Editor:

Peter Shelton’s article in your August 9-15 edition (“A Modest Proposal for Michael Phelps”) is for me a clear example of what a joke medical marijuana is. And, he’s so bold about it. Many of us in Colorado voted against the passage of the law here. 

Although we felt there were perhaps some people who would benefit from it, we also suspected it would be abused. Apparently he has a license to grow in California. But with obvious disregard for the law, he and his 19-year-old friend Michael [Phelps] mosey on down to the beach to smoke pot grown supposedly for medicinal use. 

Articles like this do a disservice to those who may really benefit from the medicinal use of marijuana. BTW, to my knowledge, all three of our last US Presidents did not “smoke” pot. The last I heard, Clinton said he didn’t inhale. And “half the people of the planet smoke weed.” Really? Is that supposed to imply that I’m in the minority and need to get hip?

My toenail hurts. Where do I get a prescription?

– John Nixon, Ouray

Editor’s Note: Shelton’s Aug. 9 column was a satirical musing on record-breaking Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps’ admission, in response to a photo released a few months after the 2008 Beijing Olympics in which he was obviously smoking marijuana, that he had indeed inhaled.