Since Proposition 19 went down in flames - even though the voters elected Governor Moonbeam and returned Barbara Boxer to the U.S. Senate - I am going to stop using the terms ‘Kookfornia’ and ‘Kookfornians’, at least for a while. The proposition to legalize marijuana for recreational use lost by a comfortable 55-45 percent margin. Now, George ‘Soreass’ Soros can go back to donating millions of dollars to groups that are bent on destroying the State of Israel.
The majority of Californians had the good sense to vote against the legalization of pot. But the ‘no’ vote really did not count for all that much. The ‘medical’ marijuana law they approved in 1996 has been so perverted by doctors that it has led to a de facto legalization for recreational use. At best, the defeat of Propostion 19 will prevent a significant increase in the abuse of marijuana and will keep the highway carnage from getting a lot worse.
The pissed-off sponsors of Proposition 19, who would have made a ton of money had it passed, were quick to cast blame for their defeat - primarily on older voters, but also on the younger ones. They blamed the older voters for turning out in large numbers. And they blamed the younger voters for not turning out. The younger voters - after a large turnout in 2008 - reverted to type. Eligible young voters are very vocal on political issues, but on election day they’re nowhere to be found. In this case, GOOD FOR THEM!
While the Obama administration has ordered the DEA not to bust any of the growers, distributors and users of ‘medical’ pot, the DEA should go after the doctors who are getting rich off prescribing pot to anyone who wants it. These doctors are no different than the pushers of heroin, coke and crystal meth. Unfortunately, the medical marijuana law was deliberately written so that just about anyone can get a prescription with no oversight of, or reporting requirements for the doctors who are prescribing pot.
Here are some excerpts from an article by Associated Press writers Lisa Leff and Marcus Wohlsen:
CALIFORNIA POT DOCTORS CASHING IN
Pot made available to anyone who wants it; prescriptions are easy to get and hard to track
By Lisa Leff and Marcus Wohlsen
Associated Press
November 1, 2010
Fourteen years since Californians passed the first-in-the-nation medical marijuana law, pot is not just for the sick. Hundreds of medical marijuana doctors, operating without official scrutiny, have helped make it available to nearly anyone who wants it.
They are practicing a lucrative and thriving specialty, becoming the linchpins of a billion-dollar industry. And yet they do not have to report to whom they recommend the drug to, how many referrals they give or for what ailments.
"There is something inappropriate about doctors being the gatekeepers," said Timmen Cermak, president of the California Society of Addiction Medicine. "They are secretaries here ... All they are doing is telling the police to keep their hands off."
The medical marijuana system voters helped establish in 1996 has effectively become a legal cover to smoke pot.
Under California's law, medical doctors and osteopaths can recommend the drug for any illness "for which marijuana provides relief," a category that has come to encompass conditions such as alcoholism, anxiety, asthma and insomnia.
Obtaining approval in the other 13 states that allow pot for medical use is far more difficult.
Those states limit the drug to residents suffering from one or more specific serious conditions, such as AIDS or cancer. Most require patients to register, creating a paper trail for tracking both users and their physicians.
In California, however, there is no central database to track doctors or patients. Beyond a medical license, the pot physicians do not need to have any relevant training, familiarity with the scientific literature on pot's benefits and side-effects or special certification.
They can simply hang a shingle, and start practicing.
Because there are no reporting requirements, figuring out who these doctors are is difficult.
Clinics typically charge $50 to $150 per visit for new patients. Seeing 10 patients a day, pot doctors can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Some battle it out for customers with ads in alternative newsweeklies offering discounts for older patients and two-for-one specials.
Still, many pot doctors maintain low profiles.
They work at one or more of 140-plus clinics that opened in the last few years, only a handful of which identify their physicians in marketing materials. Some of the largest clinics, including Talleyrand's, declined requests from the AP to give their staff doctors' names.
Even as the number of these doctors has soared into the hundreds, the risk of getting in trouble for improper recommendations is low.
Disciplinary action is rare because the state medical board lacks the staff and only launches investigations when complaints are brought, said Julie D'Angelo Fellmeth, a University of California, San Diego law professor who spent two years as the board's independent enforcement monitor.
The people they rely upon to submit those complaints are patients.
They "are not going to be filing the complaints," she said. "They are happy as clams."
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