A POT UNDERGROUND?

Editor -- I am a volunteer at a medical marijuana clinic in San Francisco.
I see the people who come in, I handle their records, I listen to their
concerns. They come to us for medicine which a physician has stated in
writing that they need. They are not looking for a way to evade the drug
laws, they are not looking for a pot party; they are looking for relief
from pain and sickness, and they know from their own experience that
marijuana can help them. Some of them come from distant cities at no small
cost in time and energy because they can't get what they need safely where
they live.

If the clinics are closed down, these patients will be forced to turn back
to the underground market for their medicine, with all of the attendant
risks and uncertainties. The money that they spend in this way will, in
many cases, go to support the operations of drug gangs which also deal in
heroin and cocaine.

Behind all of the rhetoric and political posturing is the reality: sick
people in need of help. Many of our clients are truly frightened by the
recent developments; they ask us where they can go for supplies, they ask
us if all the clubs will close, if they'll be back out on the street again,
trying to score from dope dealers. We don't know what to tell them.

MICHAEL GOLDENBERG

)1998 San Francisco Chronicle