HIGH TIME WE TALK POT
Responses to enforcement news
Re: “It’s high time we took a breath from marijuana,” Sept. 30 Bob Troyer column
U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer asks “Where has our breathless sprint into full scale marijuana commercialization led us?”
We live on land near the New Mexico border and know where it has led us: we are surrounded by unregulated indoor grows.
These growers buy isolated acreage in Las Animas County, build commercial size greenhouses, run generators to power grow lights, and truck in thousands of gallons of water daily. Las Animas County has become a “source county” and lacks the resources to get these “profit opportunists” out.
Troyer is right: we didn’t foresee this facet of blackmarket profiteers buying up the land, polluting the environment, using water at an alarming rate, and creating increasingly precarious living conditions. We would love a pause. We are third generation Coloradans, and we want to reclaim our right as citizens to have a say in our health, safety and environment. Cindy Adams and Michael Hurley, Trinidad
Wow! What an article by Bob Troyer, the U.S. attorney for the District of Colorado. He has some terrible things to say about Colorado’s decision to legalize marijuana. He makes it sound like it’s brought nothing but death and destruction to our state. He claims that the youth use rate has increased at a rate 85 percent higher than the national average. If that’s true, maybe it means that instead of 1 in 100 youth users, Colorado now has 1.85 per hundred. And he claims Colorado doesn’t see any revenue from the marijuana industry. I thought that we were netting a couple hundred million (some of that going to our schools). And best of all, he states “Let’s reclaim our right as citizens to have a say in Colorado’s health, safety and environment.” We did Bob! We passed it with a clear majority! I hope someone with the correct statistics can respond to Bob’s diatribe. Michel Godbout, Golden I applaud Bob Troyer, the U.S. Attorney for Colorado for standing up against the marijuana industry.
His opinion piece hit the nail on the head. Our state is drowning in marijuana and because it is so readily available our population is suffering.
It saddens me to see the industry targeting children through the use of colorful pot infused candies, gummies and sodas.
Our streets are filled with drugged drivers who are being told to use because marijuana is harmless. Tell that to a mother who lost her child due to a stoned driver. And every community is affected. Potshops are purposely opened in lowincome neighborhoods in the effort to hook that unsuspecting population.
When are we going to say enough is enough? We need to really sit back and reevaluate allowing marijuana into our lives. The price is just too high. Justin Luke Riley, Denver
I can cherry pick facts from studies that do not have sound science or logic (like proper sample sizes). But I wouldn’t use my position in public office to do so. “Colorado transportation and public safety officials, however, say the rising number of potrelated traffic fatalities cannot be definitively linked to legalized marijuana. Positive test results reflected in the NHTSA data do not indicate whether a driver was high at the time of the crash since traces of marijuana use from weeks earlier also can appear as a positive result.” All of these “facts” that show marijuana is causing things like a rise in kids smoking and a rise in alcoholism can more likely be linked to the population boom that has happened in Denver over the past 10 years. Just because we’re stoners or smoke weed, doesn’t mean we aren’t logical and can easily spot someone scapegoating a whole new industry. And sure, when the state is spending upwards of $20 billion a year, maybe $250 million doesn’t sound like a lot when you talk in pure percentages. But I don’t know one politician who would say no to $250 million when the state is in debt by billions.
Please stop writing policy with a clear cut agenda of your own. Write policy based on actual, logical facts. Henry Clark, Thornton