Editor:

Caging sick people for using the God-given plant cannabis (marijuana) is anti-Christian and vulgar("New group will regularly demonstrate for medical marijuana, industrial hemp," Star-Tribune, May 17). It's also time for free Wyoming farmers to legally grow hemp, just like communist Chinese farmers. It's clearly time for intelligent voters to end cannabis prohibition.

Stan White

Dillon, Colorado

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Three Casper residents demonstrated for the legalization of medical marijuana and industrial hemp products Saturday, part of what they say will be regular demonstrations at Conwell Park.

As people in passing vehicles stared or honked -- one person gave the group a thumbs-down sign -- demonstrators held signs that said "Help end marijuana prohibition," "Cannabis -- fuel, paper, food and medicine" and "Cannabis cures cancer."

The demonstrators are part of the new group Wyoming Cannabis Activists.

The organization had simultaneous demonstrations at the Cheyenne Depot in the capital city, at which 10 people showed up, and in Jackalope Square in Douglas, at which local resident and U.S. Senate Republican candidate Thomas Bleming demonstrated, said Marcia Stuelpnagel, co-founder of Wyoming Cannabis Activists.

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Editor:

Tim Casey is mistaken ("Pot prohibition isn't working," March 16) to believe cannabis (marijuana) prohibition isn't working. Historically, cannabis prohibition was orchestrated to discriminate against minorities, give law enforcement agencies job security and to allow some powerful people the opportunity to profit off of the dubious laws. For that, it is working properly as planned.

Stan White

Dillon, Colo.

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Decriminalize! It's obvious that prohibition isn't working. They want to call it a gateway drug but spoiler alert, the only gateway i experienced came from the people I had to see to buy pot. Hey dude, check this out: Try a dime's-worth, see what you think. When I started growing my own, my use of other drugs vanished. As far as violence, it is just like booze in that the violent people are that way without being high. I never became violent on pot. I was never an addict and I used it heavily for years only after my day was my own. When I quit, I had no withdrawal symptoms other than what to do with my library and equipment. Oh, and I destroyed lots of Polaroids of harvesting in the living room. I wish I had kept the issue of High Times that had a picture of my prize bud. What a rush!

TIM CASEY, Casper

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Editor:

Marijuana should be legal throughout the entire United States. Why would we not want to know that people are getting a good product at a fair price, create jobs (not prison guard positions), and apply a fair tax to the product. We know that a good portion of the public is using and going to continue using marijuana anyway. People can say it is a gateway drug and if indeed that is the case, then alcohol should be illegal as well. If you did a poll I am quite sure that most young people experimented with alcohol before they did with marijuana. Wyoming's Legislature is more worried about their "holier than thou" image than they are thinking about doing what is right. Let us be the first to legalize it rather than one of the last like we usually are.

LU MARTINEZ, Gillette

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Editor:

I'm writing in regards to Patrick Simonaitis' article titled "Marijuana-related rage, Smirnoff Ice lead to Casper man's arrest" (Jan. 28). I can't help but wonder why, in this city of 60,000-plus, this somewhat negligible event was determined noteworthy. I think it's more than just coincidence that a mundane household conflict would find its way to print with the title "Marijuana-related rage" at a time when there is so much happening politically with marijuana in our state and in Colorado.

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Editor:

Most of us have seen the long lines of people waiting to purchase legal marijuana from licensed facilities in Denver, Colo. The people in these lines are either unemployed, using vacation time, on their day off, or they are unemployable because they have tested positive for the use of marijuana. I wonder how many of these people are on some sort of public assistance because they are unemployable.

Consider this. Marijuana can be detected by urine analysis for nearly a week or more after using it. Users will probably be unable to pass a urine analysis test if there employer requires routine testing, so how do they expect to keep their jobs and support their families? Apparently employers aren't as enthused about the new law as the residents of Colorado are and employers apparently don't want people that smoke marijuana working for them.

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Thirty years ago, before he moved to Wyoming and became a Republican state lawmaker, Bruce Burns' mother asked him to come to Long Island, N.Y., with pot.

Burns' uncle, a Jesuit priest who lived most of his life as a missionary in India, was dying of lung cancer.

Burns was a dutiful son. He delivered the goods. His uncle's mood and appetite improved. The priest gained 15 pounds and was more comfortable when he died. Burns, now a state senator from Sheridan, became a believer in the medical benefits of marijuana.

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CHEYENNE (AP) - A debate over whether Wyoming should legalize marijuana may be about to flare up.

Bordered to the north and south by states that have legalized some uses of marijuana, Wyoming still counts marijuana possession as a crime. Possession of anything over 3 ounces in the Equality State is felony territory, enough to put a person in prison for five years.

Rep. Sue Wallis, R-Recluse, said this week that she intends to introduce a bill in the legislative session that starts early next year to decriminalize marijuana for medicinal purposes.

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There is a mad rush to legalize marijuana these days, but it's time to rethink that generous yet foolish move -- generous because it lifts the onus of crime from peaceful smokers, but foolish because it harms mental development and health.

