policy minced no words last June when it released its report on the war on drugs.

"The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world," the report concluded. "... Forty years after President (Richard) Nixon launched the U.S. government's war on drugs, fundamental reforms in national and global drug-control policies are urgently needed."

Chief among the commission's recommendations: Decriminalize and even legalize some drugs, like marijuana.

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Congratulations are in order to the Kalamazoo Coalition for Pragmatic Cannabis Laws. Their Lowest Law Enforcement Priority proposal will now appear on the November city ballot. Following expected passage at the polls, the measure will direct the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety to regard simple, adult possession of small, personal use quantities of marijuana as their lowest priority.

Campaign organizer Louis Stocking was recently quoted in a Gazette article as hoping this measure will signal that the city of Kalamazoo is somehow, "pot friendly," and that it will attract people from outside of Kalamazoo to the city because, "they'll know we're liberal when it comes to marijuana."

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When Motown stars the Temptations recorded "Cloud Nine" back in the 1960s, chilled out users had no idea how powerful the drug would become for future generations.

Marijuana potency has increased to its highest level in more than 30 years, according to an analysis conducted by the University of Mississippi's Potency Monitoring Project, and released by the White House in 2008.

The study tracked the average amount of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, via samples seized by law enforcement agencies between 1975 and 2007. It found that the average amount of THC reached 9.6 percent in 2007, compared to 8.75 percent the previous year.

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