Pubdate: Wed, 21 Oct 2009
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2009 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - United States)

UP IN SMOKE

Ending Medicinal Marijuana Raids Is a Belated Act of Compassion

Having Drug Enforcement Administration agents bust the sick who smoke 
marijuana for such nefarious purposes as relieving the nausea of 
chemotherapy was one of the more ridiculous boondoggles of the Bush 
administration.  Rarely have federal drug enforcement resources been 
more misdirected than on these half-baked raids.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s instruction to federal 
prosecutors to back away from cases against medical marijuana 
patients is a sign that the Justice Department has finally sworn off 
whatever had temporarily impaired reason in the agency.

Monday's action does not really steer the nation toward a new policy 
on marijuana use. Rather, it would seem to set the stage for a more 
rational approach to regulating medical marijuana.

After all, using limited federal resources to go after ordinary 
people who are deemed in a number of states to have legitimate cause 
to use marijuana was akin to sending the FBI to conduct mass arrests 
of mattress tag cutters. Sure, it's against the law, but have police 
nothing better to do?

In Maryland, lawmakers grappled with this issue six years ago and 
agreed that anyone arrested for possession of a small amount of 
marijuana who can demonstrate "medical necessity" gets no more than a 
$100 fine. Parking tickets can be worse.

Despite pressure from the White House, Republican Gov.  Robert L. 
Ehrlich Jr. signed that measure into law, and somehow the state 
didn't fall apart.

A pill form of marijuana's active ingredient, THC, has been legally 
available as a prescription for years, but it's been found wanting. A 
wrist-slap penalty for medicinal marijuana was a compromise: Maryland 
didn't legalize sale or possession any more than the Justice 
Department did this week.

It's not enough. If society genuinely believes in the medicinal use 
of marijuana, then patients need more than the comfort of knowing 
they won't make the FBI's Most Wanted List. They need to be able to 
legally acquire it with a doctor's prescription.

Distribute a controlled, dangerous substance through pharmacies? 
That's hardly groundbreaking stuff. Cocaine is used for medicinal 
purposes, too, as are a number of other narcotics.

But to get to that point will require the federal government to not 
only hold back the SWAT teams but to decriminalize medicinal 
marijuana. That's an unlikely prospect considering the sharp 
criticism leveled this week by Republicans at Mr. Holder's exercise 
of discretion.

In the meantime, states including Maryland ought to at least toss out 
the penalties. Nobody should have to pay so much as a $1 fine for 
taking medicine his or her doctor has decided is medically necessary. 
As Republican health care reform opponents like to say, let's not 
allow government to get between patients and their doctors.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake