Once again, left-wing extremists are trying to get New Hampshire to join liberal druggie states like California, Maine and Vermont to allow so-called �sick� people to grow and possess marijuana for medical purposes. Should the NH Senate pass HB 648 (already passed by the NH House), I urge you to veto this outrageous bill ASAP.

This bill is a poorly disguised attempt to lessen our government�s control over our personal decisions. After all, who should have ultimate control over what goes into your body, you or the government? Passing HB 648 would allow certain �sick� individuals to actually decide for themselves what goes into their own bodies. This is left-wing lunacy.

Our government may not be very competent at regulating banking, or at managing disasters, or at spending our tax dollars wisely, or at much of anything else it does. Time and time again, our government has put special interests above the welfare of the American people. But when it comes to protecting us from ourselves, we should trust our government to do what�s in our best interests.

If HB 648 passes, our children might grow up thinking they�re more competent than our government to make personal decisions about drugs. Do we really want to raise kids who can think for themselves when it comes to drugs? We need to set a good example so our kids will know to trust our government, not their own minds, when deciding if a drug is good for them or not.

By keeping marijuana illegal, our government sends us a very clear message, �not only are you too stupid to decide what goes into your own body, but if you dare disobey Big Brother and actually decide for yourself, you are a criminal and will be punished.� Our government allows us to ingest tobacco and alcohol, which are clearly more dangerous than marijuana. But safety is not the issue. The issue is control over personal decisions.

If we allow a few �sick� people to control what goes into their own bodies, we will open up a Pandora�s Box of abuse. Soon NH residents who aren�t even sick will want to have control over what goes into their own bodies. Passing HB 648 could eventually lead to keeping government out of all our personal decisions, not just out of our medical decisions. Governor, this is left-wing lunacy.

We in the �live free or die� state can�t allow a few �sick� people to decide what goes into their own bodies. Healthy New Hampshire residents might wake up from their comas and realize that marijuana prohibition for any adult is a blatant violation of the very essence of our state motto. Making criminals out of NH residents who simply put something into their own bodies (sick or not) mocks the very concept of �living free.� If you don�t have sovereignty over your own body, you most certainly are not living free.

Governor, I urge you to ignore a poll showing 71 percent of NH residents favor medical marijuana. If our federal government says NH adults are too stupid to decide what goes into their own bodies, who are we to object? Just because the federal government would lose billions of our tax dollars if marijuana were legal, doesn�t mean they aren�t looking out for our best interests.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recently stated he wouldn�t harass states passing medical marijuana laws. But as leader of the �live free or die� state, you must send a clear message to all NH residents who think they should be able to control what goes into their own bodies.

Governor, please veto this bill (if the NH Senate is dumb enough to pass it). We certainly don�t want the rest of the nation to think we New Hampshire folks take our state motto seriously.