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BAD ECONOMICS

As a state-registered medical marijuana patient, I find it extremely offensive that Dan Harmon is trying to undermine Oregon's decade-old medical marijuana law by promoting legislation that would allow medical marijuana patients to be discriminated against in the workplace ["Working Spliffs," WW, Dec. 10, 2008].

Securing employment in today's job market is hard enough as it is. Any measure that will make it tougher for state-registered medical marijuana patients to find a job is simply bad economics.

For the sake of myself and at least 20,547 other Oregon medical marijuana patients, I hope legislators agree and kill this bill before it gets off the ground.

Robert A. Farmer
Eugene

ANIMALS ARE NOT PEOPLE

[Re: "Sit, Stay, Beg," WW, Dec. 10, 2008:] One of my most vivid childhood memories from the early 1960s was the day when my father took the last of a litter of puppies which we were not able to off-load behind the farm buildings and brained them with a steel wrench. Upset, I remember my mother at the time explaining to me that we did not have enough food for all the dogs and that steps were needed. On the farm, dogs and cats lived outdoors. They were animals, not people. My parents, who were both born and spent most of their childhood during the Depression, lived with very real-world truths—which were passed on to their children. Their message to me above all else was to value people over things and pets. Friendships, community and family are the real glue that holds us together.

I have never owned a pet. I believe that we have become a society where dogs and cats are taken too seriously—we have turned them into little people. We spend money on them like they were people—money that we could devote to our charities and community that serve people, whether they are local or far.

"Andy"
via wweek.com

CORRECTION: Last week's Rogue of the Week incorrectly identified the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation's lawyer and the foundation's relationship with Oregon Pacific Railroad. The correct name of the foundation's lawyer is Martin Hansen. And the foundation is a separate entity from Oregon Pacific Railroad, which owns the track on which the Holiday Express runs. WW regrets the errors.

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