JACKSON CLUB HEARS VIEWS ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA USE

There's much more than golf happening at the Riviera at Westlake, an
adult community comprised of single family homes and an 18-hole
sprawling course in Jackson.

One month after the state heard arguments for and against a bill that
would legalize cannabis, commonly known as marijuana, for medical
purposes, the Westlake Men's and Women's Clubs are addressing the
debate by inviting opposing advocates to present their views.

"This is a community that is always on the cutting edge of current
events and things that are controversial," Men's Club member Oriel
Cohen said. "Now that we have the time, we are expending our energies
in trying to improve, and most important, put back."

On July 13, the Men's Club welcomed Ocean County's first assistant
prosecutor Terrence Farley, a narcotics specialist and longtime
supporter of maintaining the federal ban.

While some 11 states allow the "compassionate use" of marijuana to
alleviate medical conditions, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that those
laws are vetoed by the federal Controlled Substances Act, which bans
marijuana nationwide.

"If somebody is dying and in pain, I could care less what they take,"
Farley said. "But nowhere in modern science is any drug administered
by smoking. Smoking kills more people than any other outside source
on your body."

"About 435,000 people have died in the United States from smoking,"
Farley said. "Fifty thousand died from second-hand smoke. There are
200 more cancer-producing chemicals in marijuana than there are in tobacco."

The bill does not cover concerns about how to control the quality of
marijuana, Farley said.

One third of the club's attending members said they were in favor of
legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes prior to the meeting, but
nearly half said they have questions as to whether the drug should be
made legal.