PAYING FOR MARIJUANA DELIVERIES A STEP TOO FAR

Rancho Mirage's decision to ban medical marijuana dispensaries but
subsidize medicinal marijuana deliveries to residents makes no sense.

It's one thing to ban the dispensaries; many cities have.

But it's another to subsidize medicinal marijuana deliveries to
qualified residents at up to $25 per delivery.

The city's Medical Cannabis Compassionate Access Program is believed
to be the first of its kind in the state.

"This is an experiment," Mayor Richard Kite said.

Why should taxpayer money be used to deliver medicinal marijuana?

Would the city consider paying for other prescription deliveries to
its residents, too?

Medicinal marijuana shouldn't be treated differently from any other
doctor-prescribed drug in California. We understand marijuana is
still illegal under federal law and pharmacists operate under the
Federal Drug Administration.

However, the California Department of Public Health oversees the
Compassionate Use Act of 1996 that 55.6 percent of the state's voters
passed that legalized the drug's medicinal use. Launched as treatment
for AIDS sufferers, it also is prescribed to ease pain caused by
cancer and other ailments.

If the city of Rancho Mirage wants to ban businesses that sell it,
that's the city's prerogative.

If the city of Palm Springs wants to allow such businesses, it's
entitled to as well.

Rancho Mirage's dispensary ban was approved on a 4-0 vote, with
Councilman Ron Meepos voting against the subsidy and allowing
delivery. Councilman Scott Hines abstained because he works for a
firm that represents a dispensary.

"Funding marijuana delivery to patients and not for other medicines
to be delivered to patients, to me that's a moral problem," Meepos said.

We understand the council's rationale - that medical marijuana
patients shouldn't be forced to suffer because they can't fill their
prescriptions at a Rancho Mirage dispensary. But this decision opens
a Pandora's box the city should leave closed.