[ Golden Gater Online - February 20, 1997 ]
Aaron Wessels
Staff Writer
In the last few months one thing has become clear: democracy in this country is becoming increasingly perverted.
Perverted in the sense that people's wishes are being ignored by the higher powers in this country. And if I'm not mistaken these are the same officials that were voted into power.
Why ignore us now? When we were voting for them everything was fine.
Whether you agree or disagree with the overturning of Proposition 209 and Proposition 215, there is a basic democratic question that underlies both of these issues.
Does our vote count for anything?
In both of these cases the will of the people was expressed, and in both cases the government intervened. I seem to be missing my secret decoding ring that may shed some light on the criteria for the passing of laws.
Although I realize that the majority doesn't always make the best decisions, why is the majority vote accepted in some situations and not in others?
The legalization of medicinal marijuana is a perfect example of how misdirected politicians and judges can make their voices be heard. The overturning of Proposition 215 made me sick. How can anyone in his or her right mind deny a terminally ill person a plant that may ease the suffering?
Anybody whose life has been touched by a person with a terminal illness knows that anything to help the suffering should be utilized. It's inhumane to think anything different.
When California voters tried to show how humane they were, the rug was pulled out from beneath their feet. Even before the voters cast their ballots, a bitter rivalry seemed to form between advocates of Proposition 215 and the U.S. government.
When the federal government attempted to shut down the Cannabis Buyer's Club for the first time, San Francisco police wouldn't cooperate. And even when Dennis Peron, the co-founder of the CBC, was arrested in his home and taken outside of San Francisco to stand trial for trafficking marijuana, no one close to the cause really worried.
"The support was there before we wrote the initiative," said John Entwistle, a spokesperson for Californians for the Compassionate Use, during an informal press conference following Peron's arrest. "Dan Lundgren is trying to shift the venue from being an issue of medicinal uses of marijuana to an issue of law and order."
And even though medicinal marijuana has been theoretically legal for months, it seems ironic that doctors who support the initiative are being harassed and threatened.
During the weekend an article appeared in the Examiner that detailed what happens to doctors who recommend marijuana. Robert Mastroianni, a family doctor who has recommended marijuana to three terminally ill patients since the November passage of the proposition, was told by DEA agents that he was under formal investigation.
He was told that marijuana was a "deadly drug for which there was absolutely no medical use."
Mastroianni's reaction to this attack could be summed up in the following statement, "I am now reticent and reluctant to recommend the use of medical marijuana even if it is my ethical duty to do so."
So not only is the government insulting the intelligence of the voters, it is telling doctors that they can't do their job. If this is not a perversion of democracy I don't know what is.
[ Golden Gater - February 20, 1997 ]