ARE WE IN A 'FIGHT' OVER RECREATIONAL POT? NO

Mainers Want to Offer Suffering People Pain Relief, but Recreational
Use Is a Different Issue.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., visited Maine last week, where he
addressed about 100 people at an "expo" for legal cannabis growers in
support of approving marijuana for recreational use.

In a story headlined, "Cannabis battle is winnable, expo told," Frank
was quoted as saying, "People who make a personal decision to smoke
marijuana should not be subject to prosecution. This is the kind of
fight that's worth winning. It's winnable."

Now, it's not clear how many Maine residents were aware that there was
a "fight" going on over marijuana legalization. Maine voters gave
their approval to the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes in a
1999 referendum, and 10 years later approved the establishment of
dispensaries as one option for offering the drug to those whose
medical condition required it, according to their physicians.

But they have never said at any time that cannabis should be
decriminalized, and even if they had, the drug would remain illegal
under federal laws.

It's exactly this sort of rhetoric that convinces some people that the
effort to provide pain relief for people with cancer and other serious
diseases and conditions is actually a cover for the activists' real
goal: legalization for recreational use.

There's no good reason to conclude that is true -- yet -- but Mainers
can't be blamed for being suspicious.

And if that suspicion became widespread, to the point where it
interfered with the provision of cannabis for medical purposes, that
would truly be unfortunate.

Frank, who had also stopped in Ogunquit to celebrate the end of the
military's "don't ask, don't policy" on gays in the service, said in
Portland that the "evolution" of social attitudes that decision
revealed would also lead to the "substantial" legalization of
marijuana within the next decade.

Time will tell if that is true. Right now, however, Frank is fighting
over an issue that Mainers to date have made a clear decision about:
medical marijuana, yes; legalized pot, no.

It's hard to have a "battle" when one side has already declared the
discussion over. Frank and those who agree with him should start
making their case to highly skeptical Mainers before declaring their
nonexistent victory is inevitable.