Pubdate: Wed, 09 Aug 2006
Source: Asbury Park Press (NJ)
Copyright: 2006 Asbury Park Press
Contact:  http://www.app.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/26
Author: Michelle Gladden, Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

JACKSON CLUB HEARS VIEWS ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA USE

There's much more than golf happening at the Riviera at Westlake, an 
adult community comprised of single family homes and an 18-hole 
sprawling course in Jackson.

One month after the state heard arguments for and against a bill that 
would legalize cannabis, commonly known as marijuana, for medical 
purposes, the Westlake Men's and Women's Clubs are addressing the 
debate by inviting opposing advocates to present their views.

"This is a community that is always on the cutting edge of current 
events and things that are controversial," Men's Club member Oriel 
Cohen said. "Now that we have the time, we are expending our energies 
in trying to improve, and most important, put back."

On July 13, the Men's Club welcomed Ocean County's first assistant 
prosecutor Terrence Farley, a narcotics specialist and longtime 
supporter of maintaining the federal ban.

While some 11 states allow the "compassionate use" of marijuana to 
alleviate medical conditions, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that those 
laws are vetoed by the federal Controlled Substances Act, which bans 
marijuana nationwide.

"If somebody is dying and in pain, I could care less what they take," 
Farley said. "But nowhere in modern science is any drug administered 
by smoking. Smoking kills more people than any other outside source 
on your body."

"About 435,000 people have died in the United States from smoking," 
Farley said. "Fifty thousand died from second-hand smoke. There are 
200 more cancer-producing chemicals in marijuana than there are in tobacco."

The bill does not cover concerns about how to control the quality of 
marijuana, Farley said.

One third of the club's attending members said they were in favor of 
legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes prior to the meeting, but 
nearly half said they have questions as to whether the drug should be 
made legal.
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