THE CONTRADICTIONS OF REEFER MADNESS

America's love affair with, and warfare against, the psychoactive
drug marijuana both continue in mind-blowing intensity. Marijuana is,
according to one of the commentaries on the preceding Dialog page,
the country's largest cash crop, indicating a whole lot of people are
involved in growing, selling and smoking it. And yet, combating those
growers, sellers and users is a major component of the federal
government's 40-year-old war on drugs.

The result of this contradiction is more contradiction. Marijuana
remains a Schedule 1 drug defined as having the greatest potential
for abuse and no accepted medical use and is against federal law for
all purposes. But numerous states, including California, recognize a
medical use for marijuana and make repeated efforts to lessen
penalties or legalize it. On the statewide ballot last November, a
proposition to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana drew a 46.5
percent "yes" vote 47.1 percent "yes" in San Diego County. And a new
proposition is in circulation for another possible vote next November.

Still more contradiction: In San Diego County, neighborhood and law
enforcement concerns about medical marijuana dispensaries prompted
the county government and several cities, including San Diego, to
enact dispensary bans or strict controls on their location. But
medical marijuana advocates quickly gathered enough signatures on
referendum petitions to force San Diego to rescind its controls. That
was followed by a crackdown on dispensaries by the City Attorney's
Office. And all four U.S. attorneys in California also launched a
federal campaign to shutter dispensaries statewide.

What does it all mean?

To this editorial board, it means several things.

It means we agree with the California Medical Association that
scientific data on the efficacy and risks of marijuana as medicine
are unclear, but that we disagree with the CMA's illogical leap that
it should be legalized for medical and recreational use.

It means we agree with the concerns of law enforcement and community
leaders about the impact of dispensaries on neighborhoods and that
San Diego must find a way to re-enact controls.

It means that, lacking those controls, we support City Attorney Jan
Goldsmith, local U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy and her colleagues
elsewhere in the state in their crackdown on dispensaries, all of
which are illegal under federal law and all of which in San Diego
violate zoning restrictions, and virtually all of which everywhere
have become vehicles for recreational drug users to skirt the laws.

It means that the 1996 California medical marijuana law, written by
marijuana advocates, must somehow be rewritten so that marijuana can
be available to real patients with real diseases for which marijuana
is believed to be a better treatment than conventional medications,
but not to anyone with a headache.

And it means that at some point, the federal government and states
like California must somehow reconcile all the absurd contradictions.