Opinion: Medicinal marijuana going up in smoke
By John Redman
When Californians passed the “Compassionate Use Act” – otherwise known as Proposition 215 – in 1996, most voters thought that it was reasonable to allow chronically ill patients to use marijuana without fear of arrest. And if those patients could not grow marijuana on their own, the initiative stipulated that patient caregivers could help to grow marijuana for their patients collectively or cooperatively for a patient’s personal use.
Those descriptive words were adverbs not nouns.
That is an important distinction that advocates disregarded. Flagrantly violating the law and common sense, for-profit “collectives” – smartly renamed “compassion centers” – spread like wildfire throughout the state.
But there are some major signs that the pot party is over.
Last week, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to shut all medical marijuana stores after hearing from residents outraged by the fact that they were bombarded by shady dispensary owners and wafting marijuana smoke at all hours of the day. Immediately afterward, all four federal judicial districts in California announced that federal judges had dismissed lawsuits this year advocating for dispensaries.
Marijuana advocates have overplayed their hand. Though the medical profession has largely rejected smoked marijuana as medicine because it has not passed FDA muster, a handful of unscrupulous doctors and dispensary owners have made millions of dollars in the name of compassion off of the sick and dying. They have been trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, and not only has it not worked – it has made many of us angry.
A recent California study found that most people use marijuana medically to help with pain, sleep and relaxation. Another study found that less than 3 percent of people using medical marijuana had a chronic disease like cancer or AIDS. The average medical marijuana card holder in California is a 32-year-old white male with a history of alcohol and marijuana use.
That is why it should not surprise anyone that U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag in San Francisco moved to shut down the biggest granddaddy offender of them all: Harborside Health Center. Harborside is the antithesis of what was intended by voters, as it takes in million of dollars in sales every year and does nothing to ensure its product is safe or effective. Rather, its owner thinks that time is better spent on television evangelizing the cure-all wonders of pot.
This is hardly what Californians voted for, and there are signs that California’s love affair with marijuana is receding. Medical marijuana moguls bankrolled an unsuccessful effort to legalize marijuana outright, and it turns out that none of the five attempts to get it back on the ballot in 2012 will be successful.
The Rev. Scott Imler, who co-wrote Proposition 215 and advocates for the limited use of medical marijuana, put it best recently when he said, “We created Prop. 215 so that patients would not have to deal with black market profiteers. But today it is all about the money. Most of the dispensaries operating in California are little more than dope dealers with storefronts.”
Selling joints to anyone with a pulse and $200 cash was never the bill of goods that the voters were sold.
John Redman is the executive director of Californians for Drug-Free Youth.
Redman’s article is dishonest, grossly misinformed and is yet another example of phony drug war propaganda. The truth is Congress has no authority under Art. 1, Sec. 8, CL. 3 of the US Constitution to PROHIBIT all marijuana activities through the federal CSA, because the authority to REGULATE is necessarily different than to COMPEL or PROHIBIT. The Supreme Court has just ruled in NFIB v. Sebelius (2012) that the Commerce Clause is limited to REGULATE commerce. In RAICH the court did not address the meaning of REGULATE and instead applied a broader definition, which has since been limited by the Supreme Court in NFIB. Also, federal law no longer forbids the use of medical marijuana, since Congress has just approved medical marijuana for Washington DC. It is blatantly unconstitutional for voters in California to be forbidden the same rights as the DC voters who have received federal approval for medical cannabis in their jurisdiction.
I’ve said it before and will say it again.
The movement pushing for legalization needs to separate itself from the medical mj issue, or the 5% that have medical mj licence will lose the right to their medicine! Legalization should be obtained on it’s own merits, not by piggybacking on the medical mj band wagon.
While I personally don’t smoke or use marijuana (have never even been drunk), I have a friend that does and it helps her get through the day with far less pain than she would otherwise have. She is a 65 year old grandmother with MS. Saying that only 3% of users have chronic issues in an interesting factoid, but means nothing. Last night I took a tagamet. I don’t have chronic stomach issues, but had one yesterday. Does that mean I shouldn’t use it? Since when is pain and sleep not a medical issue. So if I smoke to help me sleep or relieve pain, that is not ok, but if I take prescribed oxy or ambien, that is fine? Post surgery, I was prescribed a painkiller. Perhaps I should have been forced to “tough it out” as pain is not a reason to prescribe medication. Forgetting the fact that marijuana shouldn’t be illegal in the first place, wouldn’t it be better to fix the problems and not throw the baby out with the bath water?
What our officials are doing trying to ban medical cannabis is a disgrace. The dopists need to be voted out of office. (dopists and dopism is like racists and racism only the hate is directed at stoners.) Hopefully the next election or two will install people who respect the will of the people rather than looking for weaselly ways to circumvent the will of the people.
Cannabis was listed in the US Pharmacopeia from 1985 until 1942, 5 years after prohibition began. It took Harry 5 years to get it removed because the AMA was opposed to cannabis prohibition. In fact Cannabis has been used as good, safe and effective medicine in every major culture since the beginning of recorded history. Cannabis is one to the 50 basic herbs of Chinese medicine. There are numerous scientific studies showing that cannabis is a safe and effective medicine. These people are being willfully ignorant of history and science.
Cannabis prohibition has been a scam from day one. The scammers are riding a gravy train of at least 40 billion dollars per year of tax payers money. Prohibition was wrought from blatant racism, fraud and corruption & monopolistic business practices by Sec Of the Treasury Andrew Mellon and his soon to be unemployed alcohol prohibitionist nephew, Harry Anslinger. Andrew nepoticly set Harry up in a life long position as the head of the newly created Bureau of Narcotics. They did this when they realized alcohol prohibition was not going to last. They pandered to monopolistic business interests, The Duponts, the synthetic fiber, plastic and cotton industries, the Hearsts and paper pulp industry, the Rockafellers and the fossil fuel industry. They used blatant racism and fraud to obtain their goal of marijuana prohibition. How sleazy is that and who in their right mind would support or condone it?
95% of the “medical” marijuana users do not “need” marijuana. They want it.
Just legalize it. For anyone who wants to smoke it. And quit trying to blow smoke up our butts that it’s medicine.
Sad thing is we had a chance to legalize it. If every individual who was involved in the growing of herb would have voted, it would have passed. Many growers called it a poorly written law and did not participate. Yeah right, they just feared competition.