An outrageous delay

Nearly two years ago, Arkansas voters passed a constitutional amendment that granted sick and dying people legal access to marijuana. Soon after, the Arkansas Legislature proceeded to devise various measures meant to throw every possible obstacle in the path of the amendment's implementation.

The outcome has been a circus of not-so-funny setbacks for over 5,000 patients already qualified for this medicine. Now the earliest estimated date for the availability of medical marijuana is summer 2019.

This outrageous delay and its collateral damage rest at the feet of every elected official now holding the power to jump-start this program. Even though the amendment requires that marijuana for medical use be produced in this state, the time has come for the governor and/or legislators to introduce an emergency measure to import marijuana from other legal states to provide for credentialed patients until such time Arkansas can scrape its sorry act together.

Research continues to show that cannabis is effective for seizures, spasms, nausea, PTSD, and pain. A New Mexico study found that 84 percent of patients who received access to medical cannabis reduced their opioid prescriptions. Israeli researchers discovered that smoking cannabis improved many of the symptoms associated with Parkinson's disease. Another study found that cannabis substituted for prescription medications in 63 percent of patients.

What is the point of continued suffering when patients in 29 other states have legal access? Who among our elected leaders has the courage to provide for Arkansas people as this amendment intended? Governor Hutchinson?

DENELE CAMPBELL

West Fork

Doesn't negate other

Linda Barnes' recent letter, regarding a woman's right to her own body in its entirety, is spot on, and the good news is that woman's rights do not collide with a desire for fewer abortions.

In a January 2017 analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, the rate of abortions in the U.S. per 1,000 women was lower in 2013 and 2014 than before Roe v. Wade. The U.S. population in 1973 (the year of Roe v. Wade) was 203.3 million and there were 615,831 abortions, compared to 2014 when our population was 318.6 million and there were 652,639 abortions.

What that means is that for every 1,000 women, ages 15 to 44, there were 16.3 abortions in 1973 compared to 14.6 in 2014, which means Roe v. Wade did not increase abortions, nor will destroying women's rights reduce them.

According to Guttmacher and the World Health Organization, developed nations that legalize abortions have lower abortion rates than nations which criminalize abortions because those developed nations beyond our borders also improve women's opportunities through laws and education; provide science-based reproductive information and the means for a woman to choose when and if she wants a pregnancy; offer quality, universal prenatal care; pass generous maternity leave laws; and provide nursery and pre-kindergarten programs for all children until they enter well-funded public schools.

If Senators Cotton or Boozman or Representative Hill claim we cannot afford programs which actually reduce abortions, they are insincere in their claim to be pro-life and fiscally conservative.

Here is a reminder for them. They voted to increase the debt by more than $1.456 trillion when they passed their 2017 tax bill, a windfall for the wealthy and corporations, while working Arkansans were tossed chump change and the promise of cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, as a start.

BOB REYNOLDS

Conway

Should stick it to 'em

Most logical thinking people know that if you keep poking a snake with a stick, he's gonna bite you! It seems that a lot of people wonder where Donald Trump's stick was when he met with Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin. Maybe, instead of shaking their hands, he should have punched them out. I suppose that would have put us in a good position for negotiating with them.

You can and should negotiate with your adversaries, but, of course, at arm's length.

RAY HIGHTOWER

Little Rock

Not the first priority

I believe that Donald Trump is a businessman first, and his future plans come first also. The art of the deal is long-range planning.

Being POTUS is just a stepping stone to meet his end plan. The American people are way down on his list of concerns.

SUE FRANZ

Hot Springs Village

With nuclear football

Have you been having those existential thoughts and nightmares since early November 2016? Have you become a prepper and begun hoarding water, non-perishable food, and ammo? Have you ever imagined we would be threatened just as back in the days of the old U.S. versus USSR rivalry with the M.A.D. hypothesis keeping us all warm and cozy and safe (global warming to the nth degree)?

Does anyone really know what Trump ruminates about late at night between sweets and tweets? Does he worry about us, American citizens, or does he worry about Donald Trump (in the face of Mueller and the FBI)? And who really knows what Trump and Vladimir Putin say to each other behind closed doors? Is it trustworthy?

In the unlikeliest event, let's say as unlikely as a wannabe-tyrant such as Trump ever being elected president of the United States of America, that Putin (with foreknowledge) would launch a first strike against the U.S., what are the probabilities that Trump and family would already be jetting in their accustomed style and luxury aboard Air Force One over the North Pole toward Moscow with a deflated football?

Think about the man, folks. He's 100 percent con.

PHILLIP CORRELL

Little Rock

Time to step on down

Nearly every day there are stories in the paper of people who, while serving in positions of trust handling money and bookkeeping, created schemes to steal from private employers, government agencies and offices, sports organizations, volunteer groups or others. It's amazing to me that, in many cases, they found ways to steal very soon after they started their jobs.

Now we have an Arkansas legislator, state Rep. Mickey Gates, who is another great example of greed and evidently thinks the laws don't apply to him. While the rest of us are working and paying our share of taxes, he thinks it's okay to accept our tax dollars for pay as a legislator, but ignore the taxes he owes to Arkansas--estimated to be more than $250,000.

No one who ignores the law deserves to be part of government that makes laws. Gates needs to resign pronto or hear those words, "You're fired!"

JOYCE WILLIAMS

North Little Rock

Well, that explains it

I believe I have finally figured out the reason for many of President Trump's character faults.

It is so difficult to adjust to being married to and living with one woman. He has had to do it three times.

GEORGE W. McCLAIN

Little Rock

Editorial on 07/23/2018