Pubdate: Sun, 29 Nov 2009
Source: Post-Star, The ( NY)
Copyright: 2009 Glens Falls Newspapers Inc.
Contact: http://www.poststar.com/app/contact/?form=letter
Website: http://www.poststar.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1068
Author: George Will
Note: George F. Will is a columnist for The Washington Post.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - United States)

THE LEAF OFFERS FALSE HOPES

DENVER - Inside the green neon sign, which is shaped like a  marijuana leaf, is
a red cross. The cross serves the  fiction that most transactions in
the store - which is  what it really is - involve medicine.

The U.S. Justice Department recently announced that  federal laws
against marijuana would not be enforced  for possession of marijuana
that conforms to states'  laws. In 2000, Colorado legalized medical
marijuana.

Since Justice's decision, the average age of the 400  persons a day
seeking "prescriptions" at Colorado's  multiplying medical marijuana
dispensaries has fallen  precipitously. Many new customers are college
students.

Customers - this, not patients, is what most really are  - tell
doctors at the dispensaries that they suffer  from insomnia, anxiety,
headaches, premenstrual  syndrome, "chronic pain," whatever, and pay
nominal  fees for "prescriptions." Most really just want to  smoke
pot.

So says Colorado's attorney general, John Suthers, an  honest and
thoughtful man trying to save his state from  institutionalizing such
hypocrisy. His dilemma is  becoming commonplace: 13 states have, and
15 more are  considering, laws permitting medical use of marijuana.

Realizing they could not pass legalization of  marijuana, some people
who favor that campaigned to  amend Colorado's Constitution to
legalize sales for  medicinal purposes. Marijuana has medical uses -
e.g.,  to control nausea caused by chemotherapy - but the  helpful
ingredients can be conveyed with other  medicines. Medical marijuana
was legalized but, Suthers  says, no serious regime was then developed
to regulate  who could buy - or grow - it. (Caregivers? For how many
patients? And in what quantities, and for what "medical  uses.")

Today, Colorado communities can use zoning to restrict  dispensaries,
or can ban them because, even if federal  policy regarding medical
marijuana is passivity,  selling marijuana remains against federal
law. But  Colorado's probable future has unfolded in California,
which in 1996 legalized sales of marijuana to persons  with
"prescriptions."

Fifty-six percent of Californians support legalization,  and Roger
Parloff reports ("How Marijuana Became Legal"  in the Sept. 28
Fortune) that they essentially have  this. He notes that many
California "patients" arrive  at dispensaries "on bicycles, roller
skates or  skateboards." A Los Angeles city councilman estimates  that
there are about 600 dispensaries in the city. If  so, they outnumber
the Starbucks stores there period.

But state governments, misunderstanding markets and  ravenous for
revenues, exaggerate the potential  windfall from taxing legalized
marijuana.

California thinks it might reap $1.4 billion. But  Rosalie Pacula, a
RAND Corporation economist, estimates  that prohibition raises
marijuana production costs at  least 400 percent, so legalization
would cause prices  to fall much more than the 50 percent the $1.4
billion  estimate assumes.

Furthermore, marijuana is a normal good in that demand  for it varies
with price. Legalization, by drastically  lowering price, will
increase marijuana's public health  costs, including mental and
respiratory problems, and  motor vehicle accidents.

Suthers has multiple drug-related worries. Colorado  ranks sixth in
the nation in identity theft, two-thirds  of which is driven by the
state's $1.4 billion annual  methamphetamine addiction. He is loath to
see complete  legalization of marijuana at a moment when new methods
of cultivation are producing plants in which the active  ingredient,
THC, is "seven, eight times as  concentrated" as it used to be.
Furthermore, he was  pleasantly surprised when a survey of nonusing
young  people revealed that health concerns did not explain  nonuse.
The main explanation was the law: "We  underestimate the number of
people who care that  something is illegal."

But they will care less as law itself loses its  dignity. By mocking
the idea of lawful behavior,  legalization of medical marijuana may be
more socially  destructive than full legalization.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake