(New York Times) SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico’s new medical marijuana law was intended to provide safe, aboveboard access to the drug for hundreds of residents with chronic pain and other debilitating conditions. By licensing nonprofit distributors, New Mexico hoped to improve upon the free-for-all distribution systems in some states like California and Colorado, where hundreds of for-profit dispensaries have sprung up with virtually no state oversight.
But even in New Mexico, the process — from procuring the starter seed (in Amsterdam, via a middleman) to home delivery (by a former Marine) — is not for the faint of heart. Those engaged in the experiment here never know if they will be arrested, because growing, selling and using marijuana remain illegal under federal law. And robbery is always a fear.
Among New Mexican patients, demand has been great. In the two months since the Santa Fe Institute for Natural Medicine began dispensing marijuana, it has signed up about 400 clients, said Robert Pack, a patient on its board of directors who uses the drug to curb the side effects of epilepsy medication.
Eager patients depleted the initial supply, and the organization had to hurry to produce more marijuana this month, because weeks of rain hampered the drying and curing phase.
For the Santa Fe Institute, the production process has been nerve-racking. The marijuana plants — no more than 95 at a time, under state regulations — are grown in a windowless rural building with steel doors, a motion detector and, to keep the plants’ pungent odor indoors, carbon filters. Despite a high-tech alarm system and the hidden location, the institute’s grower, who insisted on anonymity, said he constantly feared being robbed.
Delivering the marijuana can also be fraught with anxiety. The Department of Homeland Security informed the group that the former Marine who serves as courier could be prosecuted if stopped at any of several Border Protection checkpoints in southern New Mexico, where many clients live.
“Homeland Security made it clear, clear, clear,” the institute’s chief said. “Their directive is, ‘You got it, we confiscate it.’ ”
Once again we see that no matter how a state tries to create a system of marijuana distribution for legal medical patients, the federal prohibition will create hazards of prosecution and confiscation that hinder the effort. These “Border Protection” checkpoints are often nowhere near the actual border; Supreme Court decisions allow these federal agencies to operate within 100 miles of the border in the effort to “secure the homeland”. Rarely do these efforts do anything to protect us from terrorists or illegal immigrants; rather, more often than not, the federal government uses this Constitutional loophole to continue its war on marijuana users.
Until marijuana is legal for the vast majority who use it non-medically, medical users will always face exorbitant pricing, inadequate supply, and fear of robbery by bad guys or arrest by good guys.
