Letters to the Editor

News, April 29: “Sworn to Secrecy”

Follow the Money

Why is it anyone's business who is applying [to the Medical Cannabis Program for a Non-Profit Producer license]? Those who cannot, criticize those who can. If Ms. Dolk has the resources available to her, then perhaps she should apply for a license. I doubt she has a clue as to how much it truly costs to operate one of these types of businesses....

These are corporations that should be allowed to operate just like any other corporation. One of the primary differences is that a nonprofit entity has a board of directors that serves without compensation. In the case of the NM MCP, the LNPPs are required to have a minimum of three registered MCP patients and a medical director [on their board], as dictated by the Department of Health.

Why don't the patients protest the huge licensing fees? Where does everyone think that money comes from? It comes from the patients!

If the LNPPs paid a licensing fee like every other industry, the prices could come down.

Why doesn't anyone ask the DOH MCP why they need $2 million to run this program? (That's just counting the number of current producers, not any new ones.)

Why is there a license application fee of $10,000? Why hasn't anyone called for an audit of the DOH MCP for us to know where the monies collected are being spent or will be spent?

"How much are these people paying themselves?" That would be a question I would want answered of the DOH MCP personnel.

How much does Mr. Groggel get paid? What about Ms. Sundberg? What about all the rest of the staff?

BACALL58
SFReporter.com

Author Responds: Theses are public licenses that revert back to the New Mexico Department of Health, which controls the program. The licenses cannot be sold, brokered or exchanged. The LNPP licenses are not the property of any nonprofit entity.

The public has the right to know if they're being awarded to political cronies and big donors or awarded to reflect the diverse makeup of our state.

That means producers should test their pot and serve the public. Site inspection reports should also be made public, just like nursing home inspection reports are public record.

You should be prepared to stand for scrutiny when you participate in a public health program.

I know SFR and I will keep monitoring it in the public interest.

Peter St. Cyr

Blog, April 30: “Councilors Pass Fee on Paper Bags”

This is Great

It's a great thing! All should be doing this nationwide. Sick of seeing the plastic bags stuck all over our countryside. Just get the bags, which are reusable, and keep them in the car. Problems, many of them, solved!

Nancy Doreen Yancey
via Facebook

Cover, April 29: “Eyes on the Sky”

I camped at Chaco Canyon for two weeks. Laying there, looking up at the billions of stars, you feel like you're in outer space. I saw things in the night sky that I couldn't believe.

The vastness and beauty are really something.

Sher Quintana
SFReporter.com

Briefs, April 28: “Go Fluoridate”

Not Natural

The EPA describes fluoride as "salts that form when the element, fluorine, combines with minerals in soil or rocks." These salts occur naturally in water supplies like the Rio Grande.

The EPA is describing naturally occurring fluoride, which is not the stuff they put in the water. The fluoride chemicals used to fluoridate drinking water are hydrofluorosilicic acid, sodium fluorosilicate and sodium fluoride: toxic industrial byproducts (waste) from aluminum and phosphate fertilizer production, and recently US water departments have been purchasing their fluoride chemicals from Chinese industrial plants.

The detrimental effects on the body and brain of ingesting artificially produced fluoride as industrial waste are significant.

Marlo
SFReporter.com

3 Questions, April 22: “Richard Saxton”

Protect Food Supply

Safeguard America's Food and Export Act is in Congress to be voted on. Please encourage more support for the act, to protect our global food supply by banning the cruel and horrific practice of horse slaughter and prevent toxic drugs from entering the food chain.

Wild and domestic horses are treated with a plethora of drugs, vaccines and pesticides that are not for human consumption as well as bute, which has no withdrawal period and no real way to test clearly and absolutely for it.

Please prevent horse slaughter and toxic meat.

Nathan Miller
Cynthia Porter
Santa Fe

Blog, April 1: “Lee on Literature: The Trial”

From Kafka’s Home

Thank you for this! Writing from Kafka land: Prague, the Czech Republic.

Richard Demma
SFReporter.com

Santa Fe Reporter