Gary, I don’t think the issue is with actual people who are sick getting marijuana (“Why get mad about marijuana, and not alcohol?” 6/7), it’s the extreme number of 18- to 30-year-olds with bad backs, migraines, glauoma, etc., etc. It’s the people gaming the system to get their weed that seems to be bothering people. At this rate, there are going a be a whole load of people in wheelchairs, crippled for life, by the time they are 40, at least going by the number of healthy young people who are having “back problems, stress problems … etc.”
If you’ve got the actual need, there is no issue. If you are telling the doc what your friends tell you will get you the recommendation, there is the problem.
You mentioned Big Pharma. If it gets legalized, they’ll get in on it—after all, they own our government. Cops don’t make money off arresting weed smokers. The DA doesn’t make money off weed smokers. But the compassionate care guys are making a load of money. Call it what it is: a very, very profitable business.
Go ahead, legalize it. But knock of the medicinal needs bullshit. It’s just a smoke screen for 90 percent of the people, and you know it.
This article appears in Jun 14-21, 2012.
