Representative, please answer straight:

are you for or against Whole Foods being able to lease the property in Hyde Square and operate a grocery?

do you think Whole Foods has an obligation to provide a housing displacement fund?

if so, how much and to which agency should it be paid?

Dear Rep. Sánchez,
Thank you for opening up this conversation. I have mailed your office twice as well as e-mailed and have received no response regarding your tabling a bill, as House Chair on the Joint Committee on Public Health, on medical marijuana. Your last comments given to JP Progressives, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go8FIakxDZ0, you state you worry about what the federal government could do in 8 years. I find this logic bizarre. Under those guidelines should Massachusetts have not accepted marriage equality because the federal government had DOMA? Also many of the patients needing medical marijuana suffer chronic diseases and could be dead in eight years, so what you are in effect doing is not allowing their final years to be in peace, how is this in the interest of their health? As I wrote in my letter I have two senior friends, one with AIDS and one with Parkinsons, and their doctors have told them medical marijuana would be a way to alleviate their terrible pain. I know marijuana is decriminalized in Massachusetts, but these gentleman should be allowed to get this at a pharmacy or at a hospital, one is a decorated police officer. Last election, the question regarding how a representative should be instructed to vote on medical marijuana, passed in our district with 71.7% believing you should act towards allowing medical marijuana. Are you currently doing anything to allow medical marijuana or are you still of your same position before the election? Thank you.

Dear Representative Sanchez, (Part 1)

This will hopefully be a great way to open the lines of communication with the community. Thanks for initiating it!

It's rare that I disagree with your position on an issue, but one of the more baffling ones is your stance on medical marijuana. When I spoke to you it very briefly at the first annual State of JP meeting at English H.S., you indicated that there wasn't support for the bill in the House and that you've already discussed this issue ad nauseum. Plus there's your previously reported statement about the fear of federal repercussions. Maybe I'm missing something but I don't understand your logic on any of these points. Access to medical marijuana is a very important health issue to the people who need it most and to whom it's designed for. Denying it to them is denying them health care that is increasingly recommended by physicians. Now with Vermont recently approving the use of medical marijuana, almost a third of the United States (16 states) plus our nation's capital have legalized it.

Dear Representative Sanchez, (Part 2)

At some point in the not too distant future a critical mass of this country, having followed suit, will push our dysfunctional congress to act and make the freedom from cruel and unnecessary suffering universal. In the meantime, Massachusetts must add it's name to the list of enlightened states and do all it can to help speed the process for federal recognition. We've always been leaders on progressive issues in the past...why such a change of heart? Discussion about this issue will certainly not fade away just because there's already been many fruitless chats. It will linger and grow. A majority of your constituents want this done. If it never leaves the Joint Committee on Public Health, there's no way to know who in the House or Senate is really opposed to its passage and where resources need to be directed toward educating and informing those that are reluctant.

I hope that you will consider all this in your role as House Chair of this committee, and let us know what your current thoughts are about medical marijuana. Also, for perspective, do you support medical marijuana as an individual representative? Thank you.

I would like to add my voice to amplify what Chris Childs and Andrea Cherez have written here supporting the use of medical marijuana. Thank you.

This coming Tuesday at 10 a.m. in Room 1A in the State House a hearing is going to be held by the Health Committee that you chair on the subject of Medicinal Marijuana. Everybody interested in the issue should attend and ask you what's really behind your decision to keep the proposal from passing. People are needlessly suffering from your inaction. Some have died in the ten years that this issue has appeared before the committee.

Why "start a conversation" if you then have no intention of continuing the conversation, representative?

I would like to leave my support for the comments by Chris, Andrea, and Jeffrey. Please reconsider your stance on medical marijuana. Cannabis is medicine and there are plenty of patients in the state of Massachusetts who must turn to the black market for what eases their pain.

Safe access is better than decrim and a blind eye to what goes on. Why are you so defiantly against supporting this issue? You are not representing your constituents by doing so.

Chris, Is there an obligation for a blogger to respond to comments if they are to be given a forum on the Patch? I feel they should be required to respond to comments if they are to be given your forum. Otherwise it is just free publicity. I would urge you/The Patch to amend your policy to require that politicians that have columns are required to reply to posts within a reasonable period, or they lose their privileges . This is a sham. Sanchez has not even replied once!

I'm reluctant to mention this, but reluctance rarely stopped me before... And we expected what from a local politico? Set up a podium, call a couple reporters and he'll be there early -- but lack of response to blogs will quite likely be blamed on technical issues. )

Chris you are too nice! YOU should run for politics. You would be great! YOU are responsive! Always give fair and reasonable answers, always of good cheer - I could go on and on! I would do more than 'nudge'. I would demand that in return for your forum, a politician is REQUIRED to be responsive. Lay it out. Give them clear parameters. No free forums. You are giving them a valuable resource - they owe you and your readers responsible and accountable replies in a timely fashion. If they do not, their column is pulled. That's what I would do! Thanks Chris! That said, your readers must be fair also. Stay on the topic of the blog no wandering of on tangents and refrain from persoanal attack etc. All comments must conform to Patch rules and regs of course.

Bill, the JP Pragmatist makes some excellent points here. A blogger who takes up space on the site should be required to actually maintain their blog. Who cares if JPP likes how Chris does things or thinks he's too nice. You're a bit of a bully, you know that?

You're right, Mo. I shouldn't comment until my first coffee kicks in. ;) I flashed back to a time when JPP gave me a ration of sheet over an issue and SNAPPED! Okay, not really, but do lean toward over-indulging minor resentments at times.

I agree about blogs, maintaining them and being a responsible part of. In fact, I just read a small article about blogs (http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-8-worst-types-blog-internet) that I thought summed up the strange side of it all.

Peace on.

I appreciate the feedback that has been generated by this blog post and I thank you for your comments. This is a new online forum that supplements the array of communication forms that my office uses, but does not replace direct contact with my office or myself. Many of you have been in direct contact with my office regarding the issue of HB625 and SB1161 and I was glad to see many community members were in attendance and some testified on June 28th before the Joint Committee on Public Health and its members at the Committee’s public hearing on this legislation. If you would like to discuss this issue further you can call my office directly at 617-722-2130.

That's not a reply. That's a generic post probably by an intern.

Chris, Have you spoken to Sanchez ( or any other politician, and to be fair O'Malley & Menino included absolutely) about what it takes to warrant a blog here? Again, if a politician does not offer legitimate replies that show they spent real time thinking about a specific individual person's comment, I say no blog or wahtever you call this column. No generic answers posted by interns to broad brush away the comments with a policy statement to make your readers 'go away' . Blogs are about real dialogue, Real statements made by a leader, then commented on then, then given real replies by the blogger. Individual replies. Replies with thought. Not pulled from cut/paste land by intern du jour but actual original, organic thought, by the actual organic politician, her/himself. No free political advertsing for them. If they are going to "reply" with cut/paste policy statements, have them pony up the cash and pay the Patch for an ad like any other organization.

I agree with the Pragmatist. To leave a post saying "call my office" is to abandon the blog. At the very least the blog author should take a moment to communicate his/her stand.

Hello Rep. Sanchez.

Blogging can be a conversation. You say, ""I am excited to begin using the JP Patch to reach out to my constituents in Jamaica Plain. I will be using this blog to share what is happening in the district, the Committee on Public Health, and within the State House."

That's using the blog to broadcast.

That's one way of blogging, but what's missing is the two way communication that blogs afford.

There are lots of us on here, talking with each other, and not at each other.

If you aren't going to join in the conversation here, and think it's too hard, or that it takes up too much time, let us know now so we won't waste our time trying to ask you things.

If you want to make a commitment to maintain the blog and interact with us in the comments. Say that.

People took time to comment here, and want answers. In writing.

Now you want them to duplicate their efforts and make a phone call. We don't make phone calls. That's why we have blogs.

Please answer Deselby's questions. Here. Now.

"are you for or against Whole Foods being able to lease the property in Hyde Square and operate a grocery?

do you think Whole Foods has an obligation to provide a housing displacement fund?

if so, how much and to which agency should it be paid?"

If you don't want to answer here, call me on the telephone to let me know. ;-)

Here is an article that discusses the meeting of June 28th for everyone else here, which I could not attend - http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/phlog/archive/2011/06/29/big-day-for-medical-marijuana-in-mass.aspx .

Rep. Sánchez - As soon as I am able to, I will call your office, but I find that comment very strange since as I had written above that I had contacted your office over eight months ago regarding this and received no response. Are you essentially saying the only way to correspond with you is to call your office? If that is true, okay, but why even bother to list a physical address for mail or an e-mail to contact you on your House profile page if the telephone is the only way you will respond? I received a letter from your office when my wife and I purchased our home welcoming us to the neighborhood so I had reason to assume writing a letter to you would work. The only effect that has happened after writing and e-mailing your office is I now receive your newsletter but my actual question to you has not been answered. Maybe your position has changed, but I am not sure why you won't post it here, I guess I will find out when I call your office, but I would suggest showing a bit of clarity here about the entire purpose of this blog, perhaps "starting a conversation" is not the best choice of words.

For everyone else here, Rep. Sánchez returned my call this afternoon and he indicated very strongly that he is still of the same opinion that he had been before the election. I disagree with him very strongly but it appears that he will not do anything to bring medical marijuana forward in Massachusetts, as long as the federal government has an unclear position on it.

Blogs are helpful communication tools but they are far from being a forum for dialogue. A dialogue is an opportunity for two or more people to listen and exchange ideas with one another. Blogs and comment sections are simply opportunities for people to share their opinion and either agree or disagree with another commenter. There is very little back and forth and rarely do they build any sort of consensus or mutual agreement. This is why very few (if any) elected officials or organizations/groups actively engage in blogs. Sure, they may post info in the form of a blog and read/track them to gauge public opinion but rarely do they use them to discuss an issue or have a dialogue with someone.