April 18, 2014 — To the Editor:
Last week we learned that federal DEA agents had been conducting a three-month investigation inside various Seacoast communities in order to bring down at least two distributors of imitation cannabis, a substance documented to be much more dangerous than the herb it’s advertised to mimic. K2 or Spice, as it’s referred to, has been known to cause cardiac arrest and epileptic seizures, the latter a symptom for which the natural cannabis plant has been prescribed to treat. Just last year in Colorado, imitation cannabis had been linked to at least three deaths in an apparent string of overdoses, an occurrence, which has yet to manifest itself in the long history of natural cannabis consumption.
It is indeed both sad and ironic that a more dangerous and ever evolving drug surfaces on the market in a haphazard attempt to skirt the law and satisfy the desire of those seeking a cannabis stand-in. While campaigning, then candidate Barrack Obama had promised if elected not to “use justice department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue [cannabis legalization]” in favor of pursuing terrorism and violent crimes and yet he has overseen more than four times as many DEA raids on state sanctioned marijuana clinics as President Bush had. These DEA agents are paid with our tax money and they play with our tax money in arrests and ludicrous sting operations spurred by this cycle of drug prohibition and new drug creation.
New Hampshire needn’t give the DEA syndicate any more invitation to operate in the state by codifying and prosecuting users of a substance much less harmful than the alcohol found in our state liquor stores. It is up to our parents/guardians, churches and non-government organizations to discourage drug use and encourage a healthy lifestyle not the heavy hand of federal agents. New Hampshire has the opportunity to de-criminalize cannabis with a bill like HB 1625 and in turn de-incentivize the need for these dangerous alternatives.
Nelson Lourenco
Exeter
