Optimisim about profits or cures?
Dear Editor: We’re being told that marijuana is the answer to our opiate addiction. I’m skeptical.
Opium was popular in the mid to late 1800s. It was touted as a cure for alcohol abuse. Once opium fell from favor, the answer to opium was the new derivative – morphine. Morphine addiction became rampant, so the answer came from a new compound from Germany called heroin. Before federal regulation, these opiates, along with cocaine, were sold over the counter as the cure to just about anything. Now, in our history of one drug replacing another, comes the savior of the “natural” herb cannabis sativa. Natural is in quotation marks because the marijuana that grows in nature is nothing like the genetically engineered and carefully bred product sold today.
While we all hope that research finds useful pain relief, including research on cannabis, the few available studies that may show a correlation between medical marijuana use and a decrease in opiate use are far from definitive. With Colorado’s 1.5 billion in marijuana sales, it is clear that major players are here, raising the specter of Big Mary joining the ranks of Big Pharma in its public relations and sales campaigns to push higher and higher use and profits.
Before we start feeling too good about the increasing use of marijuana in our state, we need to remember to keep a watchful eye on marketing claims for the drug, and for the adverse effects it brings along with it.
~Joel F. Shults
Walsenburg, CO
Bullying Essay
As a subscriber of the World Journal my favorite read is about the youth from Huerfano County. It is especially exciting to read about family members. Congratulations to Shelby Faris, Amanda Dotter, and all the winners of the Bullying Essay. You are Winners Indeed!
~Edna Faris
Dust Denver, CO
If only…
If only human parents cared as much about their offspring as much as some birds care about theirs.
I raised a baby bird (Brewer’s blackbird) last summer. It (Goonie) took feeding every 15 minutes, twelve hours a day, for four weeks. I taught it how to feed itself, to fly, and interact with its original colony so it could migrate south with them.
Believe me, a parent bird would never keep a snake in its nest with its offspring.
I’m a reformed gun collector. My guns were always secure. I sold most of my collection when I moved to Colorado.
Assault weapons are exactly meant to assault humans, by design. You can’t use them to protect your family, they are ballistic. They will travel through your house and into your neighbor’s house. A shotgun is your best defense, or a hand gun if you’re a marksman like me. I’m also a victim of a gun, I lost my left eye at nine years old from a ricochet 22 LR target shooting.
Be a responsible gun owner, protect your children, or you may have to deal with the reality that you had a snake in your nest all along.
~Tom Kolafa,
Walsenburg, CO
Thoughts on Huerfano’s new MAMBA
Dear Editor,
I read with buoyant enthusiasm your front-page story in the February 22 edition about Huerfano County finally augmenting its woefully inadequate defensive arsenal with the acquisition of the MAMBA armored personnel carrier. And a handsome vehicle it is! Thanks for the photos! I have long advocated for beefing up our response capabilities in Huerfano County. After years of helplessly watching the endless wave of violent criminal activity that has taken its deadly toll on our community, it is comforting to see that we are taking pro-active measures to confront future ambushes. And if our national government can continue on its well-advised path toward forcibly disarming the Communist North Korean rogue state, perhaps Huerfano County could look into acquiring one of the smaller nuclear devices that we will likely liberate in our impending and overdue bloody-nose strike there. While the MAMBA is a wonderful first step in increasing our security here in southern Colorado, I, for one, would sleep a whole lot easier knowing that we also possess a nuclear deterrent to the flagrant lawlessness which has made life here in this once peaceful region a veritable living hell. What illegal cannabis grower is going to as much as plant a seed knowing that the reward for his labor might be a mushroom cloud over his ill-gotten harvest? Thank you, Huerfano County, for your foresight and vigilance on our behalf. I could not be more proud. God bless America, God bless Huerfano County, and God help us all.
~Kenneth Sajdak
La Veta, CO
