EJF Newsletter —Marijuana use and sales in eastern El Paso County
El Paso County, Colorado, Commissioners
Insofar as is known there is one, and only one method that has been repeatedly demonstrated to significantly reduce the use of illegal drugs in a population. Legalize them!
I listened to all of you individually go on about liberty and freedom during your campaigns. But the first time citizens demand such freedom you have jumped up on your podium and threaten to take what they have voted for away.
Are you so naive and oblivious that you are unaware that marijuana is being sold throughout El Paso County, and will continue to be sold irrespective of any action you may take? The only question is whether it will be sold on a free market or the black market.
Clearly the citizens have voted for a free market and an end to the crime and violence that always coexists with prohibitions. Perhaps you could fulfill your basic obligation of fully funding the sheriff without increasing taxes if you didn't impose such ridiculous burdens on him as the one you now propose. As Ronald Reagan, the man most of you claim to have been your mentor, so wisely stated: "Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives." And may I remind you that our republic is designed to work from the ground up, not from Washington D.C. down and that you derive your "...just powers from the consent of the governed." With regard to marijuana that power has been revoked with a Constitutional Amendment.
As the graphic posted below illustrates, marijuana is one of the safest plants available. Hemp (Cannabis sativa) and its derivative, marijuana (Cannabis indica), is also one of the most widely used, and useful plants known. The medicinal uses of marijuana are unquestioned.
If the commission's objective is, as claimed, to protect the citizens of El Paso County they would be better advised, though foolish, to ban pharmacies and prescription drugs that result in tens of thousands of deaths each year. And people using marijuana are not known to go on violent and murderous rampages like those on many prescription drugs. By the standards the county commission seems to want to apply even aspirin should be removed from grocery stores. And I well remember a flight I was on where a child died from the airline's snack, peanuts.
Before Republicans began the insane War on Drugs, marijuana was virtually absent from schools. School children are generally not interested in fooling with a drug that is legal. Use some common sense for a change and stop trying to dictate what plants citizens can ingest.
Why make a mockery of the law simply to support your primitive prejudices and ignorance? Is power and control so important to you that you can't bear to grant citizens the freedom they have demanded?
Charles E. Corry, Ph.D., F.G.S.A.
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| EJF Home | More newsletters | Get EJF newsletter | Find Help | Join the EJF | Comments? |
Issues The Equal Justice Foundation Deals With
| Civilization | Families and Marriage | Global Domestic Violence | Domestic Violence Against Men in Colorado |
| Courts & Civil Liberties | Emerson story | Prohibition & War On Drugs | Vote Fraud & Election Issues |