Letter: Encourage Green Power and Legalize Marijuana
Thomas M. Walsh
March 24, 2008
Kalamazoo Gazette
Recent articles in the Kalamazoo Gazette have inspired me to respond to several points. Would it not be sensible for the governor to encourage the Legislature to pass a bill to make all electric suppliers in Michigan buy green power generated by anyone in the state, especially by people who have backyard solar and wind generators?
In the same vein, how about a tax break for all those who buy solar electric and wind generators and again to those companies that start up and hire employees to build solar and wind generators?
Another point: I have worked with hospice and in my experience have seen the positive results for those patients in pain when they smoked or ingested marijuana.
I have observed for years the efforts of the administration and its mislabeled war on drugs which has placed hundreds of thousands of citizens in prison because they chose to smoke a plant that millions use regularly in the privacy of their own homes.
This has resulted in the overcrowding of the prison system at great expense to the rest of the population.
I would recommend legalizing marijuana for those over 21 and taxing the sale so society could profit rather than making it a law enforcement problem and ruining the lives of otherwise productive taxpaying citizens.
Thomas M. Walsh, Plainwell | 
