Silencing the benefits of marijuana is fatal

The New York Times article (“An industry profits from addiction,” Another View, Nov. 18), correctly lambastes the pharmaceutical industry for putting profits over lives by pushing addictive opioid products for pain relief. Unfortunately, it carefully avoids mentioning the beneficial role of marijuana in curbing addiction deaths — some 64,000 last year. It cites a National Institutes of Health spokesperson who stated, “We need to develop new nonaddictive medications for pain,” but didn’t mention existing marijuana medications.

Two University of Georgia professors showed substantial decrease in opioid deaths in states permitting medical marijuana. Dr. Marcus Bachhuber at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine found almost 25 percent less opioid deaths in states permitting medical marijuana. The June 2016 edition of The Journal of Pain found that marijuana reduced opioid deaths by 60 percent. Even the conservative American Legion — and 80 percent of veterans — want to legalize medical marijuana. Is this silence or censorship of marijuana benefits really worth all these needless deaths?

Roger Carasso

Call your senators

Ask yourself, are you a billionaire? Are you an owner of a multinational corporation? If no, then this administration and current set of Republicans want nothing to do with you; they don’t care about you. What they want is everything, always, and we all get to fight for table scraps. Call senators, raise your voice, register to vote, help a friend register, then vote.

Richard Wilson

Anxiously waiting

I am anxiously waiting for Donald Trump’s denial that he ever groped any female under 18.

John Dienes

Los Alamos

Consulting with bikers

As you say (“Share the road, but pay attention,” Our View, Nov. 16), “Santa Fe must become more aggressive in setting aside bike lanes.” Unfortunately, there is limited focus by the city government on creating a bike-safe community. Until recently, Alta Vista Street was a popular bike-commuting route. But bulb-outs (curb extensions) narrowing the road to create unnecessary parking now make the street dangerous to ride at peak hours. Hospital Drive has suffered a similar fate. New plans for Guadalupe Street include bike lanes; whether these remain is a test of the city’s commitment.

There is no bias against bicycling — but a clear bureaucratic bias toward engineering-driven design solutions. The construction on Alta Vista Street was publicly justified by the need for traffic speed abatement. Yet bike lanes have conclusively shown they do this as effectively as bulb-outs. In Santa Fe, traffic projects frequently default to the concrete and parked cars option when better solutions are apparent.

Bike Santa Fe calls on the city to include input from experienced bicycle planners in all future traffic engineering and development decisions. This will help ensure our physical infrastructure serves all users equally.

Matt Kreitman

board member, Bike Santa Fe

Grateful for community

After attending the city’s Public Bank Task Force report (“City faces hurdles to create public bank,” Nov. 21), I am so glad to be a member of this community. Public banking is an old idea in Europe and North Dakota. It is a new idea here. We don’t know if it will work for Santa Fe, but how lucky we are to have city leaders who are willing to explore the idea. And how lucky to have experienced, intelligent people on the task force and in the community, who voluntarily spend their time to explore the details of how our financial resources could be conserved and invested for the well-being of our local community. And how lucky that David Buchholtz, chairman, has the legal and financial knowledge, wisdom and measured control to keep the work of the task force on track.

Dorothy Gamble

Putting health first

The Environmental Protection Agency’s mission is simple — to protect our health and environment. The Trump administration, however, has done just the opposite — it recently repealed the landmark Clean Power Plan and is moving to confirm nominees with strong polluter-industry ties to top posts at the EPA and other agencies. We’re glad to see that U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., is standing up to Donald Trump by condemning these awful decisions.

Sen. Udall recently highlighted how repealing the Clean Power Plan would harm future generations and has called out Trump’s EPA nominee Michael Dourson, tweeting, “Dourson has made a career of creating junk science for corporate polluters and the industry. He has no business at the EPA.” Now is the time to fight every attempt to dismantle the EPA and its critical environmental protections. We truly appreciate Sen. Udall for calling out those who aim to put polluters over people’s health.

Demis Foster

executive director, Conservation Voters New Mexico

Gene Karpinski

president, League of Conservation Voters

Washington, D.C.

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