Letter to Governor Chris Gregoire
polymatheism@gmail.com
http://polymatheism.com
http://blog.polymatheism.com
5/3/2011
Dear Governor Gregoire,
My name is Frank Colletti, and I am a constituent and resident of this magnificent State of Washington. I am 28 years old, and a registered voter in my district of the City of Tacoma, and Pierce County. I am also a LEGAL medical Cannabis patient, authorized by an ARNP as compliant with RCW 69.51A.
I, like many others, are currently at great jeopardy due to your actions in the line-item veto of Senate Bill 5073. Specifically, your veto of the items that would have created a legal dispensary model and framework to operate licensed under the Departments of Agriculture and Health.
By vetoing these items, and leaving in the item pertaining to Designated Providers only being allowed to change patients once every 15 days, you have in one fell-swoop outlawed, criminalized, and closed ALL of the dispensaries, co-operatives, and patient networks in the State. By which, you have put the health, safety, and livelihood of approximately 371,000 or more of your State’s residents in turpitude and loss.
I, and many others, will not take this threat lightly, or sitting down. I have been quite vociferous in the very short matter of time since this bill passed as law, and have already bolstered support numbering in the two to three thousand area, (note: not me personally, but this cause and our organizations that I personally am a member.)
I can tell you now, that I personally am a very active part of our government, and I will use all of my connections in activism and volunteering, as well as my personal website, blog, and podcast. With which, I intend to usurp your seat in power within the most important position in our great State, by means of which are most important and critical to you and those seeking your position. Votes and constituency support.
Beware, because that seat is a privilege that is bestowed upon you by the grace of our wonderful and conscientious voters, and there are close to a half a million of us here in Washington alone, that are directly affected by your decisions and actions this past week.
We can, and WILL displace you from your position if you do not change this horrendous measure you’ve taken, and for what? I ask you, why did you make this law? The bill was drafted almost perfectly, and would have improved the rights, lives, and quality of care for the patients directly affected by it, and ultimately a higher standard of living for all Washingtonians.
Why would you take the spirit of that tremendous bill and horrendously, viciously, and maliciously turncoat the meaning on us? I can’t believe that you, as a lawmaker and enforcer, would not have been able to foresee the consequences of your vetoes. Could you, honestly and under oath, say that you didn’t realize what would ultimately result from them?
If the answer is yes, then you actually possess less sense and foresight than my four year old niece who can already tell that if one piece moves to intersect with another on the chessboard, that the piece being intercepted will be taken. This is basically reasoning and pattern recognition and I would sincerely hope that this isn’t the case.
However, if this isn’t true, then the alternative is that you knowingly and intentionally closed down the entire medical Cannabis access network throughout the State. By doing so, you have literally thrown hundreds of dispensary owners, their employees, and their thousands of patients on the street and said “Go fend for yourselves as criminals on the Black Market.”
At this time, I would like to address the common misconception that is prevalent about medical Cannabis, and the patients. Simply put, many (if not most) think that the medical Cannabis movement is simply a group of “Hippies and Stoners” that want to get “high” legally. I can tell you, with evidence that is both anecdotal and cited that this is simply wrong.
My anecdotal evidence is my personal illnesses that I treat with medical Cannabis. I am 28 years old, and for the last 18 of them, have been Type-1 Diabetic. Because of this disease, I have suffered through several bouts in the hospital for a number of reasons, and have resulted in several complications including: neuronal degeneration (nerve damage), parasthesias (phantom pains), and most significantly Gastroparesis.
Gastroparesis is the condition in which my stomach, Vagus nerve, and in fact nearly all of the smooth tissue in my bowels are all paralyzed, for lack of a better term. This results in my digestion and subsequent nutritional uptake being slowed to nearly none. This also severely affects my appetite and I suffer from chronic conditions such as: pain, nausea, vomiting, wasting, constipation and more.
Now, these afflictions, all of which are horrific, and any one alone would be enough to make someone unable to work or do much of anything. However, due to my medical Cannabis, this safe, effective, wonderful, natural plant, I am able to live a relatively normal life with a fairly high quality of life, compared to most with my condition.
This is entirely due to the efficacy of the active Cannabinoids, the active molecules in the Cannabis plant, which are regulated throughout the body by a natural system like our hormonal system, called the Endo-Cannabinoid system. This system in the body, any endocrinologist will tell you, regulates some of the most important functions in the body. Including inflammatory response, muscle tension and spasticity, and the Gastric motor system, just to name a few.
There are several active Cannabinoids in the plant, nearly 65 in fact, however two are the main focus of current research, and have been proven time and again in laboratory and blinded, peer-review scientific studies, to have significant medical benefits with little to no risk on the body systems of the patients.
All of the afflictions I suffer from, every one, is relieved with nearly 100% efficacy by this safe, natural, organic medicine. It has been grown by the best of minds, and with the greatest of care and consideration for the inevitable consumer, whether they suffer from Gastroparesis, or Cancer, or HIV/AIDS.
I am absolutely and unequivocally behind this plant, drug, herb, medicine, or whatever you call it. My entire life changed when one kind doctor, named Ali Manning Thomas, MD., finally decided that I was a “qualifying patient” as guided under RCW 69.51A, and he wrote my first “Authorization to Possess, Grow, Transport, Obtain, and Use Marijuana for Medical Purposes.”
By doing so, he freed me from the prison of the pharmaceutically engineered poisons that I was previously dependent upon, known as Reglan (metoclopramide) and Erythromycin. Both of which, I am horribly allergic. I have significantly gained back quality of life.
My thesis, simply put, is that your actions have now put at risk me, and the approximately 400,000 of us medical Cannabis patients in this State. (These statistics are as of 2008, and a study done by http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org) I can’t be more clear or concise. You have, with the stroke of your pen, made every one of us a criminal, and turned us into a group criminal enterprise, without regard for the constitution of our State, or this nation. This is also without regard for our current laws and system of regulation for medical Cannabis.
Those of us that are directly affected by this will most certainly make use of our families, friends, and acquaintances; along with the social media and networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, and alternative media such as podcasts and YouTube. We WILL take a stand against you!
We cannot sit idly by, while you forsake our liberties and you pursue this treason and witch hunt on the people of this tremendous, libertarian and democratic State. We The People passed a law nearly thirteen years ago, by Voter-Approved Initiative 695, providing the RIGHT to access our medicine safely, and LEGALLY, and protection from prosecution or harassment by you or your like.
You will feel the cold vengeance and retribution we will reap upon your “tower of power” as Governor, and you will be removed from that and any office you may seek in this State and any closely aligned with it.
I thank you for your time, and urge you to consider the views expressed herein, and please make a change. You have the power to work with our legislature to peacefully, and reasonably resolve this situation, the fault for which is solely your own.
Sincerely yours,
Frank Colletti
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