CURBS ON MEDICINAL POT MAKE SENSE

That Biddeford has joined other Maine communities such as Auburn,
Ellsworth, Brewer and South Portland in placing a moratorium on
marijuana dispensaries is not a negative judgment on the medicinal
use of the drug.

Such ordinances merely serve as placeholders until legislators
approve a system regulating such use, and they are nearly at that point.

Medicinal pot is here to stay. Its use has been validated in two
referendums passed by a majority of Maine voters. In 1999, Maine
voters approved medical marijuana for certain conditions, and allowed
designated caregivers or patients to grow it themselves.

And this past November, a vote on expanding the number of conditions
for which medical marijuana can be recommended and allowing nonprofit
marijuana dispensaries garnered support of 59 percent of the electorate.

Nevertheless, the state has been wrestling with regulations covering
both dispensaries and the conditions under which medicinal pot can be produced.

Last week, a legislative committee finalized a bill that included a
maximum of eight nonprofit medical marijuana dispensaries around the
state, one for each public health zone.

The dispensaries would replace the informal system that has been in
place since 1999, which has allowed patients -- with doctors' support
- -- to grow and use limited amounts of marijuana.

Patients and caregivers would have to register with the Department of
Health and Human Services and show state-issued identity cards
authorizing them to use marijuana. Patients would tell the DHHS if
they plan to grow as many as five plants (the most allowed under
law), appoint a caregiver to grow marijuana for them, or buy
marijuana from a specific dispensary.

The legislation would not set any age restrictions, but the committee
supported a suggestion from the Maine Medical Association to require
a doctor to consult a pediatrician and a psychiatrist before
prescribing marijuana to anyone younger than 18.

Considering that pot is otherwise an illegal drug, such restrictions
seem appropriate, even liberal (although California voters, always in
the vanguard of national trends, will vote in November on legalizing
recreational pot use).

That isn't what Maine voters have done, however, and therefore strict
regulations to be sure medicinal pot is just that -- medicinal --
should be laid out clearly in the law.