The passage of L.D. 726 ushers in a new era for the medical use of marijuana in Maine, as the people of Maine will have access to lab-tested and “safe” medical marijuana. “Safe” is the applicable word, because we all know what really goes into cigarettes. The fear of chemical alterations to enhance the product’s potency or effects is bothersome.

The people who use medical marijuana do so for its all-natural, non-cancer-causing potential; Marijuana has been known for the last 3,000 years as a medicinal herb. Yet companies are already producing selectively designed, marijuana-derived treatments whose long-term safety is unknown.

But this new era is being challenged by the recreational-marijuana legalization initiative that is poised to be on the 2016 ballot. The prevention of this challenge to the newly structured big business of medical marijuana is a critical step in the foundation of a prosperous medical marijuana business.

The medical structure sets up a way for the government to manage the number of distributors, monitor the services and the people involved, regulate the business and production through legislation, and tax for financial gain.

If the complete legalization of marijuana does pass, it is poised to take much of the revenue from the selected medical distributors, as the masses will be able to produce their own marijuana, whose distribution will be mostly unregulated and untaxed.

From the beginning, the Legislature was uncaring about the legalization initiative being on the ballot. Now the threat is very real, and the medical marijuana businesses are starting to see their prospective profitability slip away.

As a libertarian, I stand for the complete legalization of marijuana.

Alex Lavoie

Cumberland


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