I couldn’t agree more with Ann when she says that voters should do some research to gather facts on each candidate before the elections.
If you don’t have access to the Internet, you can take advantage of one of our greatest community resources – the public library – and use the computers there to go online and visit the websites of each political candidate.
Voting is a grave responsibility, and we owe it to ourselves and our fellow Americans to research our current and potential elected officials thoroughly before casting our votes on November 2nd.
Politics can be confusing, with so many candidates throughout the state running for so many offices and discussing thousands of different issues.
Don’t leave such an important matter until the last minute. Start doing your research now and in the coming weeks so that you have time to really get to know who is running for what and which candidate you prefer.
While I have voted every year since I turned 18 and consider it both my civic duty, and an honor, this year I am also very excited about voting.
I cannot wait to cast my vote for my friend, Jay Selthofner, who is running as an Independent for State Assembly in District 41 on a platform of “Talking about Hemp and Cannabis with Truth, Honesty, and Compassion”.
He has a unique plan to stimulate Wisconsin’s economy in many sectors, from farming, to equipment manufacturing, to product manufacturing, and more.
If you would like to research Jay’s viewpoints and find out where he stands on the issues, you can visit his website: www.JaySelthofner.com and also his blog: www.jayselthofner.com/.
Vote for Jay and Let’s Get Growing!
Jessica Franke, Treasurer, Friends of Jay Selthofner
Letter to the Editor in the Ripon Commonwealth Express, to submit your letter to the editor (LTE) to this newspaper, here is the link and instructions. Letters must be signed and include address and phone number. They should be no more than 600 words; brevity assures best readership. The editor may restrict writers to one letter per month. Thank you Bill Werch for you continued support and recent LTE!
Letter to the Editor
The Illinois governor granted more than 11,000 pardons for low-level marijuana convictions on Tuesday, December 31, describing the step as the first wave of thousands of such expungements anticipated under the state’s new marijuana legalization law.
Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker announced the pardons at a church on Chicago’s South Side. He said clearing the misdemeanor offenses from individuals’ records will make it easier for them to get jobs, housing and financial aid for college.
It is absolutely appalling to me that marijuana could have been criminalized in the first place. The idea that I could lose my house, be fined and jailed for growing a plant is just wrong!
Then on January 1, the first day of legalized marijuana sales, more than 77,000 transactions were made that added up to nearly $3.2 million in sales.
Think about how that huge amount of tax revenue would help Wisconsin. Even more importantly we wouldn’t have to waste money on enforcement of this unjust law.
Our law officers could use more of their resources to fight real crimes.
If you have a problem with someone using marijuana, you are the one with a problem. Mind your own business.
Minnesota legislators made no time to talk about medical cannabis this past year. Sad that Minnesota keeps its government nose between a doctor and patient. Culture change is difficult. Decades ago while working as a RN the health care industry started to use CGI “Continuous Quality Improvement” programs to evaluate outcomes of health care. “Evidenced based practice” is one of the results. Patients and insurance companies want results and a bang for their buck. Outcomes and the costs of government programs (including prisons and the ‘justice system’) on every level must be evaluated and real conversations should take place without the screams from special interests.
Conservative, liberal and religious voices have become louder these past years about the failed war on drugs. Legitimate questions about which does more harm, the drug or the legal results if you’re arrested are taking place. Deadly and addicting cigarettes and alcohol are taxed and regulated while since 1970 over 40 million cannabis arrests have been made. Many police have died, and a trillion plus dollars spent so far, with no end in sight.
President Obama increased ‘prohibition’ spending 12x over President Bush. Is a drug arrest worth the $100,000 plus we spend to prosecute and imprison someone? Our nation currently has people in federal prison with 5 year prison terms over cannabis SEEDS, is that worth the $200,000 prison cost for that “crime”? Prohibition does more harm than the drugs. Prohibition not only supports organized crime it supports the bloated anti-drug law enforcement government programs. Like welfare reform of the 1990s we need drug war reform now, as prison and police costs are busting the budget and the outcomes have been more harmful than the ‘drugs’.
No question “drug use” by minors is unwise, no question drug use by adults does harm. As an old Detox Nurse I say it is time to treat drugs as a public health problem, not with the bloated and costly “government program”, the prison and justice system.
