Don’t veto bill on pot as option to opioids

As the July 2 Star-Advertiser article, “Hawaii workers’ comp insurer rescinds pot payout,” perfectly highlights, various actors in our state continue to embrace an ambivalent attitude toward medical cannabis. This is extremely regrettable since Hawaii was one of the very first to recognize the medicinal value of this alternative or complement to far more toxic and addictive substances such as prescription painkillers like OxyCodone.

Accordingly, I urge Gov. David Ige to not veto Senate Bill 2407 that makes cannabis an option in treating addiction. I also implore insurers like HEMIC to make decisions based on science rather than fear and for employers across the state to stop discriminating against suffering patients who may have no other option than to use this legal and regulated medicine.

With dispensaries open across most of the state, quality products — soon to include vaping — are now available. For pono to reign, let us remove our blinders.

Carl Bergquist

Executive director, Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, Manoa

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Kamehameha female students need voice

Does Kamehameha Schools need a reminder of what equity and diversity, and student-flourishing, mean? Given the recent spate of million-dollar settlements imposed on the venerable educational institution, it would seem so.

A recent case in point would be the total exclusion of its female students’ voices in last week’s candidate debates held in the venue of its tropical campus: where were the passionate and informed voices of its female students? Viewers saw their engaged faces when cameras swept the audience, but were denied the opportunity to learn from and hear what issues were important to those future female leaders. A shocking and inexcusable omission in 2018.

If Kamehameha Schools doesn’t want to face Title IX violations, it should adopt a zero tolerance for the marginalization of its female cohorts. Not only would such policies stand as an honorable reflection of its mission, but enrich our state with new legacies of activism, insight and commitment.

Nancie Caraway

Manoa

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Trump’s policies give MAGA bad definition

A recent article, “S&P 500 stock buybacks set records (Star-Advertiser, July 2), explains how companies are flush with cash due to the new tax laws. These companies repurchase their own stocks, which drives up prices for the stock. That’s not the picture President Donald Trump and his Republican colleagues forecasted. That savings was supposed to create more jobs. Once again, the American middle class got scammed.

Speaking of scams, that’s exactly what North Korean leader Kim Jung Un has done to Trump. After Trump ceased military exercises with South Korea, we are learning that North Korea appears to be building up its nuclear program. Is that what the president meant by “the art of the deal”?

So in about 30 days, the president has reneged on the Iran agreement, upset Canada and the European Union with steel and aluminum tariffs, been plunked by North Korea and separated thousands of children from asylum-seeking immigrants. Now I understand what MAGA really stands for: Massive Aggravation Granted Americans.

Manuel Palazzo

Waianae

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Latest news on rail is not good news

Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation Chairman Damien Kim and HART Executive Director Andrew Robbins called a $134 million cost increase good news and noted the new report from Jacobs Engineering, the independent firm monitoring rail, shows that “HART has gained control of the project costs” (“Consultant raises estimated cost of rail by $134M,” Star-Advertiser, July 3).

Their attempt to put a positive spin on this $134 million cost increase illustrates how incredibly out of touch HART is with the taxpayers who will fund this project for as far as the eye can see.

This “small” increase amounts to more than $100 for every man, woman and child on Oahu. Maybe they should try and collect that money and see if people will pay them for a rail that less than 10 percent of the people will use, and a rail that will not reduce traffic congestion. Good news? Indeed.

Bert Oshiro

Hawaii Kai

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Use ID scan bracelets for immigrant tots

Considering how distressed we Americans are at the prospect of innocent toddlers and children, forcibly separated from their parents at our border, trapped in cages, with little hope of reunification, how hard would it have been to place a scannable ID bracelet on every one of them?

After all, this is done routinely for every patient being admitted to our hospitals. Every piece of baggage we check in at the airport has a scannable tag attached to it, so we can grab ours off the carousel at our destination. Even items we buy at the supermarket have barcodes attached that can be scanned.

It can’t be that ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), supposedly working for all Americans, would actually value suitcases and food items more than these precious immigrant babies. It is a shameful outrage if a common reliable means of identifying these Central American or Mexican babies, in order to return them to their heartbroken parents, ASAP, was not used. More reason for me to feel hugely embarrassed to be an American these days.

Deborah Candace Love, M.D.

Makiki

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U.S. defense includes military and vetting

In response to all of the hysteria on abolishing ICE and opening our borders to all, and to building a missile defense radar system at Kaena Point, I have a question: Why do we even need a military if we’re going to let unvetted, and undocumented people pour into our country; what’s the purpose of having a national defense?

Help me understand, because this makes no sense to me.

We are committing national suicide. Wake up, America!

Alice Abellanida

Ewa Beach