BROWN'S RULES ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

New Guidelines on Legal Pot Use Are a Welcome Shield for Californians
With Medical Needs.

They're more than a decade overdue, but the guidelines on medical
marijuana issued this week by California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown could
finally help divide the gray area in which the state's growers and
dispensers operate into clearer shades of black and white.

Brown's 11-page directive is aimed at giving police the ability to
distinguish between criminals and legitimate medical marijuana
sellers under state law, as well as protecting patients from arrest.
It won't stop federal drug enforcement agents from raiding
law-abiding dispensaries and prosecuting innocent business owners
whenever they see fit, but it will make such raids harder to justify
- -- and might ramp up the pressure for more sensible federal marijuana policies.

When California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 215 in
1996, allowing the sale and use of marijuana for people with
demonstrated medical needs, it set off a host of consequences both
positive and negative. As voters intended, thousands of people
suffering from AIDS, glaucoma and other serious ailments now have
access to a safe, legitimate treatment. Yet as voters didn't intend,
the state is now riddled with dispensaries that employ on-site
doctors who will write a prescription to nearly anyone who walks
through the door, while places such as Humboldt County have been
invaded by criminal elements running underground grow houses to
supply these middlemen.

Most of the negative consequences can be attributed to the gap
between state and federal marijuana laws. The fact that even sellers
considered legitimate by the state can be prosecuted and ruined by
federal agents encourages black-market dealers, who endanger their
communities by ignoring fire codes, selling to healthy minors and
fighting turf wars with other dealers. The centerpiece of Brown's
directive is its insistence that medical marijuana sellers must
operate as nonprofit collectives or cooperatives, and the marijuana
they sell must be grown by state-certified patients or caregivers.
That will empower municipal police to weed out the bad guys.

Overall, Proposition 215 has done more good than harm. In addition to
marijuana's medical benefits, its legitimate sale brings in $100
million a year in tax revenues, and even though it can be abused by
users, it isn't demonstrably more dangerous to society than tobacco
and alcohol. The state's new guidelines will help reduce the
measure's harmful side effects, but the only long-term solution is
for the feds to stop the medical marijuana raids and leave California
law enforcement to California officers.