By Dr. Ed Gogek
There’s a joke that says to understand a politician, just listen to whatever he says, and assume the opposite. That’s not really accurate about most politicians, but lately I’ve been listening to people from the Marijuana Policy Project, the group behind the so-called medical marijuana referendum, Proposition 203. And that’s one group for whom the old joke seems to hold true. Here’s what I mean:
The first thing they say at every speech is that Prop 203 is only about people with serious illnesses like cancer and multiple sclerosis. However, Montana’s law is similar to Prop 203, and in Montana only 3 percent of the medical marijuana patients have serious illness. In California, it’s only 2 percent. The other 97-98 percent have minimal problems or none at all. The most common diagnosis is pain, and that pain can be from a hackey-sack injury or occasional headaches. One woman got marijuana because her high heels hurt. In San Diego, 75 percent of the marijuana patients are under age 40, and 12 percent are teenagers. In Boulder, Colorado, the marijuana dispensaries are all on college campuses. In other words, the one thing we can say for certain is that it’s definitely not about people with serious illness. It’s for pot-smokers with no medical problems at all.
They keep saying marijuana will only be prescribed by licensed physicians. Technically true, but it conjures up the image of doctors sitting down with their long-term patients and discussing marijuana. In reality, almost all the marijuana is prescribed by pot doctors who often advertise that they see patients one time only, for as little as 5 minutes, and hand out marijuana cards to nearly everyone. It’s not medical care and there’s no doctor-patient relationship. If these doctors did this with any other drug, they’d lose their licenses. So, yes, they’re licensed physicians, but they only stay licensed because medical marijuana laws shield them from the law.
They often say Arizona’s Prop 203 has been improved to make all the regulations much tighter. Arizona’s law is different, but instead of regulating marijuana users, the changes actually protect marijuana users from regulation. Unlike laws in other states, Prop 203 has clauses that will make it nearly impossible to prosecute marijuana users for DUI, and make it nearly impossible for employers to fire or discipline a marijuana user who comes to work high. Prop 203 will undermine CPS by allowing parents to smoke marijuana even if ordered into drug treatment, and it could undermine the criminal justice system by allowing criminals to use marijuana even if they’re on probation, parole or in drug court. Landlords can’t refuse to rent to a marijuana cardholder, even if the cardholder smokes or grows marijuana in the rented house.
Someone from the Marijuana Policy Project recently said that medical marijuana could provide tax dollars to make up the state’s shortfall. However, the 9,528-word law includes language that specifically makes marijuana dispensaries tax exempt and, unlike other states, Arizona’s law has no provisions for charging fees for marijuana cards. In other words, it won’t provide one penny in tax dollars. Colorado has already had to budget several million dollars to administer their medical marijuana law, and Prop 203 will likewise drain our state coffers.
But the most outrageous deception is the name of their political campaign, “Stop Arresting Patients.” This conjures up pictures of grandmothers with cancer languishing in Florence, doing their knitting surrounded by smack-shooting streetwalkers and tattooed gang-bangers. In response to this charge, the Justice Department published a booklet called, “Who’s really in prison for marijuana?” In turns out almost everyone in jail or prison for marijuana either pleaded down from a more serious charge, had prior offenses, was violating probation, or was caught in possession with very large amounts they intended to sell. The median amount was 115 pounds, and their other charges were often violent. These are not small-time users. Patients are not getting arrested. This should be obvious. Can you imagine a jury sending that grandmother to prison? And, don’t you think that the Marijuana Policy Project would have one of those “patients” as their poster child?
Of course, there’s a reason the Marijuana Policy Project is so dishonest. They’re trying to fool the whole State into legalizing an addictive drug, giving drug abusers special protections that no one else gets, and paying for the whole thing out of our pocket. They know the people of Arizona wouldn’t fall for it if they told the truth.
