Defending Medical Use of Marijuana

* The streets are safe once again thanks to those intrepid Orange County drug warriors who succeeded in getting a misdemeanor “giving away marijuana” conviction against medical marijuana supplier Marvin Chavez (Nov. 20)

Oh sure, his defenders will say that it was sneaky and underhanded--not to mention expensive--for Orange County prosecutors to send in undercover operatives posing as dying cancer patients begging for relief.

Despite the real cancer and AIDS patients who attended the trial and prayed for Chavez, retiring Deputy Dist. Atty. Carl Armbrust knows a serious crime when he sees one. “He’s no different than anyone else who is peddling marijuana,” said Armbrust.

Excuse me. Chavez is different. Unlike the prosecutors in this case, Chavez was actually helping people who are suffering. Chavez was operating his “club” openly and aboveboard, making a good faith effort to comply with Proposition 215 guidelines.

The real danger here is powerful men bent on circumventing the will of the people. They would rather invade our privacy, make some of us suffer or die, and intimidate the rest of us with prison sentences--such as the seven years that Chavez now faces--than admit that today’s marijuana prohibition is as stupid and monumentally counterproductive as that “noble experiment” that banned alcohol during an earlier generation.

JIM SILL

Modjeska Canyon