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newgrowerNY

As We See It: Medical marijuana abuse?
03.12.07|Santa Cruz Sentinel

Like Capt. Renault in the movie classic "Casablanca," we were shocked — shocked! — to discover that some proprietors of medical marijuana clinics have pulled down millions of dollars, even as "nonprofit" clinics.
We're also shocked — shocked! — at reports that just maybe some people without a medical condition are picking up their pot at medical marijuana stores.

Most people in California, including us, support the idea of those in need of relief from disease or from chemotherapy being provided with marijuana to take away pain.

But we can't understand what has led this state to adopt a system of distribution that is so easily corrupted. The 1996 state initiative that allowed legal medical marijuana is such a badly conceived law that we think even pot smokers should have voted against it.

There must be a better system of providing treatment for patients who need it. After all, some medical patients are given morphine to help relieve pain, but that hasn't meant that morphine clinics are springing up all over the state.

Former state Sen. John Vasconcellos has blasted the federal Drug Enforcement Agency for keeping an eye on medical marijuana clinics. He told The Associated Press recently: "We're helping people who are sick and they have this fascist mentality against good health and pleasure."

Actually, there's more to this than "good health and pleasure," and Vasconcellos should know better. For example, agents went into a Sacramento marijuana clinic and took away two loaded handguns and 60 pounds of processed marijuana.

In Los Angeles, agents raided several clinics, and discovered that the average clinic had about $20,000 in profits each day. There were four dispensaries in Los Angeles in 2005; today, there are more than 100.

There's more here than just getting marijuana to sick people. Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton has actually gone on record saying that the outlet operators are more interested in big money than they are in providing a service to ill people.

Police officers and narcotics agents found that the operator of another clinic in Los Angeles deposited $2.3 million a bank account within eight months of starting business.

We realize that some clinic operators are doing so out of concern for clients in need. Not every clinic is a problem. But it's obvious — handguns, millions in bank accounts, Porsches, huge amounts of processes marijuana — that there's some abuse going on here.

Some might say that marijuana trafficking is a kind of victimless crime and that at least sick people are being served. But any time you have big money, handguns and suspicious involvement from people on the street, you know there's a problem. Local cities and towns more and more are going to be looking at ways of keeping trouble out of certain areas.

After all, cities try to regulate the number of liquor stores and bars, just because abuse can happen. It's obvious that pot clinics need regulation as well.

What we'd prefer seeing is putting marijuana prescriptions in the hands of doctors, and removing the potential for abuse in obviously under-regulated marijuana dispensaries.

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newgrowerNY

Give me a freakin break.

Why is it when pfizer makes BILLIONS on new drugs, drugs that have side effects 3x worse than , no one is up in arms about the profit they make.

Whenever a new product hits the market, in this case legal selling of , money always pours in. How will businesses ever get set up? How will it ever get mainstream? Supply has to outpace demand before prices will calm down. People are still having to go to the black market to get this medicine. "Caregivers" also. How can this conuntry be so short sighted?

Buzzby

Phizer isn't breaking any laws. Profiteering owners of supposedly non-profit dispensaries are. The whole system of medical marijuana breaks down when dispensaries sell to people without legitimate physician's recommendations. The physicians who write recommendations for people without a real medical need contribute to the problem.

Prohibitionists tell the public that medical marijuana is a fraud, that's it's simply a way for people to get high without risking getting busted. Physicians and dispensaries who provide marijuana to people without a real medical need support the prohibitionist position and lower public support for medical marijuana.

I agree with the author of the article. Medical marijuana should be prescribed like any other medicine and sold through pharmacies. The only reason dispensary marijuana costs as much or more than street marijuana is because the dispensaries are gouging sick people.

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