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Letter: Politicians should listen to medical pot patients

The federal [Harper gov't] committee was told, by patients, they preferred acquiring cannabis through compassion clubs, dispensaries.

To the editor:

Re: Legal limbo on marijuana laws, Our View Jan. 27 Kelowna Capital News.

This recent editorial demonstrated both common sense observations while still showing some lack of understanding this issue. The fact that police enforcement of current marijuana prohibition is problematic, goes without saying. Still, the illogical rationale that the laws on the books should be enforced—until they're inevitably changed—seems to be alive and well. Is it any wonder, then, that cannabis advocates are anxious for this election promise to be kept?

Unfortunately, the characterization of compassion clubs and dispensaries as being "opportunists" is not accurate, at all. Compassion clubs and dispensaries have been, and remain, in the forefront of the legalization effort.

Prior to the ill-thought Harper government system of mail order medicinal marijuana distribution, the federal committee was told, by patients, that their preferred method of acquiring cannabis was through compassion clubs and dispensaries. Overwhelmingly so.

You wonder why dispensaries are flourishing? That's why.

That's, also, the reason that any distribution system that ignores the patients and dispensaries will fail—it's that simple. Politicians better start listening.

Mark Conlin,

West Kelowna