DANGEROUS MARIJUANA

Re "Faces at rally reveal tragic truth of medical marijuana patients,"
Diana Griego Erwin, Sept. 22: In the seven years I've worked in narcotics
enforcement and since the passage of the Compassionate Use Law, I have yet
to see a terminally ill person using marijuana. The people I run into on a
regular basis are the ones who have prescriptions for such ailments as back
pain, shoulder pain, knee pain or insomnia.

While law enforcement is pictured as the thugs, we don't arrest these
people or take their marijuana, because our district attorney's office does
not file cases against these people. Even the people we find possessing
marijuana or growing marijuana without a prescription are generally dealt
with leniently, as are most drug offenders in our society.

Yet, day after day, I get complaints from citizens about their neighbors
smoking marijuana and having constant traffic at their residences, and
again law enforcement is looked at as the bad guy because we don't do anything.

- - Don Pass, Sacramento