Pubdate: Sat, 21 Feb 2015
Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2015 The Tribune Co.
Contact: http://tbo.com/list/news-opinion-letters/submit/
Website: http://tbo.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446
Author: M. C. Applewhite

MAINE'S POT PROGRAM

The fight will soon begin in Tallahassee to write legislation to make 
medical pot available to Floridians who need it. There is no need to 
reinvent the wheel. Seven states know what works because they have 
been living with medical marijuana laws since 2000. Maine is one. 
Maine gets high marks from Americans for Safe Access, the national 
organization for medical marijuana. Maine's law provides provisions 
for adding new diseases/conditions, child custody protections, 
employment and other protections, and restrictions on where patients 
may medicate, among other rules. Maine also allows personal 
cultivation, the feature most responsible for the rapid collapse of 
the street market and its violence.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote approvingly in 1929 
of resolving contentious social issues in "the laboratory of the 
states." Brandeis was writing about alcohol prohibition. Now it is 
about marijuana prohibition. Let us heed his advice.

M. C. Applewhite

St. Petersburg
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom