response form senator regarding marijuana legalization email i sent

To Kay Bailey Hutchinson,

The legality of a substance does not necessarily dictate the harm it can cause. While alcohol and tobacco combine for over a half-million American deaths every year, marijuana has never killed a soul in the history of recorded statistics.

Children right now have unfiltered access to marijuana. Why, you ask? Drug dealers do not check identification, nor do they care if they are selling to a minor. In order to keep marijuana away from children, it needs to be strictly regulated and sold in liquor stores, so only those over a certain designated age can purchase it.

Regards,
your name





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hope that helps

 

Good post matt.

 

vote her out the senate....our politican are always declaring war...the war on drugs has been a failure b/c the gov has been bringing in the drugs to the USA...do research and watch a documentary...war against peoples freedom 2 smoke pot..

 

Make nature legal

 

how about (youll want to fix my citations cause they're ugly as fuck and i dont know what your email accepts)

Senator,

Thank you for your reponse regarding my commentary on marijuana legalization.

I agree with you that drug abuse is a serious problem. As you know, drug abuse has been rising amongst youth for some time now. This is a result of a failed drug policy. According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, "Half of 16- and 17-year olds say that among their age group smoking marijuana is more common than smoking cigarettes". "Marijuana continues to be easier to buy than beer: 23 percent of teens find it easiest to buy compared to 15 percent who find beer easiest to buy". (http://www.casacolumbia.org/absolutenm/templates/PressReleases.aspx?articleid=533&zoneid=66)

Let me also mention that the "national average of illegal tobacco sales to minors has dropped from 40.1 percent in 1997 to 10.5 percent in 2007" (http://www.apha.org/publications/tnh/archives/2008/August2008/WebExclusives/TobaccoSalesWebEx.htm) due to an implementation of stricter licensing on tobacco vendors. This is what we need to combat underage marijuana use. Legalizing marijuana gives Texas the opportunity to regulate the product. This means we can utilize a carding ID-system and be very strict on licensing vendors. As it stands right now, kids, no matter what age can buy their pot from drug dealers who care only about money. In addition to lack of age discretion, many of these drug dealers try and push harder drugs such as cocaine and LSD on buyers creating an artificial gateway effect.

Applying regulation to legal marijuana, just as tobacco and alcohol are legal opens up another opportunity: Taxation. Legalizing and regulating marijuana means saving billion on law enforcement and prisons while at the same time making a large profit from the $113 billion dollars worth of marijuana bought by recreational users per year.

"There is no record in the extensive medical literature describing a proven, documented cannabis-induced fatality" (http://www.fcda.org/pdf/young88.fcda.pdf i dont even know what the hell this is so i cant cite it, you may want to remove the quotes if you cant make it sound good), yet Tobacco and Alcohol deaths combined account for over 500,000 deaths per year. This is not to say marijuana is harmless, however according to medical data, it is far less lethal than its legal counterparts. It doesn't make sense to keep alcohol and tobacco legal while marijuana stays criminal.

Lastly, I'd like to remind you of the creed that our great nation was founded upon; the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. The purpose of government is to protect individual freedom. As former U.S. President Jimmy Carter: "Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession of marijuana in private for personal use". Please understand it is the responsible adult's choice to do whatever they like to their own bodies as long as it does not infringe on the rights of others.

Let us tax and regulate marijuana, to keep it out of dealers' and kids' hands, to keep those charged with simple possession out of jail and to create a new legal tax for state revenue.

Thank you,
blah blah

 

Good post, lots of information.

Since this politician seemed willing to have sort of a back and forth debate about this, citing the last sentence of her letter, I decided that a short and sweet answer would be best that answers her specific claims against legalization, instead of bombing all of the information on her at once.

This is an effective debate strategy called not laying all your cards down at once. It's commonly used in sports as well; a coach doesn't want to let the tricks all out of the bag at once.

 

Well I figured she's blinded with all sorts of facts she heard way back in reefer madness world so just straight arguing her with back and forth statements would not make her think as much as if I gave her legitimate facts. I think she already gets tons of emails with this "Pot is good. Legalize it." I've never really had any back and forth conversations with representatives..I figured they are too busy so state your case, make it short as possible while giving important points and send it.

OP maybe send this one then make a different email with a false name and send mine (take out the "thank you for your response part")

 

I believe that there is also a certain psychological advantage to matching the length and tone of the letter you are responding to.

There is no basis to back that claim up, it's just something I've noticed.

 

Let us know if he responds back after your next letter.