Proponents of competing medical marijuana proposals have begun sniping at each other. Private cultivation and methods of dispensation are among the arguments.

I’ve decided not to complicate matters by considering that debate when it comes to my vote.

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I’m voting for both the proposed amendment and initiated act, if both make the ballot. To do otherwise is to risk defeat of both. I won’t join any movement that fractures people who favor decriminalization.

Opponents of medical marijuana say that its approval will be the first step toward total decriminalization.

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I agree. And it’s about time.

With marijuana in some form now legal in about half the country and use on the rise, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that evidence of abuse has fallen. And the rate of marijuana abuse has never been high.

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Nothing I’ve read pushes me to believe marijuana bears comparison with the ill effects of alcohol.

It lacks the same degree of harm. The anecdotal evidence is abundant of the positive effects of marijuana for people with a variety of grave health problems. Arkansas’s surgeon general, Dr. Greg Bledsoe, says he wants more study. If research is so persuasive, he should be leading the march for alcohol prohibition.

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Enough.

If alcoholic beverages may be sold and consumed legally, so it should be for marijuana.

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If medical marijuana is a first step, I’m for any and all proposals to provide it.

The End.

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