Pubdate: Mon, 08 Sep 2014
Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2014 The Tribune Co.
Contact: http://tbo.com/list/news-opinion-letters/submit/
Website: http://tbo.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446
Author: John G. Chase
Page: 12A
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v14/n727/a04.html

BOTTOM OF THE BARREL

Trib readers knew Amendment 2 was winning even before they opened the 
Sept. 3 paper and found the front-page article ("Pot proponent hurls 
obscenities on video") about the video taken of John Morgan at the 
post-debate celebration with "a microphone in one hand and a drink in 
the other" using language suitable to that occasion. Then Trib 
readers found the letter reporting Amsterdam has a "lost generation" 
of young people, that their IQ had dropped 10 to 15 points due to 
marijuana, and they were dropping out of high school. I have been 
following the Dutch cannabis situation for 16 years, and 1 know that 
neither statistic about Amsterdam is true.

Meanwhile, millions of Floridians who benefit from medical marijuana, 
and their families, continue to risk arrest as opponents scrape the 
bottom of the barrel to find something - anything - to stop it. 
Amendment 2 needs 60 percent to pass, so it's not a done deal yet, 
but if voters come out to vote, it will. Then perhaps we will have a 
rational conversation about regulation.

JOHN CHASE, PALM HARBOR
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom