cannabisnews.com: Initiative Aims Only At Helping The Sick





Initiative Aims Only At Helping The Sick
Posted by FoM on October 31, 1999 at 07:18:43 PT
Column : Mark Dion
Source: Press Herald
Maine voters will decide on Tuesday whether or not reason prevails over fear.I chose to support the medical marijuana referendum question because I believe people are fundamentally good and any effort to relieve suffering adds to the nobility of a community.
Voters in seven other states — Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington — have approved initiatives intended to make marijuana legal for medicinal purposes. These citizens have concluded that those who suffer should have access to any medicine, that would enhance their quality of life.Question 2 will not legalize recreational marijuana but requires a supporting medical diagnosis and the participation of a physician in its use. It prohibits commercial cultivation or public consumption.My stance is not about being soft on drugs or furthering a radical political agenda. I speak to our need to comfort those we love as they face debilitating, physical decline.Opponents suggest, in a contemporary version of reefer madness, that approval of medicinal marijuana would send a wrong message to our children. What is this message? That adults are committed to a drug- control policy that defines our lives in black and white? That we forfeit our ability to make rational, discriminating decisions based on objective evidence and ethical values when faced with drug-control dogma?Our children are faced with daunting challenges. The availability of illegal drugs in their universe is more prevalent today than parents or the most dedicated drug enforcement agent would care to admit.What saves one youth over another is the ability to make good decisions. If the floodgate of potential abuse is as open as opponents claim, do we continue to pound the table with the solitary idea that water is bad or do we teach our kids the ability to swim in the fast-moving currents of an increasingly complex society?Question 2 is silent on how the afflicted individual will obtain the initial amount of marijuana. I am confident that when the people of Maine approve this measure a working group comprised of police, doctors and lawmakers can draft a process that will allow restricted, regulated access for an approved patient. Ironically, this mandate would act to place some proactive regulatory oversight on a substance that today remains outside government control.There are voices suggesting that law enforcement will be handcuffed by this proposal. But police will still gather the facts of each case as it unfolds. And they will afford the prosecutor all the available facts, even those that might lead to a decision to suspend sanctions. Good cops will continue to do good police work.I could offer studies to support my position. Those who would advocate otherwise offer an array of opposing conclusions. Theirs is a position of law carved in stone; honorable yes, traditional yes, but not necessarily right. I ask that you search your heart for an answer, not a legal index.Contraband is a lawyer's word; compassion is a moral imperative. Each of us can choose how we live our lives. When we linger in our old age what would be said of us. Did we accept a drug war that knew of no mercy, no trust and no compassion? Or was ours a story that inspired our grandchildren to remember that we each found the courage to stand up and free medicine to do her work.You choose. I have.Mark Dion is the Sheriff of Cumberland County.Related Articles & Web Site: Mainers For Medical Rightshttp://www.mainers.org/Saturday, October 30, 1999 Copyright © 1999 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. Real Goal is Legal Marijuana for All - 10/31/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3495.shtmlHotly Contested or One-Sided - 10/30/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3488.shtmlMedical Marijuana Retains Strong Support - 10/28/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3469.shtmlMedical Marijuana Stance Has Sheriff Under Fire - 10/27/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3450.shtmlSheriff Backs Ballot Question To Legalize Some MJ - 10/21/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3366.shtml
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