Thirty states now regulate marijuana’s therapeutic use, and eight states and Washington, D.C., authorize its use and sale to all adults. Here in Indiana, Gov. Eric Holcomb just signed legislation that for the first time permits patients’ access to cannabis-derived oils for those suffering from intractable epilepsy.
Nonetheless, Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill is still trying to mislead my fellow Hoosiers with fear-mongering and distorted data.
Contrary to Hill’s claims, statewide marijuana regulations are not associated with increased marijuana use or access by adolescents, adverse effects on traffic safety,increased crime, or workplace absenteeism.
By contrast, regulating marijuana is associated with less opioid abuse, fewer opioid-related hospitalizations, and fewer opioid induced fatalities. Such results have serious implications for Indiana, where ER visits related to opioids have spiked some 60 percent.
Unlike Hill, most voters now acknowledge that the enforcement of marijuana prohibition financially burdens taxpayers, encroaches upon civil liberties, engenders disrespect for the law, and disproportionately impacts young people and communities of color. It makes no sense from a public health perspective, a fiscal perspective, or a moral perspective to perpetuate the prosecution and stigmatization of adults who choose to responsibly consume a substance that is safer than either alcohol or tobacco.
Voters are tired of seeing over 600,000 of their fellow citizens arrested annually on marijuana charges. In Indiana alone, there were 67,872 arrests for simple marijuana possession between the years 2008 to 2012.
A majority of Hoosiers support broad changes to our state’s policies when it comes to cannabis. 73% of Indiana voters now support a robust medical marijuana program and 52% support outright legalization.
Furthermore, when presented with the simple question ‘should we tax marijuana like alcohol/cigarettes’ support rises to 78%.
Of course, reform our state’s marijuana policies does not mean replacing criminalization with a marijuana free-for-all. Rather, it means the enactment of a pragmatic regulatory framework that allows for the licensed commercial production and retail sale of marijuana to adults, but also restricts and discourages its use among young people. Such a regulated environment best reduces the risks associated with the plant’s use or abuse.
By contrast, advocating marijuana’s continued criminalization does nothing to offset the plant’s potential risks to the individual user and to society; it only compounds them.
Indiana’s laws will reflect this eventually – let’s stop arresting our neighbors in the meantime.
Steve Dillon
Chairman of the Board, National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)
Republicans put party ahead of country
Vice President Mike Pence has repeatedly said that he is a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order. I wonder where he places “American” in his list of priorities? Other Republicans have expressed similar sentiments and their collective silence and resistance to the facts surrounding the president’s ties to Russia and his admitted decision to fire the head of the FBI because he wouldn’t stop the investigation of these matters confirm that Republicans do place their ideology and their political party ahead of this nation. If you need any more proof of this, just think back to when they impeached President Clinton for lying about a sexual affair. Ask yourself what they would have done to President Obama if he had done a single inappropriate thing.
It’s bad enough that Republicans’ disdain for the Constitution and our democratic ideals has resulted in the suppression of thousands and thousands of voters and gerrymandered majorities in most states and in the House of Representatives but supporting the potentially treasonous behavior of the Trump administration in favor of Russia and its totalitarian murderous dictator is beyond comprehension and way beneath the depth I ever thought it possible for them to sink.
James Clark
Indianapolis
Trump not an ally of Catholics
As members of the Indianapolis chapter of Pax Christi, a Catholic organization that works for peace and justice in more than 50 countries, we disagree strongly with Vice President Mike Pence’s claim, quoted in IndyStar’s June 6th article, that “Catholics have an ally in President Trump.”
In support of that claim, the vice president said, “President Donald Trump stands with the most vulnerable — the aged, the infirm and the unborn.”
The president’s record, even after just a few months in office, directly contradicts that assertion. As Sister Donna Markham, president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA recently said, President Trump’s proposed budget includes “disastrous” and “cruel” cuts to anti-poverty programs such as SNAP, Medicaid and jobs training. If enacted, those cuts will hurt millions of vulnerable individuals and families, including thousands of families here in Indiana.
The president’s planned blows to the poor and the struggling are coupled with his aim to remove healthcare coverage for millions, his destabilizing remarks that elevate violence and aggression as a core foreign policy, and his reckless demonization of our immigrant neighbors.
All of these approaches by the president are diametrically opposed to the message of the Gospels and Catholic social teaching. They also run contrary to the strong calls for compassion and justice issued by Pope Francis, our Bishops, and our many clergy and lay leaders.
President Trump is not an ally to the least of our brothers and sisters, and he is not an ally to the millions across the globe who are working for a more peaceful and just world. Therefore, he is not an ally to Catholics.
Susan Blackwell
Terri Morris Downs
Rosalie and Stephen Kramer
Sr. Norma Rocklage
JoAnne Lingle
Fran Quigley
Mary Ann Verkamp
Karen Burkhart
Indianapolis chapter, Pax Christi
Weapons cost more than PBS
In response to David Taylor’s letter, agreeing with George Will that $240 million is too much to spend to fund PBS for a year, a Kestrel helicopter runs $241 million, a Poseidon aircraft is $290 million, and a Globemaster plane costs $328 million. The issue is about the direction of our country’s priorities.
J.J. Paul
Indianapolis
Find better use for PBS funding
I worked in broadcasting in Buffalo, N.Y., for 15 years. When we need to borrow equipment for a remote broadcast, we would borrow the equipment from the local PBS station. They always had the newest and best equipment, often times still in the boxes and crates in which they came. They couldn’t spend all the money given to them each year, so they constantly bought new equipment so that their budgeted allotment would be the same or more the next year. Yes, George Will is right. The money used to fund PBS could and should have better usage in the federal budget.
credit:indystar.com