Another election, another victory!
Not for a particular party or candidate, but for taking another step toward ending the longest, most costly, and futile war in U.S. history: the war on marijuana.
In November, six out of 10 voters in Maine said "yes" to a proposal to set up state-licensed dispensaries for doctor-prescribed medical marijuana. Maine now joins California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Rhode Island as places where patients can legally and safely purchase state-grown pot for medical purposes.
This is the latest sign that the century-old demonization of marijuana has pretty much run its destructive course in our country. For most people, "Reefer Madness" no longer refers to the ridiculous 1936 fright movie, but to the insane cost of criminalizing a weed that does far less damage than alcohol. Hundreds of thousands of police agents are being diverted from serious crime to the pursuit of harmless tokers, costing taxpayers more than $10 billion a year.
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Although it has been praised for its innovative structure, New Mexico’s medical marijuana program, which debuted this year, has also been criticized for not providing enough of the drug to meet demand and for allowing high costs that could be prohibitive for some patients. The state’s first licensed nonprofit provider, The Santa Fe Institute of Natural Medicine, had its first crop ready to sell to patients in August — two and a half years after the state law was passed. It promptly sold out of its $11-$14 a gram product.
But after the New Mexico Department of Health approved four new producers last week, Secretary Alfredo Vigil told The Independent the difficulties of the program aren’t all that unique, if taken in the broader context of health care. The state’s program has a unique design and unique legal problems, but it faces the same barriers of provision and access as other health care services.
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The names are blacked out. But it's still possible to learn a lot from reading the applications the state Department of Health has received from people seeking approval to produce medical marijuana.
New Mexico has one approved provider, but 25 other groups are hoping to become the next.
By state mandate, all of the applicants are nonprofits with a board that includes medical marijuana patients and at least one medical professional. But their applications vary widely.
One applicant boasts a fourth-generation farmer as its greenhouse operator and licensed general contractor as its operations manager.
Another would reportedly include one of Canada's first medical cannabis growers (an owner of a women's clothing store in Pasadena, Calif.) on its board. She'd be joined by a former deputy sheriff who served as an infantry medic in Vietnam and a criminal defense attorney.
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