‘My Turn’ right on about pain Flo...

‘My Turn’ right

on about pain

Flo Martin’s article on the Costa Mesa City Council denying the

dispensaries for medical marijuana hit home with me (“My Turn,”

Friday). I have suffered chronic pain for the last five years. Pain,

especially chronic pain, is not negotiable; it is a fact. The Costa

Mesa City Council’s misinformed decision to deny medical marijuana

dispensaries within the city limits would be laughable if it were not

so sad.

I have been working in the drug and alcohol recovery business for

the past 23 years. I feel the council has the wrong impression of

what these sites might do to our community. Believe me, the

dispensaries will not be a place where terrible junkies and denizens

of the drug world will hang out and contaminate our community.

The truth, as so eloquently expressed by Martin’s description of

her father’s cancer pain, is that these marijuana dispensaries will

help sick people in debilitating pain, giving them the chance to

enjoy a better quality of life.

Every controlled substance has certainly on occasion been abused.

When managed in conjunction with supervision and proper safeguards,

the dispensing of medical marijuana will enhance the quality of life

for our less fortunate neighbors. Hard-core addicts will not take the

time to trick a dispensary out of some marijuana, which is, in the

drug world, a light-weight substance. It would be as if we compared a

light beer to 151-proof moonshine.

It’s my opinion that the community has been so educated to “just

say no” to any drug, that an atmosphere of “contempt prior to

investigation” has permeated our city’s council.

Pearl Buck once said that “the test of a civilization is the way

it cares for its helpless members.” Let Costa Mesa be known a city of

compassion. Trust me, the hard-core addicts will still be buying

their meth and crack in other places besides a highly professional

and monitored medical marijuana dispensary.

Flo Martin, thanks for a touching article that will enlighten our

community.

DAVE RIGGLE

Costa Mesa

Field availability like junior lifeguard spots

The limited availability and high demand for soccer fields in

Costa Mesa reminds me of the high demand that resulted in no spots

for the Costa Mesa kids in the junior lifeguard training program run

by Newport Beach this summer.

Even those Costa Mesa kids who had been able to be in the program

for three or four years and attend school in the Newport-Mesa

district were denied a spot as priority went to the Newport Beach

children.

I think kids should have an opportunity to take part in all the

activities possible -- and it can result in the two cities finding a

solution for both of these dilemmas. I know how sad it is for

children to be denied a place when they really want to be out there

doing something.

JANIE ARNOLD

Costa Mesa