.. ON the Medical Marijuana ballot question …:

By “Hungry Poet”

I can understand the concerns and hesitancy toward legalizing medical marijuana, particularly when it comes from older generations that went through years and years of Drug War propaganda.

I disagree with the idea of limiting any kind of farmers especially when it is to make way for greater Big Pharma control.

Who is more likely to produce an organic, less adulterated product – a farmer or a pharmacy? The pharmaceutical industry already has Merinol which is a pill form of THC (the active ingredient in marijuana) but of course it has a lot of additives and is virtually ineffective.

Also, allowing local growers could help spark a local (tax paying?) industry that currently does not exist.

I think it is naive to think that having certified legal growers will suddenly flood the streets with marijuana, because let’s face it, there are a huge number of folks growing the plant in high abundance already.

Sure the underground market has always and will always exist – and that may be all the more reason to begin rolling back criminalization even further.

In my opinion, the extremely harsh drug laws needn’t apply to such a harmless substance. The War on Drugs failed and only created a terrible black market and filled our prisons (one in one hundred males behind bars in this country, more than all other nations in the world COMBINED).

The battle against marijuana seems to a generational battle that is slowly easing up as younger and younger folks, unaffected by the Reagan days and Bush1 created crack epidemic, simply do not see the herb as a danger.

In fact, many are educated on the uses and benefits of all types of natural herbs and plants as alternative and preventative medicines. Particularly as an awareness of Big Pharma and the FDAs corrupt abuses of power grows.

Most young folks have had enough of the synthetic drug pushing pharmaceutical world battling against easily available (and cheap in comparison) herbal alternatives.

As a side note, if other more liberal states like CA or RI are any indication – these dispensaries and growing operations will be so tightly watched and monitored that there is very minimal significant risk either one of these industries would conduct illegal activity. Again, let’s not think that an item like marijuana is really that hard to come by or grow right now with the current laws in place.

By Steven R. Maher

On November 6, Massachusetts voters will decide whether marijuana can be prescribed for medicinal purposes. Because I believe the proposal contains a distribution flaw, I am going to vote no.

I downloaded from the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s office the ballot question. It reads in part: “This proposed law would eliminate state criminal and civil penalties for the medical use of marijuana by qualifying patients. To qualify, a patient must have been diagnosed with a debilitating medical condition, such as cancer, glaucoma, HIV-positive status or AIDS, hepatitis C, Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, or multiple sclerosis. The patient would also have to obtain a written certification, from a physician with whom the patient has a bona fide physician-patient relationship, that the patient has a specific debilitating medical condition and would likely obtain a net benefit from medical use of marijuana. “

As someone who suffers from Parkinson disease (see the InCity Times December 26, 2011), I believe patients who would obtain a “net benefit” should be allowed, with a doctor’s approval, to use medical marijuana. It is the following section that bothers me: “The proposed law would allow for non-profit medical marijuana treatment centers to grow, process and provide marijuana to patients or their caregivers.”

Under this scenario, the treatment centers that grow the marijuana would “provide” the product to the patient. There have been problems in other states using this approach. Inevitably, if Massachusetts adopts this question, there will be a seepage in the supply chain and legally produced marijuana will end up being sold by illegal drug dealers. This looks like a process that would be ripe for organized crime penetration, whether it is the traditional Mafia or one of its third world imitators.

The link needs to broken between the legal medical marijuana producer and the patient. If marijuana is going to be prescribed as a medication, it should be processed through a pharmacy like any other medication. Medical treatment centers should market their marijuana to retailers, not medically stricken patients. The doctor can write a prescription, the patient can take it to the local CVS, Walgreen’s or other pharmacy, and get it filled. A pharmacist should process prescriptions, not farmers or treatment centers.