News (Media Awareness Project) - US CA: Editorial: Keep Pot Private: Ordinance Needed to Ban Public Smoking |
| Title: | US CA: Editorial: Keep Pot Private: Ordinance Needed to Ban Public Smoking |
| Published On: | 1998-03-17 |
| Source: | Sacramento Bee (CA) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-09-07 13:47:21 |
KEEP POT PRIVATE: ORDINANCE NEEDED TO BAN PUBLIC SMOKING
When California voters in 1996 approved Proposition 215 to improve access
to medicinal marijuana for the seriously ill, they did not envision
patients firing up joints in public places. Rather, the idea was to allow
marijuana to be used discreetly and privately, particularly given its
continued status as an illegal substance under federal law for any state
citizen, healthy or sick.
Yet like many parts of this flawed measure, Proposition 215 did not address
where the sick could and could not smoke. Its vagueness begs for
clarification. Local governments throughout the state are now busy writing
their own rules to restrict public marijuana smoking. When the Sacramento
County Board Supervisors holds a public hearing on the issue today, it
should follow the advice of District Attorney Jan Scully and pursue an
ordinance banning pot use in restaurants and other public places.
The need for a local ordinance was demonstrated last summer, when medicinal
marijuana activist Ryan Landers, who is battling AIDS, went with some
friends to the Thursday night market on the K Street Mall. After ordering a
chicken kabob sandwich at a restaurant, he walked outside and began smoking
a joint until he was arrested by police. Charges were later dropped because
Scully's office had the legal backing of neither Proposition 215 nor a
local ordinance.
Scully's idea is to make public smoking of medicinal marijuana subject to a
$1,000 fine. That is a way to send a strong public signal without turning
these patients into jail inmates.
The advocates of medicinal marijuana should realize that laws such as these
are ultimately to their advantage. Public smoking of marijuana threatens to
turn sympathizers into opponents. The measure was sold on the basis that
the terminally ill deserved medical relief that marijuana allegedly can
provide. Flaunting the drug in public wasn't what voters had in mind. For
patients desiring a dinner on the town, smoke the joint at home first.
That's not too much to ask.
When California voters in 1996 approved Proposition 215 to improve access
to medicinal marijuana for the seriously ill, they did not envision
patients firing up joints in public places. Rather, the idea was to allow
marijuana to be used discreetly and privately, particularly given its
continued status as an illegal substance under federal law for any state
citizen, healthy or sick.
Yet like many parts of this flawed measure, Proposition 215 did not address
where the sick could and could not smoke. Its vagueness begs for
clarification. Local governments throughout the state are now busy writing
their own rules to restrict public marijuana smoking. When the Sacramento
County Board Supervisors holds a public hearing on the issue today, it
should follow the advice of District Attorney Jan Scully and pursue an
ordinance banning pot use in restaurants and other public places.
The need for a local ordinance was demonstrated last summer, when medicinal
marijuana activist Ryan Landers, who is battling AIDS, went with some
friends to the Thursday night market on the K Street Mall. After ordering a
chicken kabob sandwich at a restaurant, he walked outside and began smoking
a joint until he was arrested by police. Charges were later dropped because
Scully's office had the legal backing of neither Proposition 215 nor a
local ordinance.
Scully's idea is to make public smoking of medicinal marijuana subject to a
$1,000 fine. That is a way to send a strong public signal without turning
these patients into jail inmates.
The advocates of medicinal marijuana should realize that laws such as these
are ultimately to their advantage. Public smoking of marijuana threatens to
turn sympathizers into opponents. The measure was sold on the basis that
the terminally ill deserved medical relief that marijuana allegedly can
provide. Flaunting the drug in public wasn't what voters had in mind. For
patients desiring a dinner on the town, smoke the joint at home first.
That's not too much to ask.
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