CITY SHOULD JUST SAY NO TO MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES

The Port Orchard City Council's decision last week to consider a
six-month moratorium on the licensing of medical marijuana
dispensaries within the city limits seems like a prudent first step.

We're all for giving the council as much time as it needs to study
this thorny issue -- say, six years or, better yet, 600 -- but since
legal niceties have to be observed, six months is as good a starting
point as any.

Marijuana use has been legal in Washington under certain medical
guidelines since voters approved Initiative 692 in 1998.

This has led in recent years to the opening of numerous marijuana
"dispensaries," including one just down the road in Belfair, whose
owners have expressed a desire to expand into the Port Orchard market.

Being proactive, however, the city council last week discussed
postponing a decision about whether that was a good thing until it
had a chance to weigh all the facts. And when it does, we hope the
council will come to the obvious conclusion that medical marijuana is
a scam and Port Orchard shouldn't be a party to it.

According to no less an authority than the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Agency's website, "...the campaign to allow marijuana to be used as
medicine is a tactical maneuver in an overall strategy to completely
legalize all drugs. Pro-legalization groups have transformed the
debate from decriminalizing drug use to one of compassion and care
for people with serious diseases."

The website further notes that numerous studies have repeatedly
concluded, "Marijuana has no medical value that can't be met more
effectively by legal drugs."

No one wants to see sick people suffer. But the only thing worse is
exploiting their pain in a cynical attempt to rehabilitate the image
of what the DEA classifies as a "dangerous, addictive drug that poses
significant health threats to users."

If other cities want to play the stooge for Washington's pothead
lobby, that's their problem. But Port Orchard should just say no.