My response to Senator Jeff Sessions' "canned" reply letter

The following is body of a letter that will be mailed tomorrow in response to a reply letter I received from Senator Jeff Sessions. 

November 21, 2009

Dear Senator Sessions,


This letter is in response to the “canned” response letter you sent me. While I appreciate your staff taking the time to respond to my original letter, I would ask that at least one of them or yourself actually take time to read the letter before responding in the future. Not only was my original letter asking you to support Medical Marijuana for Alabamians in need, it also asked that you put the 70 plus years of negative propaganda about this beneficial plant out of the picture.

Your response letter claims that you fear “legalizing marijuana, or decriminalizing its use, would encourage today’s youth to turn to more deadly substances, such as heroin and cocaine.” Your letter goes on to say that while at a hearing of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, you “listened to four teenagers, each of whom is recovering from heroin addiction” and you were “struck by the fact that the first drug each of them had used was marijuana.” That statement directly references the “gateway drug” theory that, time and time again has proven to be just another lie in the propaganda storm that has raged since Harry Anslinger’s bold faced lies to Congress 1937. If we follow that thinking, most people’s first drink was milk, be it their mother’s breast milk or a man made formula. Does that mean we are all destined to be alcoholics? I think not, the only thing that makes the “gateway drug theory” even remotely true is the prohibition on marijuana itself. Prohibition of this beneficial plant has pushed its care and control into the hands of street level drug dealers who not only sell marijuana but also heroin and cocaine. These street level dealers are smart enough to know if “they” can move their customers to harder drugs they can make more money. These street level dealers have also never been bound by any law that forces them to ask for ID to verify age, and they never will. If you want to blame anything for these four teenager’s addiction to heroin, look at the bureaucracy that started it all, not a beneficial plant.

Senator Sessions the overwhelming majority of cultures on this planet have considered marijuana medicine for thousands of years, including our culture. Prior to the early 1900’s and the re-discovery of aspirin half the medicines in this country were cannabis based. The research is out there for you to know the truth, and I feel it is in your best interest as an elected official for Alabamians to do a little reading for yourself. Alabamians deserve the same rights and freedoms afforded persons in the growing number of states that have adopted medical marijuana laws.

Your letter concludes: “I believe our policies should deter people from using these substances, not encourage or endorse them. However, I recognize that this issue is important to you, and I will certainly keep your thoughts in mind should this matter come before the senate.” So which is it? You can’t have it both ways.

Mr. Sessions I can assure you this issue WILL come before the Senate, and as a constituent who helped you get elected, I urge you to do the right thing for Alabamians. The tide is turning, more and more of the people that placed you in office are learning that it was racism, greed and out right lies that banned marijuana in the first place, and we as a whole demand the same liberties that have been granted to the people of Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.


Sincerely,
Christopher Butts, Seeker of relief and safe access