News

Dispensaries Are Scheduled to Close Feb. 14 Medical marijuana businesses are a step closer to officially disappearing from Fort Collins.

Filing of documents kicks off a process that could lead to a measure allowing medical marijuana dispensaries with certain restrictions.

Nine medical marijuana dispensaries will be permitted in the areas of Sonoma County outside city limits, the county Board of Supervisors decided Tuesday.

Up to 25 Hospitalized by Deadly Ecstasy While some die dropping E, many have close calls. "Although the fatalities are tragic, the number of those who were hospitalized and survived is at least two to three times higher than those who died," says Dr. Mark Yarema, the Poison and Drug Information Service medical director and an ER physician.

Opinions

I've read the article =93Metchosin weighs in on legalizing pot=94 published on Jan. 18, in the Gazette and I also recognize that there is a strong push in this direction being made by a vocal minority in relation to this subject.

Fuming Over How Many Months It Takes for the State to Issue Medical Marijuana Cards The heady atmosphere of the early days of medical marijuana in Michigan seems to have dissipated. Back then, there was a celebratory atmosphere as dispensaries were popping across the state and money from ganjapreneurs in Colorado and California flowed in as they expanded into the newest market to welcome their wares. But Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette was less welcoming and led the charge against medical marijuana, particularly dispensaries, which have been raided and shut down in numerous areas of the state. Individual patients and caregivers have been prosecuted and found guilty when they believed they were in compliance with the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act.

Unless you have been living under a rock lately, you know that there have been a number of ecstasy related deaths in the Calgary area. While an ecstasy dealer was recently arrested in Banff, it is unclear whether or not the deaths are going to stop since the ecstasy is still circulating within the area.

Some people shake in their boots at the thought of legalizing marijuana. The idea that it could be regulated and controlled like alcohol and tobacco scares the hell out of them. Those people are ignorant and disillusioned, and it's at no fault of their own.

Letters

To the Editor: The use of synthetic marijuana is an unintended side-effect of the war on natural marijuana. Consumers are turning to potentially toxic drugs made in China and sold as research chemicals before being repackaged as legal incense. Expanding the drug war will do little other than add to what is already the highest incarceration rate in the world. Chinese chemists will tweak formulas to stay one step ahead of the law and two steps ahead of the drug tests. New versions won't be safer. Misguided efforts to protect children from drugs are putting children at great risk.

After reading about "Charles" and his misadventures with the "killer weed" in the Feb. 5 article by Rebecca Jones, "Valley teen: Marijuana is widely available," I hovered between laughter and anger. The funny part is Charles's problems are implied to be caused by the availability of pot to state-licensed adults.

Writing from my perspective as a retired street cop, the Feb. 5 article by Rebecca Jones, "Valley teen: Marijuana is widely available," demonstrated the need to treat marijuana like alcohol, that is, legal, regulated and taxed. Kids are not selling beer and cigarettes in school, just an illegal drug like marijuana.

Re: Metchosin weighs in on legalizing pot, News, Jan. 18, 2012. The move of several municipalities to urge the legalization of cannabis will, I hope, have some influence of national policy, or at least police enforcement.

Editor: Not only should medical marijuana be made available to patients in need, but adult recreational use should be regulated. Drug policies modeled after alcohol prohibition have given rise to a youth-oriented black market. Illegal drug dealers don't ID for age, but they do recruit minors immune to adult sentences. So much for protecting the children.

Drugs did not spawn Mexico's organized crime networks. Just like alcohol prohibition gave rise to Al Capone, drug prohibition created the violent drug-trafficking organizations behind all the killings in Mexico.

Re: "Message is simple: If you do the E circulating on the streets right now, you're going to need one of these expensive, shiny boxes," (Jan. 31). What a disappointing column by Michael Platt. Surely only an ignoramus would warn us against using a particular illegal drug without pointing out the screamingly obvious point here: Illegal drugs are always inherently dangerous. Clean, pure, government inspected legal drugs are not. Does Michael Platt know nothing about prohibition?