by Dylan Howard

Created on: March 13, 2007   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

In Tuesday's Las Vegas Review-Journal, there was an editorial concerning the medical marijuana situation in California. I have my own arguments and opinions about this subject but I won't bore you with them now. Being of sound mind, I know the federal government will never decriminalize marijuana for any reason.

What concerns me today is the DEA not having a clue about what they're involved in, and the newspapers that print what they think are facts. The DEA has raided and closed many marijuana clinics all over California, since regardless of what the states want, marijuana is still a crime at the federal level. In Tuesday's editorial, DEA spokeswoman Sarah Pullen stated that "Many clinics have been buying pot from street dealers and re-selling it for twice the roughly $100.00 an ounce black market rate. It's become something we can't ignore." In the future, my suggestion to spokeswoman Pullen is to find out what she's talking about before she actually says it.

The clinics are not drug dealers - they are in the business of selling marijuana to people who have an array of reasons for seeking its medicinal properties who have already been examined by a medical doctor. Of course, to enjoy the desired effects there must be an acceptable amount of THC in any given amount of reefer. The more THC, the stronger the effects. Are you with me so far, Sarah? The clinics supply different strains of pot but one thing is always common among them they only deal in high grade marijuana which has a price tag of more than $100.00. Much more in most cases. There's a clinic in L.A. that charges $50.00 for an eighth of an ounce of premium, high grade reefer, which in some areas of the U.S. makes it $10.00 less than the going street rate. Sometimes even $20.00 or $30.00 less. Potent reefer is very expensive, and the ounce that costs $100.00 is typically known as "dirt weed" and would have only minimal effects. Anyone involved in this business to the extent of running a clinic would already know this and not stock it.

Let me offer a more likely scenario. Since potent marijuana is expensive at any level, even wholesale, there isn't much of a profit margin. If you're going to need enough to stock a store, it's likely you would be growing it or you have a connection that does. It's not rocket science, and anyone with the right information about cultivating a plant and just a little bit of work can grow it. The point I'm trying to make is this it's such an explosive issue with many people on either side of the debate, and the DEA, those good ol' boy Watchers of the Skies, need to get a clue as to what they're involved in before they mislead anyone.

"The War on Drugs." I've always liked that phrase. And with record breaking annual amounts of narcotics coming in to the U.S. from South America and the poppy fields of Afghanistan, the DEA is losing their battle. Or maybe it's something else? Because you can't fight a war when everyone is on the same side.

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