As a physician I thoroughly disagree with the growing trend to legalize marijuana and dispense it in states already such as Colorado and California. I already know from contact with drug abusers that I see in treatment that the predictable is already happening. Abusers and suddenly taking ‘vacations’ to Colorado, finding the underground network that supposedly hooks them up ( I can’t resist that ironic pun ) with MDs who for a fee reportedly will write a prescription for vagaries such as fibromyalgia and enable the person to obtain “medical marijuana.” I like many others predict that Mafia and other powerful crime organizations will, if they have not already started to do so, move in on the dispensaries and enter this new arena of potential drug trafficking. ERs in the areas of medical marijuana dispensary concentration will see a rise in visits related to problems with the so called “medical marijuana.” After all the enterprising marijuana growers since the days of the Vietnam war are no dummies and have been using old fashioned simple Mendelian genetic crossbreeding practices to increase the potency of modern marijuana to 10 to 20 times the concentrations of THC in the new varieties. So the cases of emergency room walk in’s psychotic from the new “medical marijuana” will rise. And we will have a new cohort source of drug abuse.

It really confounds me that Republican legislators around the country are virtually drooling in greedy anticipation of medical marijuana tax based revenues so they can stick to their mantra of not raising taxes, when only a few years ago they were morally adamantly against any talk of NORML’s lobbying for the legalization of marijuana. So much for principles…

In any case, here is a comical story about okra and marijuana that I think anyone on either side of this medical marijuana dilemma will find hilarious: http://tinyurl.com/lfmb6lq

Enjoy a good laugh.

Regards to all