Legalization, as we have seen it in Colorado and Washington state, lifts the cloud of legal fears from the shoulders of pot smokers. But legalizing pot would almost certainly lead to much wider smoking of the weed, leaving millions damaged for life.

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Editor:

For 45-plus years now, I've been advocating the re-legalization of marijuana.

At last there seems to be a light at the end of the long dark tunnel of cannabis prohibition for several states have re-legalized medical marijuana and two, as you know, have gone as far as to re-legalize pot period.

However in Colorado the state's legislators are working feverishly to circumvent the will of the people to insure the cannibus black market thrives. One way they're doing this is by imposing high taxes that will raise the price of high grade pot to some say $400 an ounce. (Black market is around $2-300 an ounce.). So why do this? Well on the political right there's A.L.E.C. A pseudo lobbying group that represent corporations in writing right wing legislation. Among their clientele is Correction Corp. of America, the largest for profit prison systems in the U.S. Studies have shown that those imprisoned on pot charges are by and large low maintenance high profit prisoners.

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A jazz track opens with a mellow piano and bass duet. Then a swelling cymbal roll.

You hear people coughing, the air conditioner running.

The sound of Bill Evans' live recording of "My Foolish Heart" is even richer where a man with graying hair sits. He keeps pillows propped on the back of his living room couch to help with acoustics.

The former music professor designed the stereo system to convert high-resolution music from digital to analog. Then it's amplified and pumped through two tower speakers.

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I agree wholeheartedly with Linda Burt of the American Civil Liberties Union in her letter of June 11, "Wyoming should consider decriminalizing pot."

Every American should read "Smoke Signals" by Martin A. Lee. Mr. Lee tells about how marijuana was demonized by Harry Anslinger back in 1934 when he determined to convince Congress and Americans that a dangerous new drug was threatening the country.

He did this because tax revenues were down and his department in the government was on the chopping block. It was also a way to promote racism against African Americans, Mexicans and Asians. The laws put in place at that time were truly draconian.

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Editor:

The New England Journal of Medicine did a poll recently where they asked doctors worldwide if they would prescribe medical marijuana to an elderly woman with cancer.

Seventy-nine percent worldwide and 76 percent of U.S. doctors said they would.

In another poll, 76 percent of Americans favor re-legalization of medical marijuana while 56 percent favor total re-legalization.

So why isn't pot legal?

Well, aside from the obvious, corporate profit, have you ever considered that the anti-gunners also don't want pot legal? The reason? Ninety percent of the gun violence in the U.S. is "drug war" related. With 85 percent of those who use any illicit substance only smoking pot, re-legalization would definitely reduce the scope and size of this war thus reducing the gun violence this war, like all war, brings with it. So it stands to reason the anti-gun lobby would also oppose marijuana re-legalization. Re-legalizing would put a real kink in their disarmament argument with the reduction of violence re-legalization would bring with it. And by the way that last statistic shoots the gateway myth now doesn't it?

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Marijuana has become the drug of choice for police departments nationwide n a trend that is playing out with serious consequences here in Wyoming.

According to a report released by the ACLU this week, law enforcement has turned much of their zeal for fighting the failed War on Drugs towards the enforcement of marijuana laws in communities across the country.

In Wyoming in 2010, police made 2,254 total arrests for marijuana. Fully 93.3 percent of these total arrests were for marijuana possession, not the manufacture or sale of marijuana. Marijuana possession arrests accounted for 67.1 percent of all drug arrests in Wyoming that year.

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CASPER, Wyo. - Wyoming is bracing for increased marijuana crimes because of Colorado's new constitutional amendment allowing anyone over 21 to use the drug.

The Casper Star-Tribune reported Tuesday that police officers predict increased cannabis flow through Wyoming because of the Colorado pot law. The newspaper points out that no point in Wyoming is more than 180 miles from Colorado or Montana, which allows marijuana for people with certain medical conditions.

"With Wyoming being a neighboring state, I would suspect you'll see an increase in marijuana use," said Tom Gorman, director of the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program.

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CASPER, Wyo. - Access to marijuana has never been easier for Wyomingites with transportation. Any point in the state is no more than 180 miles from either Montana, where medicinal marijuana is permitted; or Colorado, where recreational usage is now legal.

In late 2012, Colorado and Washington became the first states in the nation to not only decriminalize but allow adults over 21 to possess an ounce or less.

Under the current Wyoming state law, anyone arrested for possessing up to an ounce of the drug could face up to a year in jail or up to a $1,000 fine. No immunity is offered for those who purchased or received a prescription from out of state.

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A speeding Chevrolet Impala was carrying two passengers, 115 pounds of high-grade marijuana and $3,000 in cash Sunday night when it was stopped near the Utah-Wyoming border.

Driver Shaval Green, 35, of Margate, Fla., and his passenger, 24 year-old Willie Lofton of Lithonia, Ga., are being held in the Uinta County Jail in Evanston, Wyo., on felony charges of possession of a controlled substance in plant form, possession of a controlled substance with the intent to deliver,. and conspiracy to deliver controlled substance.

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