CALIFORNIA SHOWS HOW POT DISPENSARIES CAN WORK

But drug diversion is still a concern as Maine gets ready to
distribute medical marijuana.

You can learn a lot from other people's mistakes and a recent trip to
California by Portland Press Herald reporter John Richardson showed
that Maine has been a good student when it comes to finding out what
works and what doesn't in the field of medical marijuana.

In a series of articles that began Aug. 15 in the Maine Sunday
Telegram, Richardson showed how good planning and careful supervision
allowed marijuana clinics to operate in a secure and responsible manner.

It was reassuring to find that a former general manager of what are
considered to be some of the best-run clinics will head Northeast
Patients Group in Maine, which will run clinics in Portland, Augusta,
Thomaston and Bangor. Their focus on security will be a key to the
success of the expansion of medical marijuana in the state.

Maine voters legalized marijuana for people undergoing chemotherapy
and other medical conditions in 1999, but the law made it difficult
for patients to get the drug unless they were able to grow it themselves.

Last year, voters passed a law opening the door to dispensaries, where
people with those conditions could buy the drug. Some of those
businesses will begin later this year, and the question remains what
impact they will have besides serving patients who have a medical need.

The danger that these facilities pose is that they could become a
conduit for marijuana, still an illegal drug, to reach the black
market. This is a realistic fear. We in Maine have seen an explosion
in the abuse of prescription drugs and methadone, which were intended
to address medical needs.

A secondary concern is whether these clinics, which have both
marijuana and cash on site, will become a target for robberies.

How well the managers of these clinics control both of those concerns
will determine if the will of the voters can be carried out without
causing other problems that are just as bad as the one the clinics
were created to solve.

Police in the northern California cities of Berkeley and Oakland say
they are comfortable with the security at the clinics in their
communities and consider them to be good neighbors.

We hope that the same will be said of the dispensaries in Maine. If
marijuana gets just to the people who need it, all this careful study
will be worth it.