Recently, I sent an email to North Carolina representative Paul “Skip” Stam.

My email was one of thousands that he will undoubtedly not read because of its “harassing” nature.

Therein is the rub.

The N.C. house committee voted to reject the “Enact Medical Cannabis Act” which would have decriminalized possession of medical marijuana within the state.

This decision was made after only 20 minutes of public comments and discussion.

One of the individuals heard was Catherine Lyles, a 51-year old survivor of brain cancer for 17 years.

Lyles had suffered from severe nausea because of her treatments.

She was unable to even touch a bowl of soup. Doctors had even told her that they couldn’t prescribe something that would work as well as marijuana.

After traversing a network of old classmates, Lyles was able to obtain the drug and testified to the instant relief she had felt.

Despite her testimony and the testimony of many others, Paul Stam decided to close the books on the bill, having received a number of “harassing” phone calls and emails about medical marijuana.

“We did it to be done with it, so people could move on with the session,” Stam declared to WRAL, N.C.’s capitol blog.

This leaves the bill and the issue likely dead through 2014.

Shortly after reading of the events, I decided to “harass” Paul Stam myself and I believe that anyone with a pulse and half a brain should take time to give him a piece of their mind as well.

My letter is below.

Hello Paul,

My name is Zech Wheeler. I am a 21-year-old journalist from Joplin, Mo.

Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of my little town, but it’s becoming a better place to live.

We are doing rather well for ourselves considering some of the things you may have heard about us in the news a year or so ago.

Now I have to say that I am one of the hundreds of thousands outraged by your flippant disregard for the well-being of the people who live in your state.

While I am in the dark about what you decide to do behind closed doors Mr. Stam, I can say this: it is very apparent that you are more concerned about your own agenda than you are about the demands of the common man.

Now I may have this all wrong. Paul, I don’t know you. I know little about you personally, but what research I have turned up is just about what I would expect.

What turns up is a lot of ham-handed litigation that attempts to treat dandruff by decapitation.

What is it that you don’t want to be “harassed” about Paul? Doing your job?

Listening to someone for 20 minutes before closing the books isn’t what I would call “considerate.”

What would you consider inconsiderate? Five minutes?

I guess Catherine Lyles is lucky to receive that much, huh?

But what would you care, you don’t have time to listen to an old stoner with cancer, do you?

If you have detected a change in my tone, then I would say you’re rather the attentive one. I don’t know you and you don’t know me, but from where I’m standing I can see that you are making some awful sloppy and inconsiderate decisions.

The best thing that you can possibly do is display some courtesy.

Love may fail, but courtesy will prevail, Mr. Stam.

The love generation may be over, but we are still well aware of how poorly our system is functioning.

We would like your help, not your dismissal.

And that is not to say that we need your help.

I hope that you find yourself well, Paul, and despite my anger, I do have the sincerest hope that you can take some time to view things from the perspectives of other individuals.

Their interest is much more important than any interest Big Pharm or any other corporation may have in you.

Believe it.