Dallas / Ft. Worth NORML

The legislature's final session is June 1, but various deadlines for submission and reading and stuff I don't understand occur throughout the remainder of May.

What this means is that the time is basically up for everyone to get their letters, emails, phone calls, whatever to their representatives. I combined them both in one email and sent it to Tan Parker, 63d District. I would have sent letters by post and called, excepthe's not on either the Criminal Jurisprudence or Public Health committees. And from what I know of him I don't expect him to give a pig squeal about either of these bills, except to be dead-set against them. But hey, it never hurts to try. Here's the letter I mailed him, if you want to copy this be aware that I am a Republican and I mention it in the letter, so you may want to take out those references. For Tan Parker, that could be the only thing that he would even think twice about, that fellow republicans are on the small govt/lower spending side of this issue. Anyway, here goes:

House Bills 164 and 902: Traditional Conservative Values

I'm writing to urge your support for House Bill 164, which is presently before the Public Health Committee, and House Bill 902 which is before the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee. I know you are not on either of those committees, but your friends on those committees should know that voters in your district support these two bills.

HB 164 seeks to offer protections to patients who use marijuana medicinally, as well as to physicians who discuss marijuana therapy with their patients. At the same time, it will not alter or interfere with already existing state laws discouraging the non-medical, recreational use of marijuana.

The use of marijuana as medicine is a public health issue; it should not be part of the war on drugs. Some 80 state and national health care organizations, including the American Nurses Association, American Public Health Association and The New England Journal of Medicine, support immediate, legal patient access to medical cannabis.

Passage of HB 164 would give modest protections to patients who have been authorized to use marijuana by their physician, and would allow them to present evidence regarding their medical use of cannabis in a court of law.

It is important to observe that Medical Marijuana states have seen a drop in teen marijuana use that far exceeds the national average. Most notably, California experienced a 42% reduction between 1996, when Prop. 215 was passed and 2006, the last year for which statistics were released.

This issue is personally significant to me because I have seen both my grandmother and a very good friend of mine wasting away due to the nausea induced by chemotherapy, my grandmother for metastatic bone cancer of the femur, and my friend from prostate cancer. I believe that anything which could have made them hungrier and reduced their nausea should have been available for them to try under their physicians care.

As a Republican I feel that the government has been too intrusive into our lives for too long now and we need to rein it in now at every possible opportunity. I do not believe the benefits to society of prohibiting the usage of this plant as medicine outweigh the the rights of doctor and patient to decide what treatments are appropriate.

House Bill 902 seeks to amend minor marijuana possession penalties to a maximum fine of $500, but no jail time. This would ensure that tens of thousands of otherwise law-abiding Texans would no longer be subject to arrest and possible incarceration. According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, over 60,000 Texans are arrested on marijuana possession charges annually, half of whom are under 25 years of age. It makes no sense to saddle these young people with a criminal arrest record or to put them in jail.

Removing the threat of jail time for minor marijuana offenders is supported by a majority of the public. In November, 65 percent of voters in Massachusetts endorsed a similar statewide proposal. To date, thirteen states -- including Nebraska, Ohio, Maine, and Mississippi -- have enacted marijuana laws similar to HB 902. Passage of this legislation in these states has not led to increased marijuana use or altered the public's perceptions regarding the potential harms of drug use.

In fact, the only U.S. government study ever commissioned to assess whether the enforcement of strict legal penalties positively impacts marijuana use found, ''Overall, the preponderance of the evidence which we have gathered and examined points to the conclusion that decriminalization has had virtually no effect either on the marijuana use or on related attitudes and beliefs about marijuana use among American young people.''

House Bill 902 is a common sense, fiscally responsible proposal that will cut costs without altering the public's attitudes or use of marijuana. I urge you to vote yes on HB 902. As a fellow Republican, fiscal issues are very important to me, and I feel that it is a waste of public funds for them to be allocated for the purpose of housing petty marijuana users in our jails.

Sincerely,