The Critics Were Right about Medical Marijuana
For the record, I have always been a supporter of legalizing medicinal marijuana, and I've got the columns to prove it. For that matter, I still support legalizing medicinal marijuana today. But honesty compels me to admit that, on a key point, the opponents were right.
Back in the early days of this debate, critics said that legalizing medical marijuana was just a back-door attempt at legalizing pot wholesale. I rejected this argument out of hand, on the logic that there's a big difference between helping the sick feel better and helping high-school stoners dope up, There's no reason, I believed, to conclude that the former would in any way lead to the latter.
I was wrong.
One need only look at the proliferation of ostensibly "medical" pot shops in L.A. to realize that what we have here is the rampant distribution of a recreational drug under a bogus medical pretext. We would have to have a veritable epidemic of cancer, glaucoma and various other ailments to possibly justify what's going on here as a medical issue.
Then there are stories like this one, which appears in today's San Jose Mercury News:
After a two-year investigation, federal agents busted an Oakland-based marijuana candy maker this week, seizing hundreds of marijuana-laced products and nearly 460 marijuana plants....The searches of five locations turned up ... hundreds of marijuana-laced products, including chocolate candy bars in multiple flavors, cookies, ice cream, peanut butter, jelly, barbecue sauce, chocolate syrup, flavored energy drinks, granola bars, moon pies, brownies, chocolate-covered pretzels and "Rice Krispy" treats....
Tainted Inc. ... supplied cannabis clubs in the Bay Area; Seattle; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Amsterdam, Netherlands, as well as being connected to multiple cannabis clubs operating in the Los Angeles area, authorities say.
What the Merc candidly calls "cannabis clubs," we here is SoCal euphemistically call "medical marijuana dispensaries." Sure, that's why they're dressing the "medicine" up as candy bars. (Ironically, one of the best arguments for medical marijuana is that nauseous chemotherapy patients need to smoke pot to settle their stomachs -- and can't simply take THC pills -- because they are unable to keep down what they swallow. Somehow this problem doesn't seem to be affecting all those mr.Greenbud eaters.)
Now, I don't object to the idea of outright marijuana legalization. Proponents make a good case when they say the costs of prohibition outweigh the benefits. But if pot is going to be legalized, then it should be done honestly, and not by exploitively using cancer patients as a Trojan Horse.
As for medicinal marijuana, it seems that the experiment of states' trying this on their own has failed. Maybe the answer is to get Washington to take the lead (I can dream), and let the stuff be sold, with a prescription, as a medicine and only in licensed pharmacies.
Yep, I thought this was a good idea, too - for cancer and AIDs patients, anyway.
But, two weeks ago, I saw a report John Stossel did on 20/20 where people are going into these pot places with Dr. Notes for sore tendons and other lame excuses.
Greedy doctors are signing notes left and right...sore tendons, ingrown toe nails, razor burn... Hey, they get paid - what do they care?
And now this (laced candy bars). What a joke! We've been scammed.
Sadly, the people who really need medical marijuana will suffer because of it.
Chris: You gotta be the only person in America that is surprised by this. You really thought all those folks running around with hemp clothes and leaf hats were looking out for cancer victims?
Touche, Robert, hard to argue against that one! Agreed, there are many among the medical-pot crowd who seem to have a, um, personal investment in this issue that has little to do with medicine.
But there were also others, including many cancer patients themselves, making the case. And I guessed I naively trusted the state to be able to differentiate between the two in the way the law was implemented.
Chris:
You should've looked at the corporate reaction. If Pharmaceutical companies didn't see an opportunity in this, it probably was not leigitimately addressing that significant of a need.
if it were legit, CVS and Walgreens would've been in favor of it. They weren't - they aren't making money - and thus the alleged benefit was a sham.
I have no doubt that marijuana can provide some legitimate relief to ill people, but this is not the way to get it to them. Because it was never really designed for that!
And, no, legalizing pot is not the answer. How many folks already get arrested for DUI and its illegal. Imagine what will happen if its legal.