Marijuana - Medical or Otherwise

My position is that marijuana remain illegal and unused.

In 1996, the California legislature passed the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. The Act was codified in California's Safety and Health Code, beginning with Section 11362.5. It exempts certain medically indicated and registered users from criminal charges for marijuana cultivation, possession and use, and exempts each user's one legally designated and registered primary caregiver from criminal charges for cultivation and possession, but not use.

The law also allows registered users and caregivers leave to group into cooperatives, for growing and dispensing the drug, but leaves implementation up to local jurisdictions.

Given this particular legal loophole, my position on medical marijuana is that individual users and caregivers take care of their own needs and follow Manteca's ordinance to enclose and secure any "weed." Manteca does not need a dispensary.

If the 2010 California Proposition 19 passes in November, a single city-operated dispensary may be necessary for control and taxation.

I also believe anyone who possesses a medical marijuana user card should be required to surrender his or her Driver License - it's one or the other, not both.

Indeed, from the California Safety and Health Code:

Section 11362.5. (a) This section shall be known and may be cited as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996... (b)(2) Nothing in this section shall be construed to supersede legislation prohibiting persons from engaging in conduct that endangers others...

California's Vehicle Code Section 312 defines a drug as:

The term "drug" means any substance or combination of substances, other than alcohol, which could so affect the nervous system, brain, or muscles of a person as to impair, to an appreciable degree, his ability to drive a vehicle in the manner that an ordinarily prudent and cautious man, in full possession of his faculties, using reasonable care, would drive a similar vehicle under like conditions.

My stance is the marijuana use produces a driving-under-the-influence impairment (DUI) sufficient to bar such user from driving on California's roadways, a stance backed up by research.

How Does Marijuana Affect the Brain?

Scientists have learned a great deal about how THC acts in the brain to produce its many effects. When someone smokes marijuana, THC rapidly passes from the lungs into the bloodstream, which carries the chemical to the brain and other organs throughout the body.

THC acts upon specific sites in the brain, called cannabinoid receptors, kicking off a series of cellular reactions that ultimately lead to the “high” that users experience when they smoke marijuana. Some brain areas have many cannabinoid receptors; others have few or none. The highest density of cannabinoid receptors are found in parts of the brain that influence pleasure, memory, thoughts, concentration, sensory and time perception, and coordinated movement.

Not surprisingly, marijuana intoxication can cause distorted perceptions, impaired coordination, difficulty in thinking and problem solving, and problems with learning and memory. Research has shown that marijuana’s adverse impact on learning and memory can last for days or weeks after the acute effects of the drug wear off. As a result, someone who smokes marijuana every day may be functioning at a suboptimal intellectual level all of the time.

Research on the long-term effects of marijuana abuse indicates some changes in the brain similar to those seen after long-term abuse of other major drugs. For example, cannabinoid withdrawal in chronically exposed animals leads to an increase in the activation of the stress-response system and changes in the activity of nerve cells containing dopamine. Dopamine neurons are involved in the regulation of motivation and reward, and are directly or indirectly affected by all drugs of abuse. (internal references removed)