NO ON MEARSURE 67

Supporters of Measure 67, which would legalize marijuana for medicinal use,
are fond of repeating the morphine analogy. It goes something like this:
Doctors can prescribe morphine to people in pain, so why can't they
prescribe marijuana to those with severe nausea and emacipation, which pot
use is reputed to alleviate? This analogy, we suspect, makes more and more
sense with each hit of the hookah.

Marijuana would not be prescribed under Measure 67. Rather, doctors would
be permitted to help patients with symptoms like severe pain, nausea,
seizures, muscle spasms and emacipation register as legal pot users. Once
registered, patients would plant a pot garden containing up to three mature
plants. When away from home, they would be permitted to carry up to one
ounce of marijuana with them - but larger amounts would be permitted if
deemed medically necessary. Given variations in potency and tolerance,
though, it's anybodys guess how medical necsessity would be determined,
except subjectively.

This is analogous to allowing people in severe pain to cultivate their own
opium poppies instead of going to the drug store to pick up a prescription
of morphine, which is refined from the juice of the plant's seed pods.

Like morphine, in fact, the active ingredient in marijuana,
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is already available by prescription. Marketed
under the name of Marinol, THC pills have all the medicinal qualities of
marijuana - they boost appetite and cut nausea - but with the added
benifits of extensive testing and carefully controlled dosing. Plus, " Want
a piece of my Marinol tablet?" doesn't have the quite the cachet among
impressionable kids as, " Hey want a hit of my joint?"

Supporters of medical marijuana object to Marinol because it takes longer
to act than pot, which is usally smoked rather than eaten. Also, they say
it can be difficult for those with nausea to keep the pill down. If these
objections have merit, and smoking marijuana does, in fact, provide relief
that no other drug can, then we are open to its use for medical purposes.
Even in that case, however, allowing people with broadly categorized
symtoms to grow their own plants with virtually no oversight would be a
ludicrous soulution. Instead, they should have to pick up their pot at the
pharmacy - in measured doses, and with a doctor's prescription - just like
people who take morphine.

Far from doing this, Measure 67 seems to be little more than an attempt to
bring about incremental legalization of marijuana.

Checked-by: Pat Dolan