People suffering with painful illnesses keep getting hit up by city law enforcement. They’re at least 20 states across the nation where cannabis clubs that secure pot for medicinal purposes flourish. And San Jose is one of them.
Per this morning’s Mercury News, patients used to have to trek up to San Francisco to get pot and relieve their symptoms. Now they’re sprouting up in the heart of Silicon Valley.
The issue became hot in the past year or so when President Obama spoke kindly of such services, but law enforcement types are still hampered by antiquated laws that shouldn’t be on the books. A patient with a painful medical condition should have access to a weed that’s been used by millions around the world for thousands of years.
I recall William F. Buckley, Jr.’s comments on Firing Line, his public television show many years ago. He made a relevant point about the use of the marijuana for medical purposes and criminal prosecution, after he tried the stuff by taking a boat 12 miles off the East Coast in open waters.
His point, written up in National Review, his conservative magazine, is this: why spend taxpayer money hunting down pot smokers when they’re more notorious criminals out there killing people?
If a doctor advises patients to use cannabis to relieve chronic pain, leave them alone.
