A recent Portland Press Herald editorial presented one side of the argument on marijuana legalization and implementation: Their side, the industry side, the lobbyists’ side.

There are other distinctly different, informed opinions that would differ strongly with them point by point. But the Press Herald holds a newspaper monopoly, of sorts, for newspaper news in southern Maine, and this monopoly rarely allows more than a smidgen of opinion on issues with which the Press Herald editorial board disagrees. Marijuana is one such issue.

The Dec. 18 editorial, in its habitual need to lambast Gov. LePage about any and every thing, ignores the governor’s actual veto letter, which spells out some fairly compelling, very rational reasons for a veto.

LePage’s first reason addresses the federal legal status of marijuana in the United States. It remains very officially an illegal drug. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has very recently reiterated this official U.S. position. Marijuana is illegal. U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams has also recently made a similar pronouncement.

The oft-cited Maine citizens’ initiative that passed in November 2016 was a call on the voting public to break federal marijuana law. Let’s have a petition to break federal law. To put this in perspective, how about let’s also petition to break federal income tax law? Or let’s break federal voting law? The 2016 Maine initiative was a call on Maine voters to do something illegal: to break federal law. Unless marijuana enthusiasts are proposing an act of rebellion to remove Maine from the Union, we need to follow national law.

Further, the U.S. Department of Justice is working on the vital issue of enforcement of the marijuana law. Don’t we need guidance on national law enforcement directions? Or are the marijuana industry in Maine and its adherents a law unto themselves?

The Press Herald editorial was published online and on Page A4 on Dec. 18. Other voices need to be heard.

Jerry Collins

Kennebunkport