Pubdate: Wed, 30 Jun 2010
Source: Journal News, The (NY)
Copyright: 2010 The Gannett Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.nyjournalnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1205
Author: Janet Buchbinder

JUST SAY NO TO MARIJUANA BILL

Re "Legalizing medical marijuana remains on the table in N.Y. budget 
talks," June 22 article:

The above article on medical marijuana raised some serious concerns 
with the legislation currently pending in New York state. We should 
learn from the experiences of other states before we institute a 
system that will create more problems than it solves. As currently 
written, the legislation leaves loopholes that will make it easy to 
obtain a significant amount of marijuana. The bill allows people over 
18 to obtain enough marijuana for 150 to 300 joints if they have a 
variety of conditions, including "dysphoria" which is a mood disorder 
characterized by anxiety, depression or restlessness. Are these 
really the conditions that we want to see treated with smokeable marijuana?

This marijuana would establish neighborhood dispensaries through 
which the marijuana will be distributed. In other states these 
dispensaries have been associated with crime, noise and abuse in 
already struggling neighborhoods. They have required a great deal of 
government resources to oversee, regulate and monitor. Do we really 
need to spend valuable taxpayer funds on another layer of bureaucracy 
to respond to problems created by medical marijuana? This bill should 
be sent back to the drawing board for serious revisions that will 
prevent the sorts of problems that medical marijuana has caused in 
other states.

Janet Buchbinder

Larchmont
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart