Pubdate: Sat, 20 Dec 1997
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Author: Peter Guerin

You people at The Chronicle seem quite knowledgeable about the
hairstyles of our local TV news folk, but your grasp of the
medical pot issue seems a little fuzzy.

In your many past articles and editorials regarding Proposition
215 and medical marijuana clubs, did the two issues not seem a
little bit related? I think most voters understood that such
clubs, being the only feasible means of distribution prior to the
election, were the means of distribution they were being asked to
approve of.

My sneaking suspicion is that a whole lot of drug war
aficionados, having failed on every other level of this issue,
would at the very least like to see this common herb controlled
and distributed within the profitable confines of the
pharmaceutical industry, the federal government and the medical
establishment. Perhaps we should turn the whole issue over to
Governor Wilson's HMO task force?

The common sense view is that, in the wake of a devastating
plague, a whole lot of fed-up people created their own functional
cooperative systems devoted to fostering health and alleviating
pain, and the voters of California voiced their support.
Perhaps a few more deaths and a little more pain will change your
minds about the relative importance of political policy and
cooperative action. I know which side I'm on, as do the many
citizens who have happened to live through the suffering of a
loved one once too often.

Peter Guerin
San Francisco, CA