MEDICAL MARIJUANA NEEDS CLOSER REGULATION

California is in serious financial trouble, fueling the most recent
push to legalize and tax marijuana to help balance the state budget.
But what's left out of these calculations is the health and safety of
the patients who rely on medical marijuana.

While I am a supporter of medical marijuana, a decision to legalize a
powerful drug in order to balance our budget would be a critical
mistake and would jeopardize public safety. Even in the midst of this
fiscal crisis, we need to focus on providing safe medicine, not just
grasping for any available revenue source.

There is strong scientific evidence that marijuana helps ease the
symptoms of a number of serious illnesses, from AIDS to cancer, and
it should be available under a doctor's prescription. Californians
are united in their desire to see this safe and effective medicine
delivered to those who need it.

But turning this powerful medicine into a revenue source is wrong.

The proponents of legalization point out that marijuana is already
widely used. But just because a powerful medicine has been adopted
for recreational purposes, partially through flaws in our medical
marijuana delivery system, does not mean recreational use should be
legalized. It means that the system should be reformed and better regulated.

Right now, there are no meaningful statewide regulations on medical
marijuana production, delivery or use. Overseeing the exploding
number of marijuana dispensaries and collectives rests with county
authorities. This has left a patchwork system that is clearly being
abused, as seen in the mounting evidence that criminal cartels are
starting to supply, or even control, some of the dispensaries.

The time has come for strong statewide oversight of the medical
marijuana system.

First and foremost, we need to protect access to safe medicine for
those who need it. That means implementing consistent regulations
guarding against cannabis tainted with pesticides and other dangerous
substances. The practice of providing medicine that contains
dangerous and cancer-causing impurities can be ended only through a
system of state testing and rigorous control.

There is also no state oversight of doctor recommendations written
for marijuana or consistent regulation of its use. If a doctor
started writing hundreds of prescriptions for one drug such, as
OxyContin, federal regulators would investigate. But doctors can
write thousands, or even tens of thousands, of "recommendations" for
medical marijuana with no oversight at all.

Even when there are legitimate doctor recommendations, there are no
consistent regulations for how much cannabis can be purchased, at
what price and at what potency. Imagine going to a pharmacy to buy a
medication and having to "test" to learn the potency of that drug.
But that's what medical marijuana patients must do "" find the proper
dose through a system of trial and error.

There are no meaningful statewide regulations for security in
cannabis collectives. No oversight as to where they can be located or
how many one community should be required to host. No statewide
standards over how much cannabis can be purchased for medical use at
one time. No meaningful control over who is operating these clubs or
their qualifications to do so. And until recently, no meaningful
efforts to close the numerous "dispensaries" that have sprung up in
violation of even the weak existing regulations.

In short, we are tolerating a dangerous system that threatens the
health of patients and the public safety for all Californians.

We're not going to solve this problem by "normalizing" an illegal
drug. We need tough regulations that make safe cannabis available to
those who need it and unavailable to those who are seeking to abuse it.