MARIJUANA STORES GET NO RESPECT

Cimarron, a ranching town of 1,000 in New Mexico, says it does not
want a marijuana store. Residents cite the seaside town of Arcata in
California where the Arcata Eye says people have finally had it
because over 1,000 homes there have turned into "grow houses." Crime
has spiked, newcomers are protecting their stash with pit bulls and
guns, and some of those grow houses in Arcata have caught fire
because of inadequate wiring.

Meanwhile, Whitefish, an upscale Montana town, is being sued because
it refuses to allow a pot store. Then there's Ophir, a tiny Colorado
town that wants to pump up its economy by using old greenhouses to
produce enough marijuana to supply all of Colorado. Windsor, on the
Colorado Front Range, has applications for five stores, Nederland, in
the mountains west of Boulder, has six stores open and already doing
business, and liberal Boulder has about 30, at least. Pot, it seems,
is having a heyday - especially if you include Los Angeles, which
reportedly has more marijuana outlets than it has Starbucks franchises.

I, for one, have supported legalizing marijuana for decades on the
grounds that it is not a Schedule 1 drug like heroin or cocaine, and
its illegal sales fuel the cartels that corrupt and kill elected
officials, judges, the police and innocent people in Mexico.

But the problem marijuana has presented all along is that it is both
a recreational drug and a source of medicine, and cities in the West
can't decide how to treat it. One bunch says stores should not be
within 1,000 feet of a school or a church. Another bunch wants it to
be handled by pharmacies. All of them agree that they want the money
that would come from selling it to go to city or state coffers.

Cannabis sativa is a complicated plant. There are at least 66
different cannabinoids found in it along with a grab bag of other
substances. Only a few are known for what they do to us. THC
(delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol) gives you a buzz, while CBD
(cannabidiol) takes that buzz away but does good things for
convulsions and nausea. Some of the cannabinoids cause the munchies,
some reduce the pressure in your eyeballs, and others act like
aspirin and reduce inflammation.

As a recreational drug, marijuana is much safer than alcohol. An
overdose causes the user to fall asleep, there is no fatal dose,
being high does not lead to violent behavior and withdrawal does not
provoke lethal convulsions. Of course, the plant packs as many tars
and other nasty chemicals as a tobacco plant, and holding its
unfiltered smoke in the lungs might be as carcinogenic as cigarette
smoke. We won't know the consequences of widespread regular use of
pot until enough human guinea pigs do it long enough for lung
complications to manifest themselves.

In any case, in January of 2000, 54 percent of Colorado's voters
approved Amendment 20 to the state Constitution authorizing the use
of medical marijuana in small amounts for medically sick people. In
Colorado, at least, it is clear that it is to be used medically, not
recreationally. It strikes me that if this is the voter's intent,
then it should be connected with a pharmacy rather than a ganja cafe
or a massage parlor. There is still, however, the problem that a
marijuana bust by a federal law enforcement agent can lead to a
felony conviction.

So there are three things you can do with marijuana: legalize it,
decriminalize it or ignore it. Colorado decriminalized weed so having
less than a half-ounce was a misdemeanor and got you a ticket. Very
few people ever got tickets so I guess it means the law was ignored.
What's causing the uproar now is having marijuana sold publicly.

Here's my take on tokes: I have no problem with marijuana being used
as a recreational drug so long as nobody drives while under the
influence. I also have no problem with it being considered a
medicine. People are already gobbling up huge amounts of dietary
supplements, and there's no guarantee these supplements contain what
they say they do or can fix what they claim to fix. And I have no
problem with cities, states or proprietors of marijuana stores making
some money selling it.

Pot is a fact of life and we might as well tax it to death.