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10/20/2006: "Light Up Everybody!"

I'm a conservative centrist (I'd call myself a "compassionate conservative", but the last guy to use that term screwed it all up). When someone proposes changing how things are done in our society, my natural instinct is to stay the course. But my centrist nature makes me look at all sides of the issue, because sometimes, change is the correct action.

Medicinal marijuana is not one of those cases. I mention this because yesterday, DEA agents raided the Green Cross clininc in Torrance, the city's only "legal" dispensary for medicinal marijuana. Ever since California passed Prop 215 in 1996, such establishments have been legal by state law. However, federal law does not recognize the medicinal benefits of pot, and such raids are commonplace. Usually, it's because the feds feel the clinics are just fronts for the legal distribution of pot for recreational use.

During the past few weeks, investigators put the business under surveillance. Bryson said he watched the business from 3:39 to 5:18 p.m. on Oct. 5, seeing 15 customers exit the Green Cross with brown paper bags.

Many of the customers parked a long distance away and walked, then "looked in all directions as they walked from the dispensary," the affidavit said.

"Of the 15 customers I observed, none appeared to be seriously ill or physically impaired," Bryson wrote. "One of the customers carried a cane, though he appeared to use the cane only when he came in close proximity to (Green Cross)."

On Oct. 10, a team of agents and police officers watched 25 customers come and go from the co-op in two hours. A police officer pulled over each customer as they drove away.

The affidavit said male and female customers admitted to buying various types and quantities of marijuana ranging from $55 to $70 for an eighth-ounce. One man, the document said, bought one-quarter ounce of marijuana for $140.

Wow ... makes a guy long for the day of the dime bag.

I can't help but wonder where the clinics get the weed they sell ... sounds like a bad Cheech and Chong movie ...

Now, I'm familiar with the recreational advantages of marijuana - after all, I was a college student in the '70s - and I'm even willing to concede the medical benefits of the active ingredient as a pain killer.

Here's what I don't get: If I have a headache, I reach for an aspirin - I don't go and pull bark off a willow tree to suck the salicyclic out of it. If the pain gets bad enough, I go to the hospital where I'm given a shot of morphine - I don't grow poppies in the back yard to make my own.

So why does anyone think that passing out baggies of pot is the appropriate way to medically administer tetrahydrocannabinol? You can't control the purity, you can't control the other ingredients and God knows you can't control the dosage. Yet supporters of medical marijuana seem to gloss over these facts.

If anyone is serious about using THC as medicine, then it should be distributed like medicine - in pill form, from a reputable pharmaceutical source, and properly taxed and regulated by the government. Anyone who needs it medically should be willing to accept this method (although we could certainly have a discussion about the state of prescription drugs in this country). Those who won't accept appropriate pharmaceutical controls for the drug clearly aren't looking to use it in a legitimate medical manner. The folks who support these pot shops aren't looking to get healthy, just high ...