Pubdate: Fri, 21 Sep 2012
Source: North County Times (Escondido, CA)
Copyright: 2012 North County Times
Contact: http://www.nctimes.com/app/forms/letters/index.php
Website: http://www.nctimes.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1080
Author: Greg Scharf

PROHIBITION OF POT NOT WORKING

I was not surprised to hear that the city of Murrieta will not be 
extending the marijuana co-op ban.

As Councilman Rick Gibbs pointed out to me, the way the law is 
structured could put the city in violation of state or federal law. 
While state voters in 1996 passed the Compassionate Use Act, until it 
syncs with federal law, I think conservative communities like ours 
have the ammunition to prevent them. Co-ops and dispensaries are 
simply sloppy ways of distribution, and ironically, government 
regulation such as with alcohol and tobacco would make better sense.

I support both recreational and medical use of marijuana on solid 
bases. I find it a bit hypocritical that one of Temecula's main 
attractions, Wine Country, is involved in the distribution of ethyl 
alcohol. Alcohol kills tens of thousands of people every year ---- in 
accidents, in alcohol-related crimes such as domestic violence, and 
in people drinking themselves to death. I've heard from more than one 
local police officer say that they've rarely pulled up to a domestic 
where a stoner was the culprit.

And related crime? We may as well ban Apple computers, banks and 
liquor stores as well.

Some countries sanction drug use by providing it to addicts, 
hopefully to eliminate the illegal drug trade and keep people from 
getting bad dope, particularly opiates. The problem is addicts can't 
get enough. But unlike the government, having been in the counseling 
field quite awhile, I can't see weed in the same category as cocaine or heroin.

In terms of crime and our state economy, if we allowed marijuana as a 
cash crop, the taxes generated could take a huge bite out of the 
state deficit, and would also have a profound effect on the cartels.

Currently, distribution is sloppy. Gibbs rightly points out that 
virtually anyone can get a "prescription" for whatever ails them ---- 
or doesn't. The same technique was used in the weight-control 
industry when I was a salesman. A doc would do a cursory interview, 
the "patient" would get vitals taken once a week by an office staff 
member, and they would get their drugs weekly.

In Canada, liquor is tightly distributed.There are state-run beer 
stores and liquor stores, and that could work here with marijuana.

What's more important, though, is the medical use. I have seen a 
friend of mine, a cancer victim, deathly ill because of chemo get her 
appetite back, improve her health and enhance her quality of life by 
smoking marijuana. Another friend, with stage 3 breast cancer, told 
me that the synthetic derivative didn't eliminate the nausea, but 
just caused the vomiting to stop about midway up her esophagus.

I believe proper distribution of medical marijuana is a necessity, 
and while I don't advocate recreational use per se, unless we 
legalize, regulate and tax it, we're repeating Prohibition and 
driving it underground.
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