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To: DailyEmerald.com With all due respect, your position opposing Measure 33 is silly. First, your complaint that it requires patients to register with the state misses the mark. Registering with the state is part of the current law, not part of Measure 33. Many of us were concerned about this provision in the original OMMA in 1998 but our fears have not come to pass. The registration system has turned out to help patients and law enforcement a great deal. You say the proposition is "unwarranted," but you don't address the real suffering by qualified patients who can't obtain an adequate supply of medical marijuana. Measure 33 is a law that will provide medicine to suffering people and relieve their pain. We can argue about potential abuses and political theories but Measure 33 is about getting patients medicine. How do you justify perpetuating bad laws that deny patients medicine? Measure 33 is not legalization. It is not trying to be. It is a law designed to make life easier for suffering people. Opposing this compassionate measure because it is not some Libertarian dream legalization is irrational. Do you think for a minute that opposing incremental changes and siding with total prohibitionists like the drug czar makes legalization more likely? Your final point is the $560,000 in estimated costs. So what? Are you against people spending money? ALL of the $560,000 costs will be offset by program fees that will only be paid by willing participants, not taxpayers. The current program that mereley registers sick people has a budget surplus of over $1 million. When dispensaries pay fees on the regulated sales of medical marijuana, it will generate tens of millions of dollars in revenue that will save taxpayers money. Just what part of this are you opposed to? John Sajo
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