LETTER: Don't loosen marijuana rules

Montana is 49th in state income, and cannot afford the marijuana initiative, I-182. It has many restrictions, regulations, limitations, and very weak enforcement and as a result abuses will occur.

Law enforcement under this proposal will be difficult as local and state police enforcement will not be able to make unannounced inspections of marijuana facilities; enforcement is through the Department of Health and Human Services, DHHS. Also a person licensed by DHHS can be a partnership, association, company, corporation, LLC, or organization. This initiative is designed to establish a marijuana industry, not just for limited medical use. Passage of this initiative is an expansion of the current marijuana policy and could lead to future expansions, such as recreational marijuana.

There will be many problems and abuses associated with this proposal. The enforcement of 1-182 is weak. This can lead to abuses such as fraudulent registration cards, abuse of growing only limited amounts of marijuana, and illegal distribution to the general public, including children eating marijuana cookies, which happened in Colorado. These abuses create an increase in crime, traffic accidents, gang formation, and may lead to a gateway for opioid and heroin drugs and increase costs of overall social services, drug dependency, and increase the risk for dementia. Colorado has now become an illegal distribution center for drugs to other Western states such as Wyoming, Nebraska and, yes, Montana.

I lived in Colorado for many years and since then the state has greatly changed; there is increased crime in many smaller mountain communities, like Buena Vista-Salida and larger ones, like Colorado Springs. There are pot parties, in the condos by the ski areas and on the ski hills, in the national forests, and everywhere in the large cities. Do we want to expand marijuana activity in Montana now, which may, in the future, look like Colorado, impacting our life and our recreation areas and forests?

Let the voters decide. Become informed responsible citizens on Election Day, Nov. 8. —Nancy Carlson, Bigfork