Pubdate: Sat, 21 Feb 2015 Source: Tampa Tribune (FL) Copyright: 2015 The Tribune Co. Contact: http://tbo.com/list/news-opinion-letters/submit/ Website: http://tbo.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446 Author: M. C. Applewhite MAINE'S POT PROGRAM The fight will soon begin in Tallahassee to write legislation to make medical pot available to Floridians who need it. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Seven states know what works because they have been living with medical marijuana laws since 2000. Maine is one. Maine gets high marks from Americans for Safe Access, the national organization for medical marijuana. Maine's law provides provisions for adding new diseases/conditions, child custody protections, employment and other protections, and restrictions on where patients may medicate, among other rules. Maine also allows personal cultivation, the feature most responsible for the rapid collapse of the street market and its violence. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote approvingly in 1929 of resolving contentious social issues in "the laboratory of the states." Brandeis was writing about alcohol prohibition. Now it is about marijuana prohibition. Let us heed his advice. M. C. Applewhite St. Petersburg - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom