May 07, 2014
Wednesday PM

Once again I am writing in response to what is in my opinion an uneducated letter about the legalization of marijuana. Marijuana does not make you violent. Anybody who has smoked some reefer or has a friend who does, knows this. If that was the case, we would have ten times the amount of marijuana smokers in prison. Colorado and Washington would not have passed the bill to legalize and, medical marijuana would not be legal anywhere. If that was the case then the president of Uruguay would not have been nominated for the Nobel Piece Prize due to the fact that he legalized weed completely. You can argue that it makes you lazy but, that's not the case. It all depends on you. There are plenty of pot smokers who function just fine on a regular basis because they do not let the pot control them, in the same sense that drinkers who can drink a few beers every night and not become an alcoholic.

On to point 1 from Mr. Marvin Seibert's letter: That student had never consumed cannabis before that experience, ate six times the recommended amount, and was alone. With that being said, it's a well known fact that marijuana can make you paranoid. That student had to have had a panic attack and not known how to deal with himself. What would happen if you took six times the recommended amount of an opiate painkiller you got from breaking your leg? You would have a high chance of overdosing and dying or, you would have a high chance of having a panic attack and doing the same exact thing that this kid did. Every nineteen minutes a person dies from prescription drug abuse. What happens when you drink six times the legal limit of alcohol? You get alcohol poisoning and have a very likely chance of dying from that. If you don't end up getting alcohol poisoning then you have a VERY, VERY high chance of hurting yourself or others. A blood alcohol level of .48 is six times the legal limit, they say you have a high risk of dying after you reach a .3 blood alcohol level. This student is the only case in which marijuana could have been a reason he jumped, just like you said. Marijuana COULD have been a reason, it has not been proven for sure. There could have been either preexisting mental stability conditions, depression issues, suicidal thoughts, or he could have been allergic to the plant. There are no for sure's on whether or not marijuana was linked to this death. I have friends from Colorado who have eaten that same amount if not more and been just fine. They should not have eaten that much but, the point is, marijuana does not make you kill yourself no matter how stoned you are. There would be recorded suicides from pot everywhere if that was the case.

Marijuana has been used for thousands of years so, there would be at least one more in a file somewhere on this earth. Once you ingest a certain amount of THC or CBD's you will fall asleep. That's the worst it gets other than if you are smoking and have asthma it could possibly irritate your lungs and cause a minor asthma attack, or, if you are allergic to the plant/chemical compound I am sure there is some sort of reaction you could have to it but not death. As for Mr. Kirk, he consumed a marijuana infused candy and possibly pain medication before killing his wife. She reported to the 911 dispatcher that he was "hallucinating". Marijuana does not make you hallucinate. It is likely he was having a panic attack just like Pongi (the student who jumped to his death). It is easy to jump to conclusions and blame marijuana for this incident but, really there is no one to blame but Mr. Kirk. Just like the case with Pongi, there would be at least five more records of incidents just like this. Obviously Colorado wont be distributing pot in normal vending machines that can be easily broken into. Why would the state allow that? If you look at pictures of the vending machines, they are extremely heavy duty compared to normal ones. You have to be crazy to believe that they will let these machines be easily broken into. As for pro marijuana celebrations, you should be exempt from getting a citation at a 4/20 event or other events such as the High Times Cannabis Cup. When Beerfest and other alcohol related events go on, people get wasted and don't get public intoxication citations. Why should it be different for a plant that makes you mellow out instead of become easily upset and rowdy like booze?

The Arctic Man event would be a much better place if pot was legal because the troopers who go out there would be able to focus more on the real crimes going on instead of the stoners toking up in their RV's. Fights break loose like crazy there, people ride their snowmobiles drunk, and there are people selling a lot harder drugs than weed. Drugs that we need to actually worry about.

So, with the facts laid out in front of you, which would you rather have? A world full of prescription pill addicts and drunks or, a world full of marijuana users? The difference is, marijuana is a non-violent drug with no OD cases ever, vs prescription meds, booze, and harder drugs like meth and heroin where there are violent crimes and overdoses on a regular basis.

Yours truly, an educated advocate,

W Craig DeBoer
Ketchikan, Alaska

Received April 30, 2014 - Published May 07, 2014

Related:

13PSUM -- Description.... An Act to tax and regulate the production, sale and use of marijuana.
http://www.elections.alaska.gov/pbi_ini_status_list.php#13psum

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