Authorities Attack Marijuana Measure

The patriarchs of the Ventura County law enforcement community announced their universal opposition Thursday to Proposition 215, the statewide measure that would legalize marijuana use for medicinal purposes.

Sheriff Larry Carpenter joined Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury and a number of police chiefs and administrators to denounce the measure, which would allow patients to grow and use marijuana upon a doctor’s recommendation.

Carpenter said the measure was drawn “in the psychedelic back alleys of San Francisco” and said its passage would promote illegal drug use and allow pot smoking in public places.

“It’s disguised as mercy for the terminally ill,” he said. “There’s thousands of documented studies which confirm the harmful effects of marijuana.”

“There’s not one study that’s found a medicinal benefit of marijuana,” he said.

Bradbury called Proposition 215 “the creation of a small group of drug legalization advocates” with “a new set of legal loopholes designed to protect drug dealers.”

“This is not responsible medicine,” he said. “This is marijuana legalization.”

Proposition 215 supporters say smoking marijuana relieves some of the symptoms experienced by patients with AIDS, cancer and other serious illnesses.