To the editor:

Please vote yes on issue 2 and no on issue 3.

The Ohio State Coroner's Association unanimously passed a resolution in May of this year to oppose the legalization of marijuana, and I am proud to have been the coroner to have seconded the motion.

Marijuana is literally the drug of death. For example, 40 percent of homicide victims have marijuana in their system.

There are also numerous national news stories regarding death and marijuana. Remember the man who ran naked into the street and ate the homeless man's face? Marijuana was the only drug in his system. The West Virginia “pretty little killers” who stabbed their best friend to death on the count of three did so after smoking pot. Trayvon Martin, who attacked George Zimmerman, had weed in his system. The Colorado PhD candidate who dressed like the Joker from Batman and killed theater patrons was on marijuana. The “gentle giant” whose death triggered the Ferguson, Missouri riots was on marijuana.

Marijuana is number two, only behind heroin, as the leading killer drug in Highland County.



The Food and Drug Administration doesn't classify marijuana as medication, and at present, nobody has convinced the U.S. Congress that smoking weed is medicine. ATF regulations still require an answer of "No" to the marijuana question when you purchase a firearm. Since when do states have the right to violate federal law? I'm very disappointed the US Attorney General is not enforcing federal law. Would the Feds ignore civil rights laws, if a restaurant excluded minorities? It is arbitrary to enforce some of the laws but not all of the laws.







Last year, I had a clean-cut student from Ohio University's School of Osteopathic Medicine do a medical rotation in my office. I was shocked when he confidently proclaimed that marijuana was not the bad drug, but rather tobacco was. His tone implied that he had been fully indoctrinated by some liberal professor at OU. (I pictured Donald Sutherland's philosophy professor character from “Animal House.”) I was shocked that this student, also an Air Force Academy grad, could be led astray from common sense, but then what I believe was the perfect illustration came to me.I told him that if you have a group of men with crew cuts and slide rules and sprinkled them with a generous amount of cigarettes, you can get a Saturn V Rocket that will fly to the moon … or the same group sprinkled with marijuana cigarettes, and at best, you get a drum circle and ponytails. He could not refute this because he knew from personal observation that marijuana keeps one from reaching their full work and life potential.Another thing that some of my colleagues are perhaps misguided about is an assumption that the drug level of marijuana correlates with the level of impairment like alcohol. The most violent visions and ideations I have been told by patients were marijuana users who were coming off of the drug, and their levels were approaching zero. I believe that marijuana violence is even higher than what the toxicology report might imply, because the withdrawal of marijuana can also be deadly. The reason, I believe, is an area where medicine overlaps the spiritual.In the New Testament, St Paul wrote of the grave sin of spiritualism. The Greek word he used is very close to pharmacy. At the time of Christ, drugs were used to call in spirits, that is fallen angels. The same is true today. I often see death due to drugs in the Coroner's office, and sadly I have learned that many are far separated from their Christian upbringing. Many literally have demons and devils tattooed right on them - not just little pictures either, and often more than one. The hair stands up on the back of my neck and arms thinking about some of these tragic scenes.Drugs like marijuana lead to laziness, selfishness, lower productivity, violence and death of the soul. Please vote yes on issue 2 and no on issue 3.Jeff Beery, M.D.Highland County Coroner