City should just say no to marijuana dispensaries

The Port Orchard City Council’s decision last week to consider a six-month moratorium on the licensing of medical marijuana dispensaries within the city limits seems like a prudent first step.

We’re all for giving the council as much time as it needs to study this thorny issue — say, six years or, better yet, 600 — but since legal niceties have to be observed, six months is as good a starting point as any.

Marijuana use has been legal in Washington under certain medical guidelines since voters approved Initiative 692 in 1998.

This has led in recent years to the opening of numerous marijuana “dispensaries,” including one just down the road in Belfair, whose owners have expressed a desire to expand into the Port Orchard market.

Being proactive, however, the city council last week discussed  postponing a decision about whether that was a good thing until it had a chance to weigh all the facts. And when it does, we hope the council will come to the obvious conclusion that medical marijuana is a scam and Port Orchard shouldn’t be a party to it.

According to no less an authority than the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s website, “...the campaign to allow marijuana to be used as medicine is a tactical maneuver in an overall strategy to completely legalize all drugs. Pro-legalization groups have transformed the debate from decriminalizing drug use to one of compassion and care for people with serious diseases.”

The website further notes that numerous studies have repeatedly concluded, “Marijuana has no medical value that can’t be met more effectively by legal drugs.”

No one wants to see sick people suffer. But the only thing worse is exploiting their pain in a cynical attempt to rehabilitate the image of what the DEA classifies as a “dangerous, addictive drug that poses significant health threats to users.”

If other cities want to play the stooge for Washington’s pothead lobby, that’s their problem. But Port Orchard should just say no.

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