Smoke and mirrors
Re “The Pot Issue” (Feature story, Nov. 5):
Remember the top three addictive and damaging drugs on Earth are 1)
sugar 2) alcohol and 3) tobacco. All are legal and very profitable.
It’s better for big business if it can keep the debate about a
plant that anyone can grow. It’s like the magician’s trick
of distraction. It works and always will work. Just ask any
politician!
John Little
Reno
What’s up,
doc?
Re “Soldier against the drug war” (15 Minutes, Nov.
12):
Dennis Myers asks “Why doesn’t the medical community get
involved?” The answer, I think, is that docs are no different
from other citizens: They are so busy living their own lives they
don’t get involved, especially if involvement would expose them
to the wrath of the enforcers. The metaphor I use is a herd of antelope
being chased by lions. When the outliers get caught, the others run
faster, thankful to be alive. The enforcers count on that. The real
losers are chronic pain patients abandoned by their docs. Try Googling
“Richard Paey” or “Siobhan Reynolds” or
“Stephen Schnieder pain.”
John Chase
Palm Harbor, FL
Sacrificial lamb
Re “Bad” (Film, Nov. 5):
The film, in equal parts compelling, harrowing and moving—and
not just because we know what was to follow—is worth watching if
only to see what 16 years of sanctioned persecution looks like. The
reviewer is correct in reminding us why this film has even come to be
released in the first place. Michael Jackson’s early death was
not a given. Only the most imperceptive would deny that the slow drip
of the anesthetic that killed him was just a formality. What killed
Jackson was the sustained trauma of being put through a baseless,
protracted trial that should never have reached court, knowing that if
he was found guilty he would be removed from his children’s
lives. And even after acquittal, he faced the relentless vilification
of the media, who decided to simply disregard a verdict they found
economically inconvenient.
In years to come, perhaps reasons will emerge from the rubble as to
why a supernovic talent with a history of unparalleled giving and a
persona of complex innocence was systematically and willfully
humiliated, tortured and stripped of his dignity and spirit for a
period of over 15 years, on the basis of such astonishingly
non-credible accusations. These days everybody has an opinion about
Michael Jackson, myself included, but it can’t be denied that
when one looks behind the hysteria induced by Tom Sneddon, Evan
Chandler, Janet Arviso, Diane Dimond, Maureen Orth, The Smoking Gun and
countless others who put career and copy before a human life, you end
up with more of a collection of compelling questions than answers, and
a more than seriously uneasy feeling of something being not quite right
about the sheer level of engineered cruelty involved.
One day Jackson’s children will be confronted with the
horrific and painful realities of the circumstances that drove their
father to need to medicate himself in order to sleep. They will ask the
questions their family is already dreading. They will ask why their
father died and what led him there. They will ask what their father did
that made an entire country not only turn their back on him, but
effectively take away his rights as a human being. His children will
deserve to know the answers to these questions.
Deborah Ffrench
London
Up in smoke
Re “Nevada NORML office implodes” (Upfront, Nov.
12):
This article is so bad and incorrect. You need to research your
facts before you go to print. While Beth is no longer with Nevada
NORML, and I had left back in the spring of 2009, it surely had nothing
to do with being ousted or anything of the sort. Beth started the Las
Vegas Cannabis Club (www.lasvegascannabisclub.com)
in order to help patients and to be able to support candidates for
office that the National NORML does not allow from their state
chapters. This was strictly a personal decision in order to better help
Nevadans.
Billy Soloe
Las Vegas
Home, sweet home
Re “This Toxic House” (Feature story, Oct. 22):
You do not know what instructions Bank of America gave the agent.
Your article implies that the first offer did not have a deposit check
as you mention the deposit check only on the second offer. The bank may
have instructed her to only present offers with deposit checks. The
bank received an offer and accepted it. They instructed her to not
present any more offers. Your article implies that an accepted offer
can be overridden by a higher offer. The bank could then be sued by the
person who had the accepted offer. This article just sounds likes sour
grapes from someone who did not get his offer accepted. You do not know
how many offers were presented. You do not know what offer was
accepted. You do not know what criteria the bank used on this
property.
Matt Kofsky
Reno
Love your neighbor
Re “Letter plus insight” (Letters to the editor, Nov.
12):
Cary Cochran criticized prostitution and its
“glorification” in the recent Best of Northern Nevada
issue.
I, too, recently moved here, from Oklahoma. I immediately embraced
Reno as a diverse center of arts and learning, a kind of sampling of
some of the cultural fares offered in any big city. This area offers a
marketplace of ideas from which anyone is free to sample, take what
they like, and leave the rest. It is a place to come to know a wide
variety of people from all different backgrounds and from them receive
valuable insight and ideas—if one is willing to have an
open mind.
I applaud Reno for its efforts to continually improve the experience
it may offer to visitors and residents alike. I applaud the RN&R
for its efforts to provide a diverse and tolerant newspaper, a
catalogue of places and things that Northern Nevada citizens celebrate
and cherish!
When I observed that Anna Suvari won so many titles, I Googled her
to learn about her. I’m very proud of this person of my gender
who is so accomplished. Did Cary Cochran take any time to learn
anything about her before passing such a judgment? I wonder. She is an
inspiration to me! How can that be, you ask? She is a hooker. Well, I
receive inspiration from her because she is obviously proud, working
hard every day to improve herself for the benefit of others and
herself. I don’t understand how that can be considered bad.
Mary Magdalene was a prostitute, good enough for the company of
Jesus. I think if a hooker can be good enough for Jesus, we might want
to lower ourselves enough to let him/her be good enough for us!
I can’t speak for the mentality of my fellow Nevadans, but I
can tell you mine: I would much rather be surrounded by people who
concentrate on themselves and the pursuit of whatever walk of life it
is that interests them. Continually learning and moving forward with an
open mind and an open heart. A community of people who recognize the
accomplishments (talents, beauty, art, discovery) of their fellow
Nevadans and feel proud to call them neighbors.
Brionna Humes
Sun Valley