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US CA: Editorial: Marijuana Mix-up
Times of India, The (India)
Monday 25 Sep 2000 Subj: US CA: Editorial: Marijuana Mix-up Pubdate: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 Source: Times of India, The (India) Note: This article is in error as the California medicinal cannabis law (Prop 215) was passed by the voters and not the legislature, as were medicinal cannabis laws in 6 other states in 1998 MARIJUANA MIX-UP Confrontational rhetoric is not uncommon in an election year, but curiously in California, the Clinton administration has joined issue with the Californian state government over the use of marijuana as medicine. Some say cannabis or ganja impairs vision and clouds perspective. That's equally true when people debate its medicinal use. Many are yet to overcome their visceral dislike of the dum maaro dum generation and its rebellion against the establishment and family values in favour of permissiveness. This time, the ball for the needless `pot war' was set rolling, when California's lawmakers sanctioned a grant of dollars three million to San Diego and San Francisco universities to establish a centre for research in medicinal cannabis in San Diego. Rumblings began four years ago, when the California legislature enacted a law to make cannabis use legal for medical purposes. California isn't the only state legislature to do so. Laws permitting medical marijuana were adopted in six other states. "It is a tribute to the vision of the California legislature", claim the supporters, that "the politics of marijuana is behind us. The issue is now properly in the hands of physicians and research technicians". But even the supporters realise the potential for abuse discernible in the many ad hoc cannabis buyers' clubs which have sprung up. Many doctors say that marijuana should be shifted from its unfortunate placement in Schedule 1 drugs along with heroin to a schedule 2 drug (with potentially addictive drugs like morphine and cocaine). The tocsin for the pot war was heard in the U.S. district judge's proposal that doctors who prescribe marijuana (for medicinal cures) be stripped of their registration licenses. President Clinton famously confessed that he had smoked but never inhaled cannabis. And in election year 2000, the Clinton administration is clearly reluctant to be seen as sanctioning even medicinal use of a drug that many voters associate with the drug abuses of the 1960s. The Clinton administration claims that between 1993 and 1998 there has been a 155 per cent spurt among patients being treated for cannabis addiction.
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