The harmful effects on health and society outweigh any potential benefits
By VAN WANGGAARD | April 2019
Fifteen years ago, Wisconsin outlawed public smoking because it is harmful. Today, many of the same anti-smoking advocates favor legalizing marijuana because they believe it isn’t harmful.
The increasing popularity of recreational marijuana is not reason to legalize it. In fact, the more we learn about the impact of recreational use, especially in Colorado, the more we should take caution. Crime and traffic deaths have increased. There are more than twice as many marijuana stores as there are McDonald’s, according to a 2018 report by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.
The negative impacts in Colorado, where marijuana has been legal since 2014, outstrip any revenue gains. In short, the reality of legalized marijuana doesn’t match the rhetoric.
While advocates claim marijuana isn’t a “gateway” drug, the facts are clear. While not every marijuana user goes on to “harder” drugs, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported in 2013 that marijuana users consume more legal and illegal drugs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that marijuana addicts are three times more likely to be addicted to heroin. That’s because marijuana “primes” the brain for enhanced responses to other drugs. By its very nature, THC — marijuana’s main psychoactive compound — serves to make a user desire other drugs.
The marijuana from the 1960s and ’70s doesn’t resemble the marijuana of today. It’s been genetically engineered over time to heighten its effects. In fact, marijuana today is three times more potent than it was just 20 years ago, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. In the first three years of Colorado’s legalization, marijuana potency increased nearly 25%. Worse yet, I recently learned from the Milwaukee Police Department that nearly all the marijuana sold in Milwaukee is laced with the highly addictive and dangerous opioid Fentanyl.
While the effects of the new, more powerful strains of THC haven’t been studied in depth, the older, less powerful ones have been studied. The results aren’t encouraging.
Persistent marijuana use leads to a significant decline in verbal ability and IQ and alters brain development, studies have indicated. Canadian studies have shown that there is a relationship between marijuana use during and following psychiatric episodes and violence. Other studies have shown links between marijuana use and increased risks in offspring of psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, depression and anxiety. Ironically, advocates often claim that marijuana eases these disorders, not that they cause them.
In Colorado, short-term health detriments associated with legalized marijuana have emerged as well. Marijuana hospitalizations are up 148% in four years, and emergency room visits have increased 52%, according to the HIDTA report. A new study found a 300% spike in marijuana-related ER visits in that period. Suicides in which a person shows traces of marijuana are up 60% to 140%, depending on the year and age.
Senator Van H. Wanggaard
Majority Caucus Chair
Senate District 21
(R – Racine)
Harm beyond the individual
Some will argue that marijuana only harms the person using it, implying the state should stay out of it. That might be a valid argument if only it were true. We have all sorts of laws that limit personal freedom for the greater good. For the safety of everyone, government either prohibits or requires something — from building permits to seatbelt use to mandatory insurance.
Those marijuana hospitalizations cost everyone, not just the patient. In Colorado, violent crime has increased almost 20% since legalization, and property crime is up over 8%, according to the HIDTA report. Traffic deaths have increased 35%, and just marijuana-related traffic deaths are up 151%.
Supporters will point to racial disparities in the enforcement of marijuana laws, but those disparities are not unique to marijuana laws. The solution isn’t to eliminate laws. To the extent that more African-Americans are arrested and prosecuted for marijuana possession than other races, that disparity is little different than the disparities for other crimes.
While we’re at it, let’s dispense with the argument that we’re filling up our prisons with people convicted of simple pot possession — black or white. It rarely happens. The 11% of inmates in Wisconsin prisons on drug-related convictions aren’t just marijuana users. They’re dealers and worse.
The argument that drug-related crime will decrease with legalization is false as well. Organized crime is on the rise. In California, 74 marijuana “grow houses” in the Sacramento area were underwritten by Chinese organized crime, authorities say. Chinese, Cuban and Mexican drug rings have set up shop. In Colorado, over seven tons of black-market marijuana were seized, the HIDTA report said.
You may wonder why Colorado even has black-market marijuana since it is legal there. From the Boston Tea Party and the Whiskey Rebellion to today, Americans go to great lengths to avoid taxes. Hence, the rise in organized crime and black-market marijuana to skirt the 15% tax.
