MAINE'S UNWORKABLE LAW

Voters in Maine have approved an initiative law permitting the medical use
of marijuana. They just may regret their experiment in pharmacology through
politics.

The measure permits certain medical patients to grow and possess small
amounts of marijuana, and makes it legal for "caregivers" to help them. The
disorders qualifying for this exemption are nausea and related effects of
AIDS or chemotherapy, glaucoma and seizures resulting from certain chronic
illnesses.

Even taking the law at face value, enforcement is going to be a nightmare.
Qualifying patients may possess one-quarter ounce of marijuana and six
plants, of which no more than three may be flowering. Even good-faith users
may find these amounts too small, leaving them vulnerable to police action.

Patients under 18 may be users if they have the written permission of their
parents. It doesn't take much imagination to see good-faith young patients
coerced by their age-mates to supply them with recreational, as opposed to
medicinal, marijuana.

No manufacturer hoping for approval to sell a new drug would introduce it
in a form that required smoking, with all its damage to the lungs, in
totally uncontrolled concentrations. The active ingredient in marijuana is
already available in capsules. If voter approval is the way to make these
decisions, what next? Peach pits for cancer?