Seatle's first medial marijuana farmers market was held on Sunday at a small club where "erotic poetry" readings are held. The event spread by word alone and attracted hundreds of people who were lined up to go in. The people were allowed in only with a recommendation from a health care provider which stated that the individual required marijuana for treating a medical condition. The farmers market is operating in a legal gray zone concerning marijuana.
Department of Health spokeman Donn Moyer states that "medical marijuana is not legal in the state of Washington", but a law passed in 1998 that allowed juries to take into account if someone charged with marijuana possession was taking the drug for health purposes. Under current law, only certain health care providers like doctors and nurse practitioners can issue recommendations for medical marijuana for health purposes. Despensaries are not legal in Washington; the medical marijuana community has remained mainly underground in Washington. However, Seatle is something of a safe haven for medical marijuana users because a 2003 measure put arrests for personal use of marijuana as the lowest priority for the city's police department. The farmers market organizers are hoping for a bill that can work its way through Washington's legislature will give them better legal footing to operate on. However, in the meantime, the organizers will hold more farmers markets within legal limits.
I found the requirement to enter the farmers market interesting because only people with recommendations from health care providers can enter the market. Do you think that this would be an appropriate measure for legalizing marijuana? There is no doubt that marijuana can be useful in treating certain ailments, but what do you think are the necessary precations that must be taken to ensure safe distribution and usage of the drug? Do you think that marijuana should be legal at all?
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3 comments:
First of all, I think in medical dosages and situations, marijuana is ok...but that's an iffy situation and I personally feel that there are ways around not even using the drug at all...
I don't think that medical purposes are appropriate for legalizing marijuana. There are definantly other ailments to cure certain sicknesses. I think that the necessary precautions in distributing and the usage of the drug is to monitor how much a person buys every week. For instance, they can't get passed a certain limit while also needing a health note from their doctor or nurse practitioner. I also think that there should be laws to make sure people don't do it in public and instead do it in secluded places. I think that marijuana should be legal because I think it will be a very good drug to tax which can help our country get out of debt, thus helping our economy.
I fully believe in medical marijuana. It's benefits have already been made known and to the people who actually need it, it's a great relief from pain. That being said, like we stated today in class, marijuana is relatively cheap and easily made and/or obtained, so I feel that every precaution should be made to limit the places where people can legally obtain marijuana. How is this different from the prescriptions that physicians make for patients who actually need the drug? This just opens up the market (no pun intended) to thefts and easily disposable drugs. I don't think that this is necessary, especially if "health care providers" are writing notes to let their patients get marijuana as a pain killer (unless they are not practicing physicians - which might have been the loophole that was seen when this law was passed).
I'm all for allocating and delegating the job to various producers, but this doesn't really seem to be regulating anything. Are the people in the farmers markets even qualified to sell marijuana? Do they know the physical effects of it? How can they regulate the distribution of marijuana if they're run of the mill sellers and not educated business people?
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