Pubdate: Sun, 4 April 1999
Source: Ukiah Daily Journal (CA)
Copyright: 1999, Ukiah Daily Journal
Contact:  590 S. School St. Ukiah, CA 95482
Fax: (707) 468-5780
Website: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/

IN OUR OPINION

MEDICAL MARIJUANA ACTION WELCOME

We're glad to hear that Sheriff Tony Craver and DA Norm Vroman have taken
the initiative and begun putting together a plan to help medical marijuana
patients in this county.

Some 64 percent of voters in Mendocino County approved the medical marijuana
law and have continued to support its implementa tion here and throughout
the state.

The Ukiah Cannabis Club has quietly been serving medical marijuana patients
with calm, methodical efficiency and we hope that it will be able to
continue that practice.

Craver and Vroman hope to come up with a plan that will allow local medical
marijuana patients to carry special identification which will insulate them
from law enforcement actions when marijuana is found on their per son or
property.

The two men say they want to get local rules established before this year's
growing season so that legitimate medical marijuana patients do not suffer
having their plants pulled up by law enforcement unsure of their medical
status.

The only problem we foresee with the plan as outlined by Craver was the
requirement that doctors be willing to tell law enforcement agents that they
recommended the medical marijuana use. Craver said the new plan would not
require, patients to disclose their illnesses for the sake of privacy.

We appreciate that sensitivity, but we worry that, doctors under federal
scrutiny, for the slightest adherence to the new medical mari- juana law -
will be put in compromising posi-tions if asked to go on record prescribing
pot, since federal drug war storm troopers have threatened to yank
prescribing licenses from doctors who do.

The Ukiah Cannabis Club does not require a doctor to agree to prescribe
medical marijuana but does require each doctor to affirm the patient is
telling the truth about his or her medical condition.

Perhaps the county's plan could use the qualified, pharmacist who performs
this service for the Ukiah Cannabis Club to do the patient/doctor intreviews
to maintain confidentiality without putting doctors in an uncomfortable
position.

Overall, however, we think Craver and Vroman are doing the right thing and
we look forward to Mendocino County's being one of the enlightened places
which sees the obvious need to give as much help as we can to our seriously
ill, and dying residents for whom marijuana is, in fact, medicine.

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