Don’t strangle sputtering economy In his Sept. 24 letter to the editor regarding the upcoming Senate vote on climate legislation (Village News, page 6), Art Cooley asks, “Why is it that so few Republicans are committed to reducing the threat of the most serious environmental issue facing civilization?” I won’t pretend to answer for our Republican office holders but the likely reason is that Cap and Trade is a massive energy tax that will kill jobs, lower productivity and explode household budgets. In fact, the Heritage Foundation predicts increased household costs of nearly $3,000 annually, a $9.4 trillion dollar cumulatively loss of GDP and well over a million lost jobs.  All this for maybe a .5 degree Celsius reduction in temperatures. Even the EPA admits that without India and China on board, the bill will do nothing to address climate change. And if you look at Europe’s experience with similar legislation, you’ll find very little reductions in emissions (they actually rose before the recession), with much productivity and job loss (Spain’s unemployment rate is at 18 percent and climbing). Of course, the wheels are also falling off the bus of the man-made global warming theory as more and more scientists are protesting the UN’s official position on it (more than 700) and it turns out temperatures have actually been cooling since 1998. I have no problem with any senator voting against this oinker of a bill and have to question the motives of those in the House that passed it. Make no mistake, no one is against things that make our air cleaner, water quality better and food safer, but the law of unintended consequences always looms large in environmental policy (delta fish fiasco, anyone?) and many people, usually those at the low end of the economic spectrum, end up suffering. Should we be concerned about global warming? Sure, but the case that it’s being caused by man is far from closed and attempts to address it should be met with caution. Now is not the time to strangle our sputtering economy with sweeping new government regulations whose net positives remain questionable at best. Tricia Butler, La Jolla They are in it for the money It is becoming more clear that the San Diego City Council’s opposition to medical marijuana comes from a desire to protect the many pharmaceutical companies in the area from the competition of medical marijuana. It is becoming more and more clear that marijuana is a superior replacement for more than 80 common medications such as Advil, Tylenol, Aspirin, Aleve and Excedrin. Most legal prescription medications have unwanted side effects that can radically undermine a patient’s quality of life, but cannabis is so nontoxic that it rarely causes any problems. Cannabis competes with anti-psychotic, anti-depressant and other mood-altering drugs. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression. Marijuana also quickly stops many migraine attacks without nasty side effects. Marijuana offers potential anticancer agents for breast cancer, cervical cancer, lung cancer, skin cancer, gliomas and lymphomas. Marijuana is also effective in combating neuropathic pain in HIV. Cannabis is considered to be the best treatment for chemo-related nausea. (see: http://www.letfreedomgrow.com/index_se_cmu.htm) We need to know how much stock the City Council, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne own in drug companies such as: Acadia Pharmaceuticals, Accumetrics biotech, Agilent Technologies, Alliance Pharmaceutical, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Arena Pharmaceuticals, Becton Dickinson, Cato Research, Celgene Pharmaceuticals, Chiron Biopharmaceuticals, Clinimetrics Research Associates, Inc, Cypress Bioscience, Inc, Diversa Corporation, Gen-Probe, La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company, LAB Pharma, Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Mixture Sciences, Inc., Nanogen, Neurocrine Biosciences, Prometheus Laboratories, Santarus, Vertex Pharmaceuticals. These huge drug companies have a deadly fear of the competition marijuana creates because cannabis is a better alternative than many of their products. Since they cannot compete with marijuana on a level playing field, San Diego authorities are called in to stop the competition from medical marijuana dispensaries. Eric Long, San Diego