MARIJUANA SHOULD BE SAFELY OBTAINABLE

Re: Cop out story, July 23: Something doesn't make sense here. It
seems the Chico Police Officers Association is saying it's OK to grow
my 50 square feet of medicine, and of course to harvest it, process
it, and eventually smoke and/or ingest it (because I have that right
under California law, because it relieves my pain, because it allows
me to avoid highly toxic and addictive synthetic narcotics), but it
is not OK for me to join a local cooperative where I can legally and
safely obtain medicine (just in case I don't have a place to grow, or
my plants get stolen). This whole situation is absolutely ludicrous.

You say you have "pledged to protect our rights", but this stance is
doing just the opposite. We have the right, under California law, to
safe access. The dispensary model is clearly legal based on
California attorney general guidelines, and we should be proud of the
one we still have left in this county. This federal law that everyone
is so concerned about is based on the archaic and erroneous claim
that cannabis has no medicinal value, and is highly addictive. Once
again, ludicrous. And once again it is my civic duty to protest what
I know is an unjust law.

We don't have to be the "City of Weed", but we can be a city of
compassion where we treat sick people with dignity and respect.

- - Robert Galia, Chico