MARIJUANA LAW WASTEFUL

I read with part amusement, but mostly horror, the article by Meghann
Cuniff on the medical marijuana dispensaries. In late fall of '05 and
into the spring of '06, my son and many others were illegally
prescribed methadone by a medical doctor. When my son fatally
overdosed in April of '06, I called the Drug Enforcement
Administration and the state Health Department. I was told it would be
investigated.

Mind you, the drug was illegally prescribed. Nothing was done until
April of '08 when the DEA asked the doctor in question to stop
prescribing methadone. The Department of Health investigated and gave
him a $5,000 fine because he was retiring soon and this (a death)
would probably not happen again.

Now I read Deputy Spokane County Prosecutor John Grasso, who is in
charge of the drug unit, say "(marijuana) is not a moral issue. They
operate illegally, and they're subject to prosecution."

I beg the Legislature to make the law clear and open the door for
these people who rely on medical marijuana to just get on with it. To
be wasting our limited resource of money on the prosecution of
providers, who have never killed anyone, is ludicrous.

Karen Haeger

Spokane