MUCH ADO ABOUT MARIJUANA

While the federal government's intransigence regarding medical
marijuana is deplorable, when are state and local officials going to
uphold the interests of those for whom Proposition 215 was intended
- -- the seriously ill? Nothing in Proposition 215 or SB 420 authorized
the for-profit resale of black-market products, which is the modus
operandi of the vast majority of the 150 "dispensing collectives" in
L.A. County.

The solution to the medical marijuana problem is federal rescheduling
and well-regulated prescriptive access, not turning a blind eye to
profiteering by marijuana industrialists or gutting law enforcement's
ability to sanction drug dealers. The law was written to liberate
patients from the risks and indignities of the black market, not to
institutionalize it. If the state won't enforce the law as written, who will?

SCOTT IMLER

West Hollywood

The writer is coauthor of Proposition 215.