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Medical Marijuana vs. GATT and Organized Crime by Carol Miller

The Prohibition of marijuana use and cultivation for medical use is a complicated political issue with many faces and facades. What publicly is represented as an effort to protect the sick and dying from a schedule I narcotic, is understood more clearly by most Americans as unreasonable. Many even experience it as tragic and mean-spirited.

In fact, marijuana prohibition has far reaching political and economic implications which can be linked to the pharmaceuticals and their tremendous benefits under the new GATT agreement, as well as to organized drug crime and the general increase in illegal hard-drug use in America.

As the War On Drugs Escalated in California during the 1980's and early 90's, so did the number of marijuana felons in prison. Most marijuana felons are growers, many personal use growers and many suppliers of people who use marijuana to self-medicate for the dozens of health problems which marijauna relieves from migraine headache to cancer chemotherapy.

And as both these statistical curves rose in exponential curves, so did hard drug use in America. DAWN statistics ( Drug Advance Warning Network) taken from hospital emergency room entrance data showed hard drug use was up %10000 over the 1980 decade, Crack and Crank being the two areas of greatest increase.

One has to ask, if spending billions of taxpayer's dollars on eradication of marijuana has resulted in significantly greater hard-drug use, soaring marijuana costs to those who seek the herb for medical use, soaring prescription drug costs( often at the taxpayers' expense) for illnesses which could be treated with marijuana, and crowding of our court and prison systems, often leaving the families of these marijuana felons without parental support, WHY does each administration (in the face of political pressure to cut government spending) continue to finance the War on Drugs$ Why, in particular, does the Clinton Administration, which everyone hoped would be liberal enough to legalize marijuana for medical use, refuse to support legalization or even to provide herb for aids research which has been approved by the FDA?

Under the Global Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, one of the greatest beneficiaries is the pharmaceutical industry. Patents, which a year ago were recognized locally, now must be honored globally. Not only the particular processes for creating a drug must be honored world-wide, but the product itself, once patented, cannot be produced elsewhere. This means that the pharmaceuticals which were already making record profits, will be making even higher profits and on a global market that has its hands tied.

Marijuana has so many uses, that this un-patentable herb could drastically cut into these record profits if it were legal to cultivate and use it medicinally, just as homegrown California Sinsemilla drastically cut into the illegal drug trade in the 70's, causing the backlash we know as CAMP, campaign against marijuana planting.

It must infuriate the drug companies that they can't patent the herb, make it their own and prevent anyone else from providing this valuable medicine. In order to control the herb for sale, one would have to go through the FDA new drug application process, which takes usually three years and often 20 million dollars. It is for this reason that it is unlikely that the government will ever legalize marijuana for sale as a prescription drug. It cannot be patented because it has been around and in use for thousands of years.

A state can, however, legalize personal use and cultivation for medical use if it chooses to do so. California is lagging in this regard. Many other states have done this already.

There are two efforts here in California to suspend the laws which prohibit cultivation and personal use of marijuana for medical use. State medical marijuana prohibition would be suspended in both the Assembly Bill proposed by John Vasconcellos and in the new statewide medical initiative sponsored by Californians for Compassionate Use. AB1529 deserves your support, and you should write to your assemblymen and senators and ask them to co-sponsor. If you wrote to Wilson, he might even sign the bill.

The organization, Californians for Compassionate Use, is sponsoring the statewide initiative campaign for legalization of medical marijuana. We hope that everyone who can gather 10 signatures will do so and return the petition. But more important for us here in Sonoma County, where the signature gathering is difficult because of low density of population, is organizing a thorough signature campaign including college campuses and shopping centers.

Alan Silverman of the Redwood Hemp Collective has agreed to coordinate the campaign. Alan can be reached at 579-8443 . Students at the J.C. Hemp club will help with the signature gathering and educational outreach, and contributions to this effort can be made as follows:

Californians for Compassionate Use (contributions to initiative campaign)
3745 17th St., San Francisco, CA 94114 (415) 864-1961

SCRAP (Sonoma Civil Rights Action Project - contributions to local campaign and educational work)
Box 410, Cazadero, CA 95421

SRJC Hemp Club (contributions for their educational work), % Cecelia Bromley
2124 Humbolt St., Santa Rosa 95404

If you can commit to serious signature gathering, please call Cecelia Bromley and let her know in what capacity you are willing to work, so that she can schedule you for petitioning. Petitions will be ready in August and Sonoma County needs to gather 18,000 signatures by December. Please help with this effort, which has been a long time in coming, and which truly deserves your time, energy, and contributions.

Financing this campaign is a challenge, as with any issue on the left, especially issues with powerful opponents. The radical left has never had as easy a time gathering funds as their multinational opponents, but we must learn to make contributions to efforts in which we believe!! The Religious Right knows how to pass the plate, which has always been awkward for the left. If everyone who wants to see this medical marijuana initiative make it to the ballot gave up one concert, one dinner out, and contributed to this campaign instead, we could activate the poplar sentiment which currently exists to pass this measure at the polls. The San Francisco medical marijuana initiative passed by 79%, and the Santa Cruz initiative by 80%. Here in Sonoma County Channel 50 and KZST telephone call in polls recorded 92 and 93% in favor of medical legalization of marijuana, astounding results in light of the usually conservative results of their polls.

Facing our opponents in the media will be not nearly as difficult as organizing our allies to get this issue on the ballot. Please make a contribution this month, this week, today, so that Compassionate Use can make progress toward medical access to marijuana.!!

May1995

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