NO CHANCE FOR MEDICINAL MARIJUANA, HEMP

It doesn't take much of a military tactician to note that so far the war
on drugs has been a losing battle.

The United States pumps millions of dollars into a campaign that doesn't
seem to be able to stop the flow of drugs into our country and into our
young people.

Some folks would have us believe that the martyrs in the war on drugs
are folks who would benefit from medicinal marijuana. To that end, Bob
Newland has announced that he will circulate a petition to get a
statewide vote on the use of medicinal marijuana and the growing of
industrial hemp.

The notion that we should be able to legalize marijuana for medicinal
use is one of the great urban legends of our time.

We don't argue with the folks who say that marijuana has a soothing
effect on patients taking cancer treatments or those who suffer from
glaucoma. The stuff of legend is the idea that there is some magic way
to make it legal for a doctor to permit a patient to use marijuana.

Maybe Mr. Newland can explain how a doctor can prescribe a drug that's
not in a drugstore, a drug that's illegal to possess, a drug that's
illegal to use.

It's as if the doctors would be able to issue some special
get-out-of-jail-free card to their patients, muddying the water for law
enforcement and magically increasing the number of folks who suddenly
find themselves in need of a medicinal hit.

The case against industrial hemp is not as easy to make. Law
enforcement officials envision field of hemp in which smaller fields of
hard to detect marijuana are hidden.

In the end the arguments for and against industrial hemp are moot since
the federal government has banned growing the crop.

Mr. Newland is welcome to pass his petitions. We would all do well to
note, however, that when he says he has a chance of offering laws that
legalize medicinal marijuana and the growth of industrial hemp -- he's
just blowing smoke.

Dana Hess,
City Editor