Tax and Regulate
Not Tax and Become Hysterical
Someone needs to tell a few of the city council members that the approach to medicinal marijuana that the people of Santa Barbara and the state of California voted overwhelmingly for in 1996 is tax and regulate, not tax and get hysterical.
An article in the Santa Barbara County Medical Society News by current County Medical Society President Philip R. Delio, M.D., stated, “One would have hoped that as city council members gathered to discuss the methods of distributing medical marijuana in Santa Barbara, they would have asked doctors, pharmacists, or health care professionals for input and guidance. Instead, the topic is being sorted out via public forums that are dominated by emotion, personal opinion, anecdotal testimony, and the like.” I couldn’t agree more with Dr. Delio.
The latest excursion into the silly and inane is that somehow having a pharmacy, in this case a pharmacy that deals in one medicine, cannabis, near a drug rehab center, has an adverse affect on recovering substance abusers. Clearly this allegation is a bit unique. If memory serves me correctly, Caldwell’s has a pharmacy across the street from Cottage Hospital, and Cottage has a pharmacy in the building. Both of these pharmacies carry, among other drugs, THC (Marinol), with no apparent adverse affects on their recovering patients who have substance abuse problems.
