The Daily Bulletin has an anti-medical marijuana column today by Brenda Chabot of the Inland Valley Drug Free Community Coalition that seems like a pretty normal newspaper op-ed piece until you realize that it's arguing a point that California's voters rejected more than 10 years ago.
Chabot spends hundreds of words repeating misinformation about medical marijuana's medical efficacy, arguing that "Marinol is a medicine - smoked marijuana is not," flogging the "gateway drug" theory, and generally championing the party line of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. She forgets to use the goofy ONDCP tagline -- "Marijuana: harmless?" -- but otherwise sounds like she's writing a speech for John Walters to deliver to some provincial Rotary Club.
The thing she seems to forget is that the train she's riding already left the station a long time ago in California, along with 11 other states.
California voters don't buy the federal argument, which they recognize as a mixture of bad science and blatant propaganda. That's why California voters passed Prop. 215 in 1996, why California's legislature enacted laws like SB420 to help implement the law, why a number of California cities have passed rules like Oakland's Meaure Z to make marijuana arrests the lowest possible priority for law enforcement. Medical marijuana is already a reality in California.
The battle that Chabot is fighting has been over for a long time.
Chabot and her fellow drug warriors lost.
(Sometimes they just don't seem to realize it.)
it's about time we stop smoking pot. come on now. pot is bad and you know it . it seems like more and more people are getting smart on the dangers of marijuana. i use to do it and now i dont. we need to stop pretending and help fix the problem, rather than being the problem.
Posted by: Akin | September 28, 2007 at 06:42 PM
try arthritis, osteoporosis , multiple joint surgeries than lay on your death bed from prescription pain pills and no desire to eat while you die...you will see problems much larger than mmj.
Posted by: andy | September 30, 2007 at 05:26 PM
Great post, great blog, thanks a lot!
Posted by: RI Patient Advocacy Coalition | October 01, 2007 at 06:59 AM
thanks for what you do. i have fought for you in your field and got tired. this will work out but i wonder how many will suffer daily until...meanwhile underground has become my solution after being a legal patient for several years.
Posted by: andy | October 01, 2007 at 05:48 PM
'its about time we stop smoking pot' ignorant loser... lol
pot is good for you. better and safer than alcohol and tobacco. while it's safe to say all 3 can have negative effects, you should shut your mouth with the stereotyping because you seem a fool. WE RESPECT YOUR OPINIONS BUT THAT'S JUST WHAT THEY ARE - OPINIONS. Not FACT.
Posted by: joe riley | October 03, 2007 at 07:18 AM
Joe, this guy may not be ignorant but just hasn't seen real life proof of improvement for those it does work for. Opinions, based on his personnal feelings are ok and he should do as he believes is right for him, I just hope he or a loved one never expiriences a disease that would be eased by medical marijuana and more beneficial than common medicine.
Posted by: andy | October 03, 2007 at 03:32 PM
thanks for the great read and all the work you do on behalf of medical users like ourselves
Posted by: the3LB | October 04, 2007 at 03:38 PM
Brenda Chabot of the Inland Valley Drug Free Community Coalition.
I want your TAX money!
"The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human."
--Aldous Huxley
Posted by: Constituent | October 07, 2007 at 08:33 AM