MARIJUANA BAIT AND SWITCH

There is great sympathy for anyone who suffers from painful disease
or disability.

But sympathy for the sick ought not to be used as a lure to trick the
federal government or individual states into legalizing so-called
"medical marijuana" -- which would be used not only by a few seeking
pain relief but by many who just want to "get high." Experience shows
harmful consequences in places where the sick were used as pawns in a
bait-and-switch scheme to get "medical marijuana" legalized.

Legalized pot operations in Colorado, Washington state and California
have been targeted for repeated armed robberies resulting in
shoot-outs and multiple slayings. Some of those "legal" operations
also have been found growing far more "medical marijuana" than
permitted by law.

Los Angeles has become home to about 1,000 dispensaries of "medical
marijuana." Sixty percent of those cropped up in just the past year
or so -- often near schools, parks and other locations where children
gather. It is highly doubtful that all those shops are merely helping
the sick. Some store owners even seek customers on the streets. Do
those customers sound like "patients"? Now, Los Angeles is scrambling
to rein in the widespread abuses that California invited by
legalizing marijuana as "medicine."

Marijuana also impairs its users -- another reason government has no
business promoting use of the dangerous drug through legalization.

The worthy goal of helping the sick ought to be pursued in ways that
do not endanger the public.