Enforce Medical Marijuana Laws

[420]

IT'S not pretty to see federal agents swooping across Los Angeles, raiding medical-marijuana dispensaries.

Legalizing pot's medicinal use was a compassionate decision California voters made 10 years ago, a decision that's never been appreciated in Washington, but one that the feds ought to respect just the same.

And yet it's hard to blame the federal government for cracking down, given how badly the state has failed to regulate the pot clubs.

Medical marijuana was supposed to be for the truly ill - cancer victims and AIDS patients who could use the drug to relieve pain or restore their appetites. Yet the number of dispensaries has skyrocketed from five in 2005 to 143 by the end of 2006. In North Hollywood alone, there are more pot clinics than Starbucks. Hacienda Heights was one of the first communities to get one in our area.

So either there's been an unreported, massive outbreak in terminal illnesses, or a rampant abuse in the distribution of "medical" marijuana. Now which one seems more likely?

Any doubt on that score was laid to rest earlier this week, when one pot club distributed fliers at a high school in Van Nuys - not exactly a cancer ward.

This problem is not new.

Local officials have been scrambling to regulate these seedy businesses or rein in the abuses. Hacienda Heights has a dispensary and Diamond Bar allows one. Whittier has said OK, too. Pasadena has enacted a ban and El Monte, Glendora and Monterey Park have moratoriums. Proponents of medical marijuana insisted that Proposition 215 was not, in fact, backdoor legalization.

So now Washington is stepping in where some state and local officials have failed, and that's a shame. Whether or not you believe marijuana