[420 Girl]

NJ - Our elected officials pledge to "faithfully, impartially and justly" perform the duties of their office. With this in mind, I was surprised by the Jan. 22 commentary "New medical marijuana law will increase teen drug use" by Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini, R-Monmouth.

To "impartially" serve constituents, politicians should provide information and data from impartial sources to help us make decisions, not to espouse opinions in such a public forum. In her commentary, Angelini said legalized medical marijuana is one of the causes of an increase in teen marijuana use. Quoted was a study stating, "10 of the 15 states with the highest percentage of teens admitting to smoking marijuana in the last 30 days have lived in states with medical marijuana programs."

If this is trying to make the case that the new law will increase teen drug use, where is a statistic on the change in smoking after those states passed the law? That would be valuable, impartial information to help constituents make a decision. Angelini also stated that "an 18-year-old high school senior can legally walk around with 240 joints." But this law is all about easing the suffering of terminally ill patients or those with chronic pain, not high school seniors. This type of propaganda is unacceptable from our elected officials.
We all throw a gutter ball occasionally. Angelini should take one more roll, and provide us with impartial data to help us come to our own conclusions.


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