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Hot Topic: Medical Marijuana

A COP'S ARGUMENT FOR AMENDMENT 2

When I began my 34-year career in law enforcement as a narcotics agent, I never would have imagined that someday I would become an advocate for legal medical marijuana.

Back in those days, I was an undercover officer posing as a user in search of narcotics.  I made drug buys.  I seized property.  I arrested thousands of people and saw, over time, that my efforts actually contributed to street violence and that marijuana had become cheaper, more potent and more plentiful than ever before.  A Pew Research Center study last year found that roughly half of American adults ( 48 percent ) admitted having tried marijuana, the highest percentage ever.

I saw a lot of people killed in the crossfire.  Among the thousands who have lost their lives was my good friend and former partner, who was shot in the head by a dealer during an undercover buy.

For all our hard work, investment and lives lost, the only people who have been helped by the prohibition of medical marijuana have been the criminals themselves.  We have given them an absolute monopoly over an illegal product for which there is an insatiable demand - a sure-fire recipe for riches amid the murder and mayhem.

That's one of the reasons I support Amendment 2, which will enable Florida to join the 23 other states that allow patients access to safe, legal medical marijuana on their doctor's recommendation.

As a career law enforcement officer, I know that the best way to shut down the criminal gangs is to take away their market - and that if Amendment 2 does nothing but remove a portion of the illicit marijuana trade from the control of criminals, it is worthy of our support.

Nobody who is suffering from a serious medical condition should be forced to become a criminal just because he or she is sick.  It is a waste of our time as police officers and a distraction from our real job of protecting citizens from real dangers.

Obviously, any inexperienced person seeking out drug dealers runs the risk of physical injury or worse.  More often, these patients face arrest, criminal prosecution and the possible seizure of their property - all for using a plant that their doctor believes will help relieve their suffering.

These are sick people.  They need safe, reliable medicine - not contraband that is often treated with dangerous pesticides or other toxins, or has become stale with mold.

If their doctors recommend medical marijuana, they ought to be able to purchase a safe, pharmaceutical-grade product in a protected marketplace, just like any other medicine.

Most important ( to me, at least ), their dollars should not be going to the likes of the guy who murdered my ex-partner - the vicious criminals I encountered every single day of my 34 years as a cop.

Some Florida law enforcement administrators have been extremely vocal in their opposition to Amendment 2, so much so that several Florida newspapers have condemned their misstatements and distortions as "scare tactics" and "fear-mongering."

I suspect that these elected police administrators and their departments have become so dependent on federal anti-drug grants ( as well as the property and cash seized from those involved in drug activity ) that they instinctively resist any change in the status quo - - even a common-sense, compassionate reform like Amendment 2.  The war on drugs has been a $1 trillion enterprise, and any change at all might bring down the entire house of cards.

Even giving them the benefit of the doubt, however, their fears do not justify the price being paid by thousands of Florida patients.  We are cops, not doctors, and we have no right to be standing between you and your doctor when it comes to the effectiveness of safe, regulated medical marijuana.