That’s not to say Colorado doesn’t earn revenue from its legal marijuana. The state is earning about $250 million per year — that’s less than 1% of all revenues. In Wisconsin, it would be an even smaller percentage.
When one looks dispassionately at the evidence, the conclusion is clear. Following marijuana legalization, crime and traffic deaths have spiked. Organized crime and human trafficking have moved in and/or expanded. Hospitalizations and suicides have increased. The research on individual health effects is mixed at best and downright scary at worst. Taxpayers and families bear the burden of these costs — all for less than 1% of state revenues. And by the way, marijuana remains illegal under federal law.
The costs of legalizing marijuana for recreational use outweigh the benefits — and it’s not close.
State. Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine) served as a Racine police officer for nearly 30 years. He is chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety.
As printed in the Wednesday October 20th Edition of the Ripon Commonwealth Press. The newspaper can be found on-line at www.RiponPress.com
Some people say part of the problem with politics is the acceptance of main stream media outlets that showcase a two party system. People perhaps feel the system is broken from the start and are disengaged from the beginning. Putting people back into politics should first start by people on the ballot and then voting based on the name of the candidate on the ballot, not the party that paid for them.
Traditional politicians seem to dance around every issue rather than keep in constant communication so they may vote based on the will of the people. Instead the votes come and go without the people knowing what is being voted on. The marijuana issue is a perfect example, once thought “dangerous to address marijuana reform as a candidate”, the marijuana issue was once as taboo as smoking pot itself. Some would even say “political suicide to support pot”. Now, some say talking about hemp and cannabis (marijuana) with truth, honesty and compassion is a threat to the two party system itself and perhaps is the “real political danger” at hand.
Perception sometimes leads people to believe the only people supporting marijuana reform are third party candidates. Perhaps we should look at the traditional candidates who support reform of marijuana, but yet do not talk about hemp and cannabis with the truth, honesty and compassion of the third parties. Perhaps ‘they’ do not want attention drawn to “the” issue that could take some of their power away and give it back to the people. I personally think that this is no more evident than right here in the race I am in; all candidates support reform and believe it to be part of the solutions to the problems we face. The ‘marijuana issue’ is not my issue, it is our issue.
The facts are clear and the smoke about marijuana is starting to clear quickly. Industrial Hemp, Medical Marijuana and Recreational Cannabis are ingredients needed for comprehensive legislation on the issue. Wisconsin is ready to lead and move FORWARD on the issues as our motto suggests. We cannot keep standing idle as the rest of the world, country and states around us move forward. We need jobs, we need lower taxes, we need better healthcare, we need more efficient government, we need alternative fuels and energy, we need healthier foods, we need to move toward sustainability, we need alternatives not excuses.
I have been called “a man of the people in the greatest sense” and told that I “do not parade false patriotism, but address the most important issues of our time in the context of hemp, a wrongly forbidden alternative to petroleum, pharmaceuticals and alcohol.”
I appreciate these words and realize the magnitude of which I ask, for you the voters of State Assembly District 41 to take the first step to heal our hurting economy, citizens and state budget by casting your vote for me on November 2nd. With the confidence you place in me, I will represent the district with the passion it deserves.
Thank you.
Independent Candidate for Wisconsin State Assembly
Several years ago, I read a book called Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.
This book tells the story of some of the courageous women who literally fought until the day they died so that you and I (ladies, that is) could have the right to vote. One of my proudest moments was when I gave my copy of this wonderful book to my mom, and after reading it, she told me that she now feels very strongly about not wasting any opportunity to vote.
Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. AnthonyPub. Date: October 1999
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Synopsis
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were two heroic women who vastly bettered the lives of a majority of American citizens. For more than fifty years they led the public battle to secure for women the most basic civil rights and helped establish a movement that would revolutionize American society. Yet despite the importance of their work and they impact they made on our history, a century and a half later, they have been almost forgotten.
Stanton and Anthony were close friends, partners, and allies, but judging from their backgrounds they would seem an unlikely pair. Stanton was born into the prominent Livingston clan in New York, grew up wealthy, educated, and sociable, married and had a large family of her own. Anthony, raised in a devout Quaker environment, worked to support herself her whole life, elected to remain single, and devoted herself to progressive causes, initially Temperance, then Abolition. They were nearly total opposites in their personalities and attributes, yet complemented each other’s strengths perfectly. Stanton was a gifted writer and radical thinker, full of fervor and radical ideas but pinned down by her reponsibilities as wife and mother, while Anthony, a tireless and single-minded tactician, was eager for action, undaunted by the terrible difficulties she faced. As Stanton put it, “I forged the thunderbolts, she fired them.”
The relationship between these two extraordinary women and its effect on the development of the suffrage movement are richly depicted by Ward and Burns, and in the accompanying essays by Ellen Carol Dubois, Ann D. Gordon, and Martha Saxton. We also see Stanton and Anthony’s interactions with major figures of the time, from Frederick Douglass and John Brown to Lucretia Mott and Victoria Woodhull. Enhanced by a wonderful array of black-and-white and color illustrations, Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony
is a vivid and inspiring portrait of two of the most fascinating, and important, characters in American history.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (seated) with Susan B. Anthony (standing)
Publishers Weekly
When Paul Barnes suggested that Elizabeth Cady Stanton be included in the film portraits of notable Americans that Ken Burns was planning to make, Burns barely recognized the name. Marginally more familiar was that of Susan B. Anthony, Stanton’s comrade-in-arms in the struggle for women’s suffrage. But as this book–the companion volume to the documentary that will appear this fall on PBS–splendidly reveals, theirs is the story not merely of two remarkable 19th-century women but of a major political movement, the end of which has yet to be written.
This dual biography of the pair by the historian Ward emphasizes the impossibility of treating either one in isolation from the other. Anthony’s grasp of the practical complemented Stanton’s philosophical imagination–as Stanton wrote, “entirely one are we.” Ward restores Stanton to her proper place alongside Anthony in the history of the women’s movement and sensitively handles the more problematic elements of their political positions, especially in regard to their resistance to the enfranchisement of former male slaves before the vote was extended to women of any color.
Additionally, there are essays by prominent women historians, including a provocative discussion of Stanton’s contemporary reputation by Ellen Carol DuBois, and the wealth of illustrations that we have come to expect from Burns and his associates. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Author Biography:
Geoffrey C. Ward, historian, screenwriter, and former editor of American Heritage, is the author of ten books, including A First Class Temperament, which won the 1989 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 1990 Francis Parkman Prize. He has written for numerous documentary films, including The Civil War, Baseball, and The West, and is currently at work on two books: Jazz: An Illustrated History and A Disposition to Be Rich.
Ken Burns, director and producer of Not for Ourselves Alone, has been making award-winning documentary films for over twenty years. He was director of the landmark PBS series The Civil War and Baseball and executive producer of The West. His work has received or been nominated for Emmy, Oscar, Grammy, and Academy Awards, among others. He is currently producing a series on the history of jazz.
May 2nd – 8th marks the second annual Hemp History Week, which
celebrates the health benefits and sustainability of the hemp plant.
Hemp is not marijuana and before the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act, hemp
cannabis had a long and distinguished history in America. Industrial
hemp is grown from non-psychoactive strains of the Cannabis plant and
consuming hemp products will not get you high.
The United States of America is the only industrialized nation in
which it is illegal to cultivate this plant. As a nation, we import
all our hemp and hemp goods. As a nation, we are missing out on
multiple job opportunities and domestically manufactured products.
Hemp is jobs! Hemp should be made in America!
Products made from hemp fiber include paper, textiles, bio-plastics,
construction materials, kitty litter and fuel. From non-dairy
beverages, baked goods and cereals, to ice cream, waffles, and protein
powder, hemp is gaining momentum in the marketplace. Like soy, hemp
is a source of high quality protein and contains all nine essential
amino acids.
Hemp is a sustainable crop that can be grown without pesticides,
herbicides or fungicides and replenishes the soil while taking very
few nutrients. This diverse crop also suppresses weeds naturally
because of the fast growth of its canopy. The deep roots anchor and
aerate soil, reduce erosion, stabilize and enrich the soil. Hemp has
farm value even if no part of the plant is sold.
Am I missing something or are our elected officials?
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