FLINT POT VOTE RAISES AWARENESS

MEDICAL MARIJUANA advocates are hailing -- or is it inhaling? -- a
victory Feb. 27. By a 1,777-1,101 vote, Flint became the fifth
Michigan city to approve legally puffing pot for health reasons. Use
remains illegal under state and federal law. Officials reminded Flint
residents not to start loading up their hookah pipes -- or face the
consequences.

Other Michigan cities that have approved medical pot-use measures are
Ann Arbor, Detroit, Ferndale and Traverse City. Lansing is the next
target, says NORML, a pro-marijuana outfit, and the goal is to get a
medical dope initiative on the statewide ballot.

Medical marijuana use is legal in 11 states. Pass the Cheetos.

Whether marijuana is safer or a more effective painkiller than, say,
OxyContin is debatable, but some users think so. Cancer patients who
have tried it say pot works best at inducing appetite. It has
beneficial uses, and we're sympathetic to those who use it legally.

The biggest fear coming from law enforcement circles is that
legalized medical marijuana use could lead to additional abuse and
wider recreational use. Yet the abuse of prescription drugs, the
International Narcotics Control Board said last week, is about to
exceed the use of "practically all illicit drugs with the exception
of cannibis." The board, an offshoot of the United Nations, said the
number of Americans abusing prescription drugs nearly doubled between
1992 and 2003, to 15.1 million from 7.8 million people.

Marijuana's link to the drug culture of the 1960s and '70s, the
hippies, and its potential as a gateway to other more potent illicit
drugs, has colored many Americans' perception of "weed." As Americans
are inclined to relegate cigarette smokers to the streets for solid
health reasons, recreational pot use is unwise.

Medical uses, however, are another matter. A free and compassionate
society ought to understand common sense trumps perceptions of a drug
that may be less dangerous than prescriptions. It's time to take a
deep breath -- inhale -- and place sick people ahead of ideology.

The Flint vote and the others before it indicate that more people
realize marijuana, like other drugs used properly, is not always evil.