Monday, March 23, 2009

Patients Need Marijuana Bill

I had a great letter printed in the Montgomery Advertiser opinion section today about HB434.


Patients need marijuana bill


Bravo to letter writer Don Seibold for speaking out as a supporter of HB434. We can only hope our elected officials will demonstrate the same courage and vote "yes" when this bill comes before them.

In years past when this bill has come before the Judiciary Committee, one of the arguments against it has been that if we protect Alabama patients and physicians by passing this law the feds will swoop down on Alabama. However, on Feb. 25 during a press conference, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said that the Justice Department will no longer conduct medical marijuana raids in states that have passed medical marijuana laws. So, that is one less excuse the judiciary committee will have this year.
(2 of 2)

Here's two more tired, senseless excuses that we need to retire:

# Excuse: They can use Marinol, which is synthetic THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

Truth: Most people can't use Marinol because it's expensive and not covered by insurance.

# Excuse: Marijuana is a gateway drug.

Truth: There have been no reports from states that have passed medical marijuana laws of terminally ill patients moving on to heroin and home invasions because they used medical marijuana. Please, let's be reasonable. These are very ill patients we are talking about here.

HB434 protect patients who need marijuana for medical reasons. We cannot justify imprisoning people with chronic pain and terminal illness for trying to get relief from a natural plant.

Loretta Nall
Alexander City


7 comments:

Don said...

Why can’t I find your letter in the Advertiser even using the search box? The link you posted here doesn’t take me to it either.

Loretta Nall said...

They have started putting more than one letter per page. Used to be that every letter had its own separate link and page. My letter is the second letter on the first page and it carries over to the second page.

Don said...

Thanks. That’s a rather stupid change for the Advertiser to make, but the paper has been going downhill since Gannett took it over, so I guess this is just more of the same.

Newspapers across the country are dying and I think the Advertiser is a good example of why.

Loretta Nall said...

They do that same thing at the AL.com papers and always have as far as I know. What I wish they would all stop doing is allowing comments on letters to the editor. If someone has something to say about a letter then they ought to have to write in to the paper and sign their real name like the rest of us.

Don said...

Loretta, you wrote, “What I wish they would all stop doing is allowing comments on letters to the editor. If someone has something to say about a letter then they ought to have to write in to the paper and sign their real name like the rest of us.”

On one hand I agree because letters to editors must be signed by the writer, which eliminates all of the “anonymous” nonsensical comment crap. On the other hand, newspaper publishers may choose to not publish letters in reply to previously published letters. In the latter case, a lot of pertinent comments may never see the light of day other than in the comments to the letters that were published.

Since letters to editors must be signed by the writer in all instances, I’d like to see all editorials required to be signed by the writer/writer. As far as I know, among the major Alabama newspapers, only the Huntsville times editorialists do that.

Tim Lennox said...

Loretta! Regarding your comment "What I wish they would all stop doing is allowing comments on letters to the editor. If someone has something to say about a letter then they ought to have to write in to the paper and sign their real name like the rest of us." I couldn't agree more. When papers started doing that they invited the worst elements of TalkRadio onto their pages.

Loretta Nall said...

Tim I have seen you air that grievance on your blog a number of times. For a while I wasn't sure where I stood on it.

Then this jerk wad, who claims to be a cop, on the Montgomery Advertiser forums changed my mind altogether about commenting on the LTE's. And not just him...but anytime there is an issue of race, equal rights or gay rights some of the things said by what I assume are actual human beings make me cringe and make me ashamed to live here.

These people would never have the testicular fortitude to say such things in public or in a public forum if they had to use their name. They shouldn't be allowed free reign to spew their garbage. Some of them seem downright dangerous and it might be a good thing to know who they are.

I really wish I knew if my nemesis on the MA forums was really a cop. I'd bust his ass in a heart beat for spending all of his time on the clock posting hate filled diatribes on a newspaper forum.