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Medical Marijuana is No Worse Than Wine
06-23-07|Press Democrat|By CRAIG ALLISON

The medical marijuana act brought hope to many Californians -- but vague local ordinances have slowed implementation, even though 70 percent of voters approved Proposition 215.

To cut though this "hangover," Sonoma County should apply a simple risk-benefit analysis to ensure ethically and morally correct medical marijuana standards.

The most suitable yardstick for comparison is the Wine Country culture. First note that wine was illegal just 60 years or so ago and that it was exactly this method of analysis that allowed for the repeal of Prohibition.

Sonoma County annually derives around $2 billion from the wine industry and related business and tourism. The Wine Country theme is heavily promoted and the flowering economy has generated prosperity and increases in real property value, both undeniable benefits.

Yet these benefits come at a steep cost. Drunken driving deaths and families ravaged by alcohol abuse are the downside of our local culture which -- by promoting wine consumption -- supports the de facto consumption of all types of alcohol.

In comparison to the alcohol-related damage that is clearly accepted as the price of prosperity, the risk of a few medical marijuana dispensaries around the county is tiny. When compared statistically with dispensaries, mini-marts and liquor stores look like crime hubs.

Furthermore, it is most hypocritical to serve free wine with taxpayer-financed street signs pointing the way to the next watering hole, while an unreasonable amount of fear-based controversy continues to plague the medical marijuana movement. As Dan Rather recently reported on HDNet: Marijuana is now the biggest cash crop in the United States, and medical marijuana research is now seen by scientists as one of the most promising areas of pharmacological research since the development of antibiotics.

Let the members of our governing bodies be driven by conscience and not by fear or vested economic interests, so that this double standard may no longer exist. Marijuana is quite obviously here to stay. It should be treated as a mainstream subject, not a taboo.

Our county demonstrates advanced awareness on so many issues; Proposition 215 deserves this as well.

As a respected doctor said to me recently, "What's wrong with a medicine that also makes you feel good?"

What indeed?

 

Buzzby

"What's wrong with a medicine that also makes you feel good?"

What a great motto for the medical marijuana movement!

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Victor_vicious

I'm going to make a sign that says just that. What a slogan. VV