cannabisnews.com: Medical Pot Plan Elusive as bin Laden Medical Pot Plan Elusive as bin Laden Posted by CN Staff on December 10, 2002 at 11:45:16 PT By Tamara Dietrich, Tribune Columnist Source: East Valley Tribune The big drug news Friday was a pot bust by police who know 2 tons of weed when they smell it. A narcotics officer sniffed out the stash while on an unrelated call, precipitating a raid on an east Phoenix house.“You could smell it a block away,” said Department of Public Safety Lt. Jerry Spencer in Saturday’s Tribune. It was a $2 million marijuana bust. Police plan to keep a portion for analysis, then burn the rest. My gut reaction: What a waste. A waste of perfectly good medicine. Authorities could still salvage the situation if they would only burn the pot in a big bonfire and extend an open invitation to people with cancer, glaucoma or multiple sclerosis. The ailing and the terminal could encircle the bonfire like the Whos down in Whoville and inhale deeply. Over and over again.A mellow time would be had by all. Then they’d leave with a renewed appetite, diminished pain and less interest in calling Dr. Kevorkian at whatever prison he happens to be languishing in.But no.Medical marijuana may have the support of the majority of Arizonans in theory. But in reality it remains as elusive as unicorns and Osama bin Laden.I had high hopes when a front-page headline Monday read “Sharing the retail pot,” but it turns out it wasn’t about a dramatic about-face in drug policy, but a business article about neighboring municipalities splitting tax revenue.Perhaps in a few years we can use that headline again, but in a vastly different context.Pot proponents got their bottoms smacked in last month’s election as they tried to get voters to pass a proposition centering on an approach that proved too radical even for the faithful.Expecting the Department of Public Safety to be drug supplier to the ailing and terminal was just too much of a brain twist. Especially for DPS, which balked at the idea of passing out pot on the slim authority of a doctor’s note.(Memo to proponents: Next time, suggest having a state hospital dispense the medical marijuana and leave the fuzz out of it. Except as oversight.)Then there were those apocalyptic last-minute commercials that warned that openly dispensing medical marijuana to sick people would have a direct effect on whether or not ditzy teenage girls everywhere would get wasted and then unwillingly felt up at parties.(Memo to commercial makers: Bravo on successfully tapping into the paranoia of idiot parents everywhere.)Medical marijuana supporters vow to regroup and tackle Everest yet again.“None of us are deterred,” activist Dr. Jeffrey Singer announced in Monday’s Trib.Arizonans have twice approved the concept of medical marijuana, which proves their hearts are in the right place. Their rejection of a concrete plan for dispensing the drug to patients, however, reflects a new conservatism and a puzzling disconnect between heart and brain. And makes you wonder what these people are smoking.Source: East Valley Tribune (AZ)Author: Tamara Dietrich, Tribune ColumnistPublished: December 10, 2002Copyright: 2002 East Valley TribuneContact: web aztrib.com Website: http://www.aztrib.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:Medicinal Cannabis Research Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/research.htmActivists Look to 2004 for Try at Pot Initiativehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14923.shtmlU.S. Won't Provide Pot to Arizonahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13980.shtmlWe Must Stop the War on Medical Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13053.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #3 posted by The GCW on December 11, 2002 at 05:14:25 PT Commentary 12:11:2 - There is such abundance here on earth that You have more room to lie and still get by. Other places and environments with less abundance have far less tolerance for lies, for the way it effects Your existence. Here, We have so many ways to keep warm and yet that becomes part of the problem, when people are not in tune to Truth, because there is less need for Truth. Less thanksgiving than what has been requested, for Our own good, is not good for Us.=-= Here We come to earth, where plants live and We cut them down and burn them just to keep warm. And they the logs spit in disgust for their lives are painfully wasted for the mere heat of others, with no appreciation, of the long life taken and so easily given up with out thanksgiving.Christians today, on Christmas are not boxing and packaging and wrapping Truth.There are needy people right before Us, that could use that plant rather than waste it with out Thangsgiving.The table of the Lord is not defiled or to be despised... Malachi 1... http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?passage=MAL%2B1&showfn=on&showxref=on&language=english&version=NASB&x=14&y=10 where the prohibition seems Biblically described as "Sin of the Priests" (N.A.S.B. but of course).Is there a failed spiritual leader in Your life? Get the real thing!The Green Collar Worker [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by afterburner on December 10, 2002 at 20:18:33 PT: Another Author Worth Reading. Bill Maher has some sound reasoning about federal pot policy in his new book:When You Ride Alone You Ride with Bin Laden: What the Government Should be Telling Us to Help Fight the War on Terrorism http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=167QKANGAM&isbn=1893224740ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by p4me on December 10, 2002 at 12:39:42 PT The author sounds like a kindred spirit Great attitude there. She had a chance to use the words "cannabis prohibition" and be a first newspaper journalist on Cnews to use the term. You still have a chance lady as alcohol prohibition used the term alcohol prohibition, while the word prohibition is a despised word by the government and rarely used by journalist alone much less in combination with the word, cannabis.I wish you well in your journalism career Ms. Dietrich. May you be prolific and change the world for the better.1 [ Post Comment ] Post Comment