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.
Thank you, Ed.
Good laws don’t have to be lied about. This PROP 203 is ALL about selfish self-indulgences at the expense of the good of the greater society.
@2, I certainly agree that good initiatives should not need to be anything but truthful about their proposal.
However – there are expenses in money and human freedom being imposed on society by the advocates of prohibition that are presumed to be universally worthwhile and are not.
Dr. Ed Gogek and other supporters of drug prohibition claim that there few or no grandmothers with cancer in prison but if the threat of arrest and imprisonment prevent seriously ill people from gaining relief then that is a grievous harm done even if arrest and imprisonment is rarely imposed.
http://StopArrestingPatients.org/
vote yes prop 203
your letter is deja moo
over 750000 people were arrested for simple possesion in 2009 and yes alot of them were sick and elderly and many died in prison for simple possesion
(1980-2009 – Total, marijuana and drug arrests by year) Although the intent of a ‘War on Drugs’ may have been to target drug smugglers and ‘King Pins,’ over half (51.6%) of the 1,663,582 total 2009 arrests for drug abuse violations were for marijuana — a calculated total of 858,408. Of those, an estimated 758,593 people (45.6%) were arrested for marijuana possession alone. By contrast in 2000, a total of 734,497 Americans were arrested for marijuana offenses, of which 646,042 were for possession alone.
prop 203 gives patients the same rights as the pill poppers but with a safer alternative.
yes 203
The DEA’s Administrative Law Judge, Francis Young concluded: “In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume. For example, eating raw potatoes can result in a toxic response. By comparison, it is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to induce death. Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within the supervised routine of medical care.”
Source: US Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, “In the Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling Petition,” [Docket #86-22],
“Prohibition has two effects: on one hand it raises supplier costs, disrupts market functioning and prevents open promotion of the product; on the other, it sacrifices the authorities’ ability to tax transactions and regulate operation of the market, product characteristics and promotional activity of suppliers. The cannabis prevalence rates presented in Figure 1 show clearly that prohibition has failed to prevent widespread use of the drug and leaves open the possibility that it might be easier to control the use of cannabis by regulation of a legal market than to control illicit consumption under prohibition. The contrast between the general welcome for tobacco regulation (including bans on smoking in public places) and the deep suspicion of prohibition policy on cannabis is striking and suggests that a middle course of legalised but limited consumption may find a public consensus.”
Source: “Pudney, Stephen, “Drugs Policy – What Should We Do About Cannabis?” Centre for Economic Policy Research
Really’s claim that people are dying in jail for possessing small quantities of marijuana is ridiculous. The whole medical marijuana idea is a hoax. Other drugs need prescriptions and monitoring by one’s primary physician. Other drugs are not smoked. When I go to the doctor for pain I don’t even get a recommendation for Tylenol, but some people think smoking marijuana every day for the rest of their lives is a good way to manage minor pain. Now some are spreading around the internet that marijuana “cures” cancer. A significant group of people is delusional in their worship of marijuana because of the dishonesty and lies spread by the marijuana lobby and activists. The group being hurt the most is young teenagers who are getting hooked and wasting their opportunities in life.
Yeah, well H20 is toxic in large quantities also, so employing exaggerated ingestion of common items to justify ingesting or smoking a mind-altering drug in small doses is nonsense.
But if one is operating on a mind-altered state half the time, then maybe it SEEMS like a great comparison.
It it possibly somewhat true that technically it isn’t the large dose of marijuana that kills you, but the very very very stupid chain of actions you do while your mind is AWOL.
Which is WHY it should STAY PROHIBITED.
@6, There is nothing stopping you and others from debunking false medical claims about marijuana. There is nothing stopping you and others from educating teens and other about the downside to abusing marijuana.
do you really believe there is a patch of land on this planet that does not have drug consumers? and you say im the one having the pipe dream @ marijuana being legalized. Atleast respect other peoples opinions and let them consume drugs away from the rest of society, the problem with trying to respect your opinion is that you want so much from marijuana-tokers…marijuana tokers just wanna toke.
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Adam gagne Says:
October 9th, 2010 at 7:35 pm
…marijuana tokers just wanna toke
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Excellent summary.
I am voting against this proposition because it is way too long.
I am all for legalizing marijuana and granting more freedom to the citizens of AZ. I have never smoked marijuana, nor will I ever. There is little difference between alcohol and marijuana IMHO.
However, this proposition imposes more government to help make us freer? Ha. Just repealing its prohibition is all that’s needed.
The Arizona Republic got it right — This “medical” marijuana initiative is a “sham” that will suck up scarce state resources. This is a really, really bad idea for Arizona. By the way, the campaign manager for the Yes on 203 campaign recently said that it would take 800 pages of rules and regulations to implement this bad idea.
There is no defensible reason to incarcerate a human being for consuming a plant.
Ha! You guys make me laugh. I’m 26 years old and I’m already a self made millionaire. I take 1 or 2 hits every night before I go to bed to help with my insomnia and I haven’t noticed any negative affects. It can be used without being abused and responsible people should not have their freedoms restricted because right wing nutbags are afraid every kid in Arizona is going to start making bad decisions if this passes. Hey Parents, get involved in your kids lives again and teach them to make responsible decisions regardless of what’s legal and what’s not. Fact is that, unless someone lives in a hole, people are about 100% guaranteed to face these decisions regardless of what the law says and there is nothing wrong with letting them make the decisions themselves. Marijuana is dangerous, no doubt about it, but so is everything else. Computers can be used to fly airplanes or they can be used to deliver kiddy porn into your living room. Should we ban those just because some people are going to misuse them? Nope, and we shouldn’t ban marijuana either.