Medical Marijuana: 'Be Careful,' Ex-White House Drug Spokesman Bob Weiner Tells DOJ About 'New Lax Enforcement' Policy; 'Use May Explode for Healthy People'

Medical Marijuana: 'Be Careful,' Ex-White House Drug Spokesman Bob Weiner
Tells DOJ About 'New Lax Enforcement' Policy; 'Use May Explode for Healthy
People'

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "Be careful about the new lax
enforcement policy for medical marijuana," former White House Drug Policy
Spokesman Bob Weiner is telling the Department of Justice and the Obama
Administration.

"You may get way more than you bargained for", Weiner cautions of the new
policy barring states attorneys from busting and prosecuting users and
caregivers of so-called "medical" marijuana who act "in accordance with state
law."

"Prescription marijuana use may explode for healthy people."

Unfortunately, as many as 90% of purchases at clinical distribution centers
are "false defenses", some law enforcement agents report - "which means
individuals are not really sick but simply want the pot," Weiner asserts.

"Medical marijuana is not as effective as other healing mechanisms for many
illnesses such as glaucoma, pain, or nausea that users try it for because of
false hype leading to false hope. Just as laetrile was legalized in the
1970's in 27 states to cure cancer but was found to be useless apricot pits,
leading Senator Kennedy in a Senate hearing to decry the 'false hope' delaying
true treatment, 'medical' marijuana today could be a placebo delaying far
better treatments," according to Weiner.

"Many medical marijuana advocates press its use for pain killing and appetite
enhancement," Weiner asserted, "but you might feel just as good after a shot
of gin. Science, not politics, must drive what is determined to be safe and
effective medicine in America. The medical marijuana advocates never mention
the potentially better applications of THC in marijuana from suppositories,
jells, aerosols, or the already approved pill Marinol -- they just want the
high from the smoked version.

"There is a real danger that if marijuana is made essentially a prescription
drug, its abuse and usage explosion could parallel other prescription drugs
over the last decade, such as OxyContin, which have tripled nationally and
quintupled in many locations because of the ease of availability."

"No one wants to deny a dying cancer patient a hit of grass, if that's what he
or she wants. But to announce and implement a policy of broad-brush
non-enforcement when there is so much loose about usage of medical marijuana
and its distribution is a dangerous policy."

"The new policy, a three-page DOJ memo anyone can download, does not only say
leave the users alone. It also says leave the 'caregivers' alone if they
comply with state law. The distribution centers, which are suppliers, and the
staff could well be considered 'caregivers'. DOJ would have serious problems
discerning between illicit dealers and distributors."

Weiner served as White House Drug Policy Office spokesman for 6-1/2 years and
communications director of the House Select Narcotics Committee for five
years.

Contact: Bob Weiner/Rebecca Vander Linde 301-283-0821/202-306-1200

SOURCE Robert Weiner Associates Issues Strategies

Bob Weiner, +1-301-283-0821; or Rebecca Vander Linde, +1-202-306-1200, both of
Robert Weiner Associates Issues Strategies