UNDERCOVER

RE: The President's recent visit to Portland, where he addressed a crowd at Nike headquarters.

DEAR MERCURY—Why should President Obama visit Nowheresville to raise $110,000 and then give a speech he could just as easily give back in DC? I'll guess there was some sort of fat cat meeting going on at Nike HQ, surely one of the most secure meeting environments on the planet. The agenda? My favorite would be getting the okay from Russia, China, and so forth to blast Iran back to the Stone Age. More likely finalizing key concepts of the trade deal, but hey, maybe it's space aliens.

Jerrold Richards


FIRING SHOTS

RE: "Liquor Shots" [News, May 6], regarding OLCC agents' desire to carry guns while on duty.

Let's just militarize every agency out there while we're at it. Everyone knows the judicious application of firearms fixes every possible situation imaginable.

Posted by disastronaut

I love how these dipshits try to hype the danger of going into an unknown situation where a bar patron legally carries a concealed weapon, yet by their own admission, they've never been attacked. So basically they want the ability to escalate an otherwise peaceful encounter into a use of deadly force encounter to justify the need to have a gun—to protect themselves with. Go home, OLCC! You're drunk!

Posted by David A. Pope


WATER RIGHTS & WRONGS

RE: "A Thirsty Company and a Hungry Town" [News, May 6], regarding the efforts of Nestlé to bottle water in Cascade Locks.

The water here will be for sale sooner or later, face it. And we could do with making some money off of it too, as long as it doesn't hurt our wildlife.

Posted by frankieb

Nestlé won't be given any water rights. They will have to buy water from the city like any other business. The city currently loses more water through their old water lines than Nestlé will use. The water lines are going to be replaced so the community will experience no net effect on water use/loss. If people want to fight this project they should battle against bottled water—without a market, there is no need for a water-bottling plant.

Posted by Gorge Resident

DO NOT TRUST NESTLÉ! They want to own the rights to ALL WATER on the planet; it is a stated goal of theirs. The owners do not believe that water is a basic human right and [believe] that they can better control it.

Posted by Tyler Ray Lucas


I THINK WE'RE DEAD

RE: "Pain, Pills, Pot, and Progress" [Cannabuzz, May 6], comparing the benefits and dangers of cannabis and opioids.

I am a pharmacist who has been working with chronic pain patients in rural Oregon for the last seven years. I can confirm that medical marijuana has provided a safe and effective alternative to opioids. However, I feel compelled to stress to your readers that just because marijuana is safer, it is a complete myth that marijuana is not a drug and is 100 percent safe for every person at every dose. Of course it is impossible to overdose via smoking marijuana. It is, however, quite easy to overdose by ingesting marijuana orally, especially via marijuana edibles prepared using decarboxylated (i.e., already active) marijuana extracts, which are basically 98-99 percent active THC. First of all, the dose of THC that constitutes an oral "overdose" is quite individual, depending on the person. Second, while oral overdoses of edible cannabis products have not killed anyone directly, they have certainly made many, many people feel like they are dying due to overdose symptoms, which directly affect neurotransmitter transmission and the cardiovascular system. Please, everyone, remember that when we go recreational, we will be presenting marijuana as a product for consumption to a huge new portion of the population that has never had access to marijuana before and has no experience with it. It is irresponsible of those of us who want to see this drug used happily and safely, both for recreation and medicine, to imply to the general public that marijuana is not a drug and is 100 percent safe.

Posted by MKW

THANK YOU for the professional perspective, MKW! You win this week's Mercury Letter of the Week, and two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater—purely for recreation.