Medical marijuana is often a front for recreational marijuana. This has led to crime issues and problems with the location of the ubiquitous “medicine” dispensing locations. LA is trying to control the chaos, but it seems to be tough sledding. From the story:
When the state passed a law allowing for medical-marijuana cooperatives in 2004, Los Angeles never set forth guidelines for how they should operate. That led to the rampant growth of dispensaries: The number in the city is estimated at 1,000, making medical marijuana one of the city’s fastest-growing industries. As more dispensaries opened, police, city officials and residents complained that many were illegal cash businesses that had little to do with medical care.
The city decided to crack down. “Today we took the first step in regaining the trust of the residents of Los Angeles by protecting the integrity and safety of our communities while…offering medical marijuana to those who truly need it,” Councilman José Huizar said in an emailed statement Tuesday evening.
I don’t know why anyone is surprised. Some in the medical marijuana movement always had wide open dispensing as the goal. And cities like LA and San Francisco took the toke and that let to the problems both cities are dealing with now.
But the Feds have plenty of blame here. Our politicians refuse to take action to reclassify marijuana as Schedule 2 or 3 under the Controlled Substances Act so that it can be tested and dispensed properly at real pharmacies via real prescriptions, rather than at store front head shops via doctors’ “letters.” And then the president made it worse by violating his oath of office by promising not to enforce federal law, removing the one remaining restraint that helped keep things somewhat orderly.
Change the law and regain integrity! Some worry that reclassification will push drug legalization. To the contrary, the mess we have now pushes drug anarchy, which is worse than legalization. Time for some centralized control to permit proper medicinal use without slouching toward a total drug policy collapse.
December 11th, 2009 | 4:01 pm
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December 11th, 2009 | 5:35 pm
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December 12th, 2009 | 1:28 am
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December 12th, 2009 | 4:37 am
[...] Medical marijuana is often a front for recreational marijuana. This has led to crime issues and problems with the location of the ubiquitous “medicine” dispensing locations. LA is trying to control the chaos, but it seems to be tough sledding. …Read Original Story: Medical Marijuana: LA Thinks About Controlling the Chaos – First Things (… [...]
December 12th, 2009 | 3:50 pm
I’m sorry, but I have to disagree with you. I’d like to share several points for your consideration: several facts that everyone has agreed on thus far, from state legislators here in California to the council members pushing through a highly tolerant medical marijuana ordinance that will permit at least 200 clinics to continue operating as they currently do.
California can no longer afford to maintain its prison population, enforcing long prison terms for non-violent drug offenders who need rehabilitation and counseling rather than jail time. Legalization would immediately release this population into the civil penalty and parole system, reducing our state prison expense by millions. In turn, tax revenues generated from marijuana sales will fund ample programs to provide the support these individuals need.
In addition, I would point to a story from the LA Times titles “West Hollywood’s medical marijuana success story.” http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-weho-marijuana16-2009nov16,0,5400544.story
This article shows how simply acknowledging medical marijuana as a legitimate industry in its current form, allowing these businesses to pay taxes and only permit those that are run responsibly as non-profits to operate has been beneficial to the community. Oakland and West Hollywood have both become ideal examples of how proper regulation, taxation and ultimately legalization can be effectively managed, especially now that Tax Cannabis 2010 has gotten all the signatures it needs to be on the November ballot. (www.taxcannabis.org).
Removing the drug policy will also enable the government to work with Mexican authorities in putting an end to the hundreds of thousands of plants grown on our own public forests and natural lands all through California’s most vital environmental regions. They have been wreaking havoc on the environment with pesticides, irrigation systems, human waste and trash. CAMP would shift its objectives from destroying plants to breaking up cartels.
Also look to this – if marijuana were legalized today, cities in the Emerald Triangle ssuch as Hayfork (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fi-dope-county1-2009nov01,0,6540031.story), some of California’s poorest, poverty-stricken towns would become economic hotbeds overnight, with a legitimization of an industry that has already grown to a $14 billion market in the past year.
The fact is that nothing you can do or the federal government does can stop legalization. It’s coming, and there will soon be a time when we wonder how foolish we were as a country to allow our politicians to police its own people over the pettiest of “crimes.” All the polls indicate that the Tax Cannabis legalization initiative will pass with flying colors in the November election, with the majority of voters now estimated at 68% in favor. This includes ideological republicans fed up with the waste and abuse of taxpayer funds in the California state government.
I agree with you that proper medical evaluation is necessary, and steps to Schedule 2 or Schedule 3 classification would be helpful. However, THC as a product doesn’t fit into the American pharmaceuticals system because there is no necessary dosage or amount to provide the remedy it can give to the sick. Marijuana dispensary owners in Los Angeles are compassionate individuals that select only the very best and safest for consumption of the marijuana they distribute, turning down about 80 to 90 percent of the product brought to them for sale.
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