She seems to think that Oregon's "medical" marijuana program* isn't really about sick people getting analgesics but is instead just a big (illegal) legalization program.
Now how in the world could she think such a thing?
*Everyone puts smartass quotes around "war on drugs". I think they apply in spades to "medical" marijuana.
I don’t know much about medical marijuana in Oregon, but I interviewed a local police chief after a raid on an illegal “medical marijuana dispensary” here in SoCal, and this is what he had to say about medical marijuana in California (with some info about the case redacted and in brackets):
[He called the ordinance legalizing medical marijuana] “the worst law to come down the pike in a long time,” and “a travesty.”That’s just one man’s opinion about one case, but he’s a seasoned law enforcement professional, and I respect his opinion, even though I voted for the medical marijuana initiative.“This was sold to the voters as a remedy for grandma and grandpa’s medical problems, but when we got there, we found a dozen teenagers,” he said. He explained that customers typically find doctors willing to prescribe medical marijuana for minor ailments through websites, and then go to dispensaries with bogus prescriptions. He said that investigators found signs advertising “happy hour” at the shop, along with other indications that it was not a serious medical facility.
“It was packaged for individual sale, and there were advertisements for different ‘flavors,’ and lollipops and brownies—the way it was packaged for individual sale is what was so striking about this investigation,” [he] said.
[The chief] said that police were optimistic that [the dealer] would be convicted because he was operating outside the confines of the state’s medical marijuana law.
“You have to have a license, and they didn’t have one,” he said. He characterized what was going on at the dispensary as “legalized drug dealing.”
If it’s the will of the people to legalize marijuana, we probably shouldn’t be doing it by half-measures like this, where there is room for obvious abuse.
I think that if my wife or kid had an ailment that marijuana had the faintest hope of addressing, I would move heaven and earth to get marijuana for them. I don’t particularly care how many people are taking advantage of the law, as long as the people who need it are getting it.
I would probably be a lot better off if I used legal marijuana at work instead of all the coffee I drink; which should probable be illegal or at least require a perscription.
