Pubdate: Sun, 06 Nov 2011
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2011 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.signonsandiego.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area.

THE CONTRADICTIONS OF REEFER MADNESS

America's love affair with, and warfare against, the psychoactive 
drug marijuana both continue in mind-blowing intensity. Marijuana is, 
according to one of the commentaries on the preceding Dialog page, 
the country's largest cash crop, indicating a whole lot of people are 
involved in growing, selling and smoking it. And yet, combating those 
growers, sellers and users is a major component of the federal 
government's 40-year-old war on drugs.

The result of this contradiction is more contradiction. Marijuana 
remains a Schedule 1 drug  defined as having the greatest potential 
for abuse and no accepted medical use  and is against federal law for 
all purposes. But numerous states, including California, recognize a 
medical use for marijuana and make repeated efforts to lessen 
penalties or legalize it. On the statewide ballot last November, a 
proposition to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana drew a 46.5 
percent "yes" vote  47.1 percent "yes" in San Diego County. And a new 
proposition is in circulation for another possible vote next November.

Still more contradiction: In San Diego County, neighborhood and law 
enforcement concerns about medical marijuana dispensaries prompted 
the county government and several cities, including San Diego, to 
enact dispensary bans or strict controls on their location. But 
medical marijuana advocates quickly gathered enough signatures on 
referendum petitions to force San Diego to rescind its controls. That 
was followed by a crackdown on dispensaries by the City Attorney's 
Office. And all four U.S. attorneys in California also launched a 
federal campaign to shutter dispensaries statewide.

What does it all mean?

To this editorial board, it means several things.

It means we agree with the California Medical Association that 
scientific data on the efficacy and risks of marijuana as medicine 
are unclear, but that we disagree with the CMA's illogical leap that 
it should be legalized for medical and recreational use.

It means we agree with the concerns of law enforcement and community 
leaders about the impact of dispensaries on neighborhoods and that 
San Diego must find a way to re-enact controls.

It means that, lacking those controls, we support City Attorney Jan 
Goldsmith, local U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy and her colleagues 
elsewhere in the state in their crackdown on dispensaries, all of 
which are illegal under federal law and all of which in San Diego 
violate zoning restrictions, and virtually all of which everywhere 
have become vehicles for recreational drug users to skirt the laws.

It means that the 1996 California medical marijuana law, written by 
marijuana advocates, must somehow be rewritten so that marijuana can 
be available to real patients with real diseases for which marijuana 
is believed to be a better treatment than conventional medications, 
but not to anyone with a headache.

And it means that at some point, the federal government and states 
like California must somehow reconcile all the absurd contradictions.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom