NEED FOR SAFE MARIJUANA IS NOT GOING AWAY

As a registered nurse who has worked with terminally ill patients, I
have been interested in your coverage of medicinal marijuana use in
North County. The Feb. 4 article about the lives of some of the
people in North County who have benefited from using marijuana for
medicinal purposes ("Patients worry about county's challenge to
Compassionate Use Act") should help to dispel the notion that
medicinal marijuana is a way for "potheads" with imagined disease to
get the drug legally.

The San Marcos City Council's decision to ban future marijuana
dispensaries reflects the willingness of many of our policymakers to
waste money and time. The city will now likely face an expensive
lawsuit from proponents of the legal dispensaries. This decision
comes at a time when the county Board of Supervisors has filed a
lawsuit against the state to try to overturn the Compassionate Use
Act, which voters passed in 1996. A Jan. 9 poll published in the San
Diego Union-Tribune found that two of three San Diego County voters
support the state's Compassionate Use Act.

Pam Slater, Bill Horn and Dianne Jacobs, the supervisors who voted
for the lawsuit, have to listen to their constituencies. City
councils have to face reality. The need for safe distribution of
marijuana to patients whose medical needs warrant its use is not
going to go away.

LORI POCETA

Cardiff