Pubdate: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 Source: Boston Herald (MA) Copyright: 1999 The Boston Herald, Inc. Contact: One Herald Square, Boston, MA 02106-2096 Website: http://www.bostonherald.com/ MAINE'S UNWORKABLE LAW Voters in Maine have approved an initiative law permitting the medical use of marijuana. They just may regret their experiment in pharmacology through politics. The measure permits certain medical patients to grow and possess small amounts of marijuana, and makes it legal for "caregivers" to help them. The disorders qualifying for this exemption are nausea and related effects of AIDS or chemotherapy, glaucoma and seizures resulting from certain chronic illnesses. Even taking the law at face value, enforcement is going to be a nightmare. Qualifying patients may possess one-quarter ounce of marijuana and six plants, of which no more than three may be flowering. Even good-faith users may find these amounts too small, leaving them vulnerable to police action. Patients under 18 may be users if they have the written permission of their parents. It doesn't take much imagination to see good-faith young patients coerced by their age-mates to supply them with recreational, as opposed to medicinal, marijuana. No manufacturer hoping for approval to sell a new drug would introduce it in a form that required smoking, with all its damage to the lungs, in totally uncontrolled concentrations. The active ingredient in marijuana is already available in capsules. If voter approval is the way to make these decisions, what next? Peach pits for cancer? - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D