Pubdate: Thu, 16 Aug 2007
Source: Los Angeles City Beat (CA)
Copyright: 2007 Southland Publishing
Contact:  http://www.lacitybeat.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2972
Note: Also prints Los Angeles Valley Beat, often with similar 
content, and the same contact information.
Author: Nils de Mol van Otterloo

JUST SAY NO

As a former marijuana addict, I am upset with the heavily 
pro-marijuana-dispensaries line your publication continues to take 
with regard to this obviously important issue. While I have no 
objection to California citizens' rights to pass such a law, nor even 
the basic concept of "medical marijuana," I believe the intent of the 
law has been taken to an extreme which in the end will not serve 
sufferers of legitimate diagnosed problems.

I have seen advertisements in your paper as well as others (notably 
the L.A. Weekly), which have made claims that so-called "medical 
marijuana" will help sufferers of problems as distinct as depression, 
seizures, and cancer. While I don't doubt that those under 
chemotherapy can benefit from marijuana's miraculous ability to 
induce the "munchies," being someone who has suffered in the past 
from clinical depression and seizures, I can say that I was never so 
depressed as when I was addicted to marijuana. It is a known 
depressant, much like alcohol, and though it can provide some 
temporary relief it can never solve such problems in the long term. 
As far as seizures are concerned, I doubt that the proponents of 
"medical marijuana" would be able to find a single reputable 
neurologist who would prescribe this form of treatment.

The main problem is this paper's (and the Weekly's) willingness to 
chuck objective reporting in the waste bin in order to simultaneously 
take the advertising dollars of the medical marijuana establishments 
while also enjoying the "red meat" of liberal journalism by bashing 
the "fascist" DEA, who are only performing their jobs. My family is 
all in the Netherlands, and they have seen the effects of drug-law 
liberalization. I have a cousin who has struggled back from the 
depths of heroin addiction. I have a cousin who was just recently 
institutionalized because he is a danger to society. His problems all 
began with marijuana.

A more noble cause would be to fight to help the common man receive 
true medical attention and reliable medications at reasonable costs. 
I pay $600 out of my own pocket each month to afford the medications 
I need in order to prevent having a seizure, and there is no one in 
the medical marijuana community who has anything to offer me. As far 
as I am concerned, they are another symptom of the rampant 
self-centered idiocy which the culture of marijuana has wrought upon 
our country since the 1960s.

Nils de Mol van Otterloo

Los Angeles
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