March
29th
Drug laws should matter, even with pot
This editorial will appear in Tuesday’s print edition.
Imagine a drug company manufacturing and selling uncontrolled doses of its pharmaceuticals right in the owner’s house.
Imagine the owner bringing in a doctor on Saturdays and paying them to pass out prescriptions for his product to lines of customers. Both owner and doctor haul in large sums of cash in this tidy little arrangement.
The quantity of drugs on hand violates state law, as do the sales themselves. Both the cash and drugs are crime magnets. Burglaries have become routine. The neighbors aren’t happy.
Were this some normal, FDA-approved prescription drug, most everyone – especially medical oversight bodies – would be screaming to high heaven.
The drug is non-FDA-approved marijuana, though, and the operation is in King County. So lots of people seem cool with the whole thing. Attach the word “medical” to “marijuana,” and it’s pure humanitarianism.