Your letters in response to newspaper articles and opinions are an important part of educating voters.

So too, is posting comments to articles and opinions on line.

Good advice about letter writing and getting published can be found here: http://mapinc.org/resource/.

In addition to facts you will find in the pages of MassCann.org other facts you may find of value are at
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/53

Below is a small selection of letters by folks like you published in the last election cycle in MASSACHUSETTS.

More recent stuff can be found at News and Opinion 2011.

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Sun Chronicle (Attleboro, MA)

MEDICAL MARIJUANA SHOULD BE LEGALIZED

Years ago, if you had asked me about how I felt about medical marijuana, I would have laughed and asked what possible medical benefit could there be.

Since then, I have seen and experienced a lot of stuff.  I watched my mother struggle with stage four lung cancer.  They knew she wasn’t going to survive.

She suffered through a lot of pain and eventually stopped eating.  I can not help but wonder if maybe she would have survived longer with medical marijuana.

Perhaps she would have been able to continue the treatment that she eventually had to stop.  Maybe she would have continued to eat, giving her nourishment and strength.

Now, I suffer from a few conditions that are painful.  My medical insurance ran out, but even when I had it, my prescriptions weren’t doing much.  I was in so much pain that I wasn’t able to sleep at night.  Sometimes that is still the case.  If I take a sleeping pill, I end up sleeping way too much – waking up as late as 8 p.m.  If I smoke a little bit of marijuana every once in a while and once before bed, I have a chance at getting a good night’s sleep – and I am not suffering in nearly as much pain as I am when I don’t smoke.  I urge voters and the legislature to consider this.  Besides, wouldn’t it be silly to give a ticket for smoking marijuana to someone who is suffering through chronic pain?

Brett Weston, North Attleboro

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Newton Tab

 

IT’S TIME TO LEGALIZE POT

Newton – Newton voters have a chance to send a message to Senator Creem on where her constituents stand on the question of marijuana legalization.  Hopefully, voters will send a resounding message that it is time to sponsor a legalization measure in the state Senate to regulate the taxation, cultivation, and sale of marijuana to adults.

More than 40 million Americans either currently smoke marijuana or have smoked it in the past.  These smokers have included political leaders such as President Obama, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, George Bush, Dan Quayle, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Newt Gingrich and Michael Bloomberg; prominent business figures such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Ted Turner and Richard Branson; illustrious people in the arts and entertainment such as Pablo Picasso, Steven King, Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson; and world-famous astronomer Carl Sagan.  Would society have been better off if these illustrious people had faced criminal penalties?

In 1999, the National Academy of Sciences issued a report with these findings:

Is marijuana addictive? “Few marijuana users develop dependence …  less likely to do so than users of nicotine and alcohol.”

Does marijuana lead to harder drugs? “There is no evidence that marijuana serves as a stepping stone…”

Is marijuana more dangerous than tobacco? “Four times the amount of tar deposited in the lungs of tobacco smokers…”

Does marijuana cause cancer? “There is no conclusive evidence that marijuana causes cancer in humans…”

William F.  Buckley, noted author and conservative pundit, had this to say, “Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.”

John Madfis

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Boston Globe

 

WITH KIDS, DRUGS, VIOLENCE ALL IN MIX, HOW CAN LEGALIZATION BE A TABOO SUBJECT?

KEVIN CULLEN, in his column “Smoking, guns” ( Metro, Oct.  12 ) correctly states that a lot of high school kids are using marijuana and that there is violence associated with marijuana sales.  He admits that legalization might end the violence, but says that that discussion is “taboo.”

What?

We need a serious, non-taboo discussion of legalization for precisely the two reasons he mentions.  High school students have more access to dope than to booze because dealers never check ID.  With legalization, you can also have age regulations, a much more effective way of curbing teen marijuana use.  Likewise, with legalization, you can sell marijuana in nonresidential businesses that can afford to hire security.

Perhaps, as Cullen suggests, more adults would try marijuana if it were legalized.  But stopping the violence and protecting our children are both more important than telling adults what they can’t choose to consume.  They’re also both more important than Cullen’s conception of what discussions are taboo.

Andy Gaus
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Cape Cod Times

REGULATING MARIJUANA WILL KEEP IT AWAY FROM MINORS

I strongly urge voters in Falmouth and the Islands to vote in favor of regulation and legalization of marijuana on Election Day.

Addressing the comments referring to high school students, regulation will in truth make it more difficult for minors to acquire marijuana.

Currently minors can obtain marijuana more easily than they can alcohol.

That is certainly because alcohol is regulated, legal for those over 21 and not under that age.  Legalization does not allow using marijuana in public, nor while driving.  I completely agree with David Cooperrider.  In his letter of Sept.  30 he stated, “The legalization of marijuana is the prudent thing to do.”

Edith Aucoin

Bourne

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As was the case when racial segregation was the law, it is time for America’s legal system to correct itself. Unfortunately, reform voices are muted.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, referring to the Drug War

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