SMOKESCREEN OF MEDICAL POT CLOUDS VIEW OF THE DANGERS

Pro-pot advocates often spread misinformation on the subject of
so-called "medical marijuana." It's important to show the other side
of the issue.

In the past 10 years, California has seen a surge of organized crime
groups that have moved into the marijuana industry in a big way.
Heavily armed drug cartels have made a multibillion-dollar business
of going into our public lands and clear-cutting our pristine forests
so they can cultivate enormous marijuana crops. Sophisticated
criminal syndicates are buying homes in the Sacramento region and
creating indoor marijuana factories in the midst of our
family-oriented neighborhoods.

A rogue "pot club" industry has also developed throughout the state.
Over the past two years, the DEA has participated in six enforcement
actions against pot clubs operating in the Central Valley and inland
Northern California. Shockingly, three of the six pot store owners
were convicted felons, each of whom was armed with a handgun during
the course of the investigations.

The largest of the six pot clubs sold marijuana to an astounding 400
people a day. Owned by two 26-year-old men, this Modesto pot club
reported selling more than $3.4 million in marijuana within a
six-month period. This pot club was going so well that the owners
were paying their security guards $125 to $150 an hour.

Most of the people buying marijuana from these pot clubs do not
appear to be seriously or terminally ill; they are able bodied, some
even athletically fit, most in their 20s and some even in their late
teens. These young people are purchasing marijuana not because they
are seriously or terminally ill, but because they want to use
marijuana for recreational purposes. To put it bluntly, they want to
smoke marijuana to get high while using state laws as their shield.

Marijuana has no proven safe and effective medical use and therefore
remains a prohibited substance under federal law. Contrary to
misinformation spread by many medical marijuana advocates, pot is not
a harmless or soft drug. In fact, it's eight times more potent today
than it was in the early 1970s. Sadly, more teenagers enter drug
treatment for marijuana dependency than for all other illegal drugs combined.

It's up to each of us to not only protect our public lands and
neighborhoods, but to educate our young people about the dangers of
marijuana and help them see through the "medical marijuana" smokescreen.

About the writer: Gordon D. Taylor, a veteran DEA agent, has
oversight of Drug Enforcement Administration operations in 34
counties throughout the Central Valley and inland Northern
California. He is responding to the Nov. 5 Forum article "What a
long, strange trip for state's medical marijuana laws."