Matt Simon pwns NH Attorney General on “incorrect” and “misleading” letter about medical marijuana
Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 5:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
Matt Simon from the New Hampshire Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy is featured in an excellent piece in today’s Concord Monitor:
State Attorney General Kelly Ayotte and county prosecutors have aggressively pushed back against a bill that would legalize marijuana for some seriously ill patients, sending lawmakers a letter calling marijuana an addictive drug and claiming that reclassifying marijuana as medicine could undermine efforts to keep youths from trying drugs. The bill’s supporters decry the letter as “misleading” and have circulated a seven-page rebuttal of the two-page letter.
You should click over to the story and read the whole thing; it’s one of the fairest pieces of reporting on a medical marijuana story I’ve seen. Matt’s rebuttal is wonderful, with footnotes to published references to back up his assertions! It’s a great template for anyone looking to rebut specific Reefer Madness claims for your next letter to the editor.
I just wanted to clip this portion at the end of the article:
Only one of the 10 county attorneys didn’t sign the letter: Coos County’s Bob Mekeel. He cited two reasons.
“The first is, really just as a general principle. It’s my job to enforce the laws. It’s not my job to make them,” he said. “I just don’t think it’s appropriate to tell the Legislature what the law ought to be.”
How refreshing! How many times have you heard, when you point out the cruelty of marijuana laws to police supporter, “Well, it’s just their job to enforce the laws; they don’t make ‘em!”, and then the very next week there are police at the state capitol testifying against a medical marijuana bill? You can’t have it both ways!
His second: As a personal-injury lawyer for 25 years, he represented people who were in “terrible plights” and had lost limbs.
“In those instances, really if anyone in that situation can get relief from anything, I just don’t think I should stand in the way of that,” Mekeel said.
I’ve always maintained that the quickest way to get a medical marijuana law passed in your state would be to mandate one week of volunteer time for every state legislator to help out at a cancer hospital, an AIDS hospice, or a pain clinic once per session.
