MARIJUANA FOLLIES? NO THANKS!

There have been hints in the Tennessee General Assembly that the
state should consider legalizing so-called "medical" marijuana. But
the awful experience of states that have done so ought to end any such talk.

A bizarre charade is playing out across Montana, where "medical"
marijuana is legal. Decide for yourself whether it seems like a real
attempt to help the sick, the supposed goal of "medical" marijuana.

One doctor in Montana recently saw 150 "patients" in just a little
over 14 hours at a "medical" marijuana "clinic." The doctor spent on
average only six minutes with each person, and she acknowledges that
all but five were granted cards making them eligible to use pot legally.

A review board said the doctor "did not document whether she took
medical histories or physical examinations of patients, did not
discuss proper dosing and failed to document a risk analysis of
medical marijuana" for patients, The Associated Press reported. She
has been fined for giving substandard care.

The traveling clinics are lucrative, with doctors typically charging
a fee to assess "patients," however briefly, then giving hundreds at
each stop the OK to use pot.

Consider this description by Montana's top narcotics officer of many
of the marijuana "clinics": "Before the doors even open, the parking
lot has 300 kids throwing Frisbees and playing Hacky-Sack," Mark Long
told The Wall Street Journal.

Do those "kids" sound like the gravely ill cancer or AIDS sufferers
whom marijuana legalization advocates mention when they are pushing
their cause? Isn't it more likely that many just want to "get high"?

About 15,000 Montanans -- a state with only 975,000 people -- are now
cleared to use "medical" marijuana. That's one in every 65 residents!
Most of those got approval in just the past few months since the
Obama administration told prosecutors to make exceptions in enforcing
federal laws against marijuana in states where it is legal.

There have also been horrible cases of violence in Montana --
including one "patient" who was beaten to death and robbed of his
marijuana -- and in some of the other 13 states that permit "medical"
marijuana. Many cities and states that allow pot are frantically
trying to rein it in because it has become, in the words of the mayor
of Billings, Mont., "an absolute nightmare."

Let's not bring that nightmare to Tennessee.