Pubdate: Mon, 08 Jul 2013
Source: Catholic Register, The (Canada)
Copyright: 2013 The Catholic Register
Contact:  http://www.catholicregister.org/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4554
Author: Tom Tracy

PATCHWORK OF MURKY LAWS EMERGES AS MORE U.S. STATES OK USE OF
MARIJUANA

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Somewhere among the skateboarders,
weightlifters, street artisans and moms pushing strollers at
California's Venice Beach may be a high concentration of seriously ill
Californians seeking alternative pain relief.

That's the impression given by an omnipresent odour and abundance of
Oceanfront medical marijuana dispensaries and one-stop "medical
consultation" shops on the boardwalk -- some outfitted with mini-ATM
machines, leaf-shaped signage and playful sidewalk barkers dressed in
green and welcoming passersby.

It has been more than a decade since California became the first state
to allow legal medical marijuana sales and, although in conflict with
an unmoving federal ban on marijuana sales, the state-by-state trend
to legalize it has been on a fast track ever since.

On a grassroots level, the movement has supporters virtually
everywhere, and nearly 20 states and the District of Columbia already
allow legal medical marijuana consumption. In two of those states --
Colorado and Washington -- small amounts of "recreational" marijuana
is now legal. Residents there will begin to see dispensaries selling
pot and pot-infused products, edibles, sweets and beverages to people
over 21.

The Catholic Church has largely stayed neutral in the debate, with
Church leaders focused on other battles related to the religious
liberty and efforts to legalize same-sex marriage, according to
several Catholic theologians, policy advisers and academics, some of
whom favour marijuana's potential health benefits in suitable cases
and with controls.

"It would be pure speculation why there has been very little reaction,
but usage is already so widespread that it came and went here with
little attention," said Greg Magnoni, spokesman for the archdiocese of
Seattle.

Last November, 56 per cent of Washington voters helped pass Initiative
502 for recreational pot use.

There are wide financial, medical, public policy and public welfare
issues around legalizing what the federal government classifies as a
controlled substance with no medical merits, including safeguards and
regulations (or lack of) to limit abuses and unintended consequences
such as enabling under-aged use.

The Washington law permits small-quantity sales of marijuana but
prohibits public consumption (a frequently disregarded rule in many
public places).

As with Colorado's Amendment 64 that goes into full effect next Jan.
1, Washington's marijuana sales will be taxed and accountable to the
state but with lingering questions concerning risks of underage
consumption, how to prevent re-sales, who qualifies as a medical
patient, what constitutes driving under the influence and what the
real impact will be on the drug's lucrative black market and organized
crime.

A handful of other states, including Illinois and Maryland, are the
newest members to join the club with new or expanded legislation in
play this year.

There is already talk of pot tourism to states where it's legal and
California is seeing environmental damage by reckless growers tapping
into a gold rush of new pot farming.

In Washington, where the state Catholic conference did include an item
in its fall 2012 public policy bulletin reminding local Catholics of
the federal law concerning marijuana and that it will not permitted on
parish property, Magnoni said plenty of people are already annoyed
with increased pot smoking in public places. He added the new law may
or may not lead to an upsurge in general usage.

"The Church is generally concerned about that which is legal 'becomes
moral' -- as with legalized gambling and assisted suicide. It's now
hard to make a moral case to young people not to smoke pot if it's
legal," Magnoni told Catholic News Service.

There is no question that legalization of marijuana is growing at a
quick pace and that a sector of the public is moving marijuana use
from the fringe to the mainstream with relatively strong public
support and little comment from Church communities, according to
Sulpician Father Gerald D. Coleman, a California-based vice president
for corporate ethics for the Daughters of Charity Health System. The
priest wrote a lengthy 2010 article outlining the debate when
Californians were considering stepping up legalization there to
include recreational use; the measure failed.

While excessive state and federal law enforcement resources have been
spent fighting the war on drugs and while those efforts are thought to
fuel gang violence in the United States and south of the border,
Coleman argues there is are important distinctions between
decriminalization and legalization of marijuana. And even proponents
of legalization will concede that California's medical marijuana law
is a poorly designed, de-facto recreational-use model.

In Venice Beach, a $40 promotional walk-in consultation for shoulder
pain, migraines or insomnia can mean same-day access to a patient ID
card valid for one year. Future patients also look online for
examination coupons and seasonal specials with participating doctors.

"Marijuana is being legalized not merely for medical reasons, but for
pleasure," Coleman told CNS, adding that the backbone of the legal
advancement has to do with the critical moral issue of "basic human
freedom," the same argument used in the debates about abortion and
physician-assisted suicide, he said.

"There is little to no discussion of this issue in Catholic health
care," he said, "and I would guess the reasons are that the major
focus at the moment surrounds conscience protections, mergers and an
increased pressure to maintain a Catholic health care presence in
markets that sustain difficult challenges."

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has taken no position on the
legal marijuana debate. Individual bishops have addressed the issue;
in 2010 then-Bishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of Oakland argued against
legalizing recreational use and that it was up to state Catholic
conferences to monitor and lobby for good state legislation.

"I don't see why the Church's position on recreational marijuana
should be any different than its position on beer, wine and liquor,"
said Gerald Uelmen, criminal law professor at Jesuit-run Santa Clara
University School of Law in San Jose.

"In terms of regulation, I think the state of Washington is on the
right track by turning regulation over to the State Liquor Control
Authority and regulating it just like alcohol," Uelmen said.

Other states see little chance of legal marijuana becoming law at this
time.

"Legalization of marijuana is way down on the list here; we are
ignoring it because it isn't going anywhere in Pennsylvania," said
Robert O'Hara Jr., executive director of the Pennsylvania Catholic
Conference and past president of the National Association of State
Catholic Conference Directors.

"I haven't seen any buzz about it and see nothing in the foreseeable
future although it may get hot."
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