Pubdate: Tue, 19 Jul 2011
Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA)
Copyright: 2011 Chico Enterprise-Record
Contact:  http://www.chicoer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/861
Author: Robert Galia

MEDICAL CANNABIS HAS MANY BENEFITS

Judging from what I've been reading in your letters to the editor 
recently, there still seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about 
medical cannabis dispensaries and how they affect this community.

One writer in particular inferred that we cause an increase in "drug 
gang" activity. The truth is we actually help in putting drug gangs, 
who pay no taxes and who put patients in direct contact with other 
harder drugs (thus giving law enforcement an excuse to say things 
like cannabis is a gateway drug), out of business.

The best thing we do is give our patients a wide variety of strains 
to choose from, allowing them to find a strain that can zero in on 
their particular ailment. We then will get them clones from that 
strain so that they can grow their own. This is the best way we have 
right now of seeing to seriously ill patients' needs. Everyone in the 
loop pays taxes, excess contributions are donated back to the 
community, low income, seriously ill patients get their medicine 
free, or at cost, everything is above ground and transparent, and 
most of all, these patients have a safe reliable source for clean, 
high quality medicine.

The dispensing system described above seems to be working quite well 
for everyone ... except, of course, law enforcement.

One has to question their motives in their universal and unanimous 
efforts to do away with us, and send us back to some kind of medical 
cannabis dark age.

- - Robert Galia, Chico
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom