Pubdate: Tue,  6 May 2003
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2003 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.uniontrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Author: Libba Jackson-D'Ambrosi

MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW A MISTAKE

Your article on the sentencing of Steve McWilliams ("Marijuana activist 
sentenced to prison," April 29) has some serious deficits that tend to 
paint McWilliams as a victim of the feds.

You fail to mention that police confiscated 448 plants from McWilliams in 
l999. That's not advocacy, that's possession, and that's what got him in court.

California and now San Diego law on medical use of marijuana is unworkable. 
Sick and dying people are not the only ones who can use marijuana under 
Proposition 215. Illnesses are not limited, and quantity or quality of 
home-grown marijuana is impossible to control. Marijuana cannot be 
prescribed because it does not meet the Food and Drug Administration 
standards for safety and efficacy.

"Medical" marijuana is a ruse for legalization, one step at a time. Making 
marijuana more available and more acceptable will get society more 
unfulfilled dreams, broken families, drugged driving and problems in the 
workplace.

Libba Jackson-D'Ambrosi

San Diego
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MAP posted-by: Beth