As if these same rules applied to any other drug on this planet.

Well then, where do we draw the line on who is sick enough to need medical mj? The answer always is “I am sick enough, but I am not so sure about you.” Wherever the line may be drawn, they are included, but the “fakers” are not. In order to secure their own supply, they will happily throw anyone else under the legal bus.

The primary point to recognize here is that there never was any sensible reason to punish anyone for using marijuana for any reason. It doesn’t matter whether they had a “valid medical reason” or not — punishment for marijuana use doesn’t make sense at all. (See the short history of the mj laws http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/whiteb1.htm )

Not that the authors of this piece could give a clear, objective medical definition for exactly who “deserves” medical marijuana and who doesn’t. But that isn’t their fault — nobody can.

Then there is this thing about “profit”. “Profit” is presumed to be bad. This is the idea that producers of marijuana will happily go to a lot of work and expense, and considerable legal risk, to provide for sick people purely out of the goodness of their heart.

Then there is reality. Reality is that what benefits the patients the most (isn’t that why we are here? The patients?) is the greatest availability at the lowest price. A lot of patients have problems with both traveling and spare cash, so “close by” and “economical” really help. How do we get “close by” and “economical”? We get it by competition among suppliers. We get competition among suppliers when there are a lot of people who want to do the supplying.

The way we get a lot of people to do the supplying is “profit.” We allow them to do what everyone else does with every other drug on the market — make a profit. “Profit” is why there are hundreds of dispensaries as choices for patients in Los Angeles.

What you see in the authors of this piece is a kind of Stockholm Syndrome. It is the old Uncle Tom syndrome from the civil rights era. These guys are so eager to be friends with the authorities that they will shuck and jive right along with the prohibitionists.

I have news for you, guys. The people who want these restrictions are really NOT your friends. They will never be happy. They will always be placing limits that have only one major effect — harming sick people for no good purpose at all.

And who wrote the above? and do they have a vested financial interest in this? Let’s see now….

“Bill Myer is co-owner of state-regulated medical marijuana dispensary Arizona Organix in Glendale. Ken Sobel is owner of state-regulated medical marijuana dispensary Green Halo in Tucson.”

The very simple and to the point Legalise Cannabis International response to the above article is this:

February 12, 2013: “It is now obvious that some MMJ campaign groups are advocating penalties (or higher penalties) for non-medical cannabis users. The LCI response, therefore, is this – LCI NO LONGER SUPPORTS THE MMJ CAMPAIGN. LCI only campaigns for the general legalized use of cannabis for ALL adult users – irrespective of the reason for use.”

Profit brings more distributors, who have to compete with each other and therefore have to watch their quality and prices or they will go out of business. That helps patients.

Besides, this is a risky business that can still land people in Federal prison. If they take the risk, they deserve the appropriate compensation.

This idea that everyone should get their medicines through some small, holy group of people who are keeping the faith pure is just ridiculous. Let the patients get their meds from whatever source they can, and give them lots of choices. This stupid stuff about “non-profit” actually hurts the patients by restricting access.