MEDICAL MARIJUANA

WHAT THEY WANT IS LEGALIZATION

I was intrigued by the letter from Gary Storck of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Law (Your opinions, Sept.
3). He wrote that the reason people are leaving Wisconsin is due to
our lawmakers failing to pass legislation allowing medical marijuana.

Really?

I testified in Madison last December about how medical marijuana is a
sham. But among the reasons cited in favor of it, there was no
mention of people leaving Wisconsin for this product.

Wisconsin has medical marijuana. Doctors can prescribe Marinol for
their patients, but they rarely do because marijuana is a relatively
poor painkiller. Please stop hiding behind those who are sick to
achieve your goal, which is to smoke marijuana legally. Doctors have
the option of treating pain with measured, studied, safely
manufactured medicines. Marijuana has inconsistent THC levels,
aggravates lung tissues, contains carcinogens and often is laced with
pesticide.

How is medical marijuana working? In San Diego, Calif., medical
marijuana customers are mostly 18- to 25-year-old males; in Colorado
the explosive number of pot shops that have opened has strained local
government resources. In Oregon, a few unscrupulous doctors travel
the state and write marijuana prescriptions for about $50 each after
they determine a patient needs pain relief. Time of examination?
Sixty to 90 seconds.

It is likely that because those fighting to legalize marijuana have
attached the word "medical" to their fight, further debate will
occur. Let us hope that physicians, pharmacists, scientists, law
enforcement and community leaders are involved in those discussions
so that we do not get hoodwinked the way 14 other states did, which
now wish they had not approved medical marijuana.

Capt. Charles Wood

Metropolitan Drug Unit Commander, Waukesha County

President, Wisconsin Narcotics Officers Association

Waukesha