Pubdate: Mon, 27 May 2013
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.utsandiego.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area.
Author: Dale Gieringer
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v13/n217/a02.html

POT BILL CLARIFIES LAW

Your editorial "Medical marijuana: A big mess may get even bigger" 
(utsandiego.com, May 21) got it backward on medical marijuana. Sen. 
Steinberg's bill is hardly "radical"; it simply clarifies existing 
law, as established in the Medical Marijuana Program Act and attorney 
general's guidelines, which provide for dispensing by medical 
marijuana collectives. These dispensaries have worked fine in 
communities which, unlike San Diego, have had the wit to pass local 
ordinances regulating them. The chaos has been caused by those who, 
like the U-T, refuse to recognize Prop. 215's mandate to implement a 
"safe and affordable" distribution system for medical marijuana.

As for the notion that medical marijuana should be restricted to 
specific diseases with fingerprinting and background checks, how can 
this be justified when other, far more dangerous prescription 
narcotics are dispensed with no such restrictions?

- - Dale Gieringer, co-author, Proposition 215, director, California 
NORML, Oakland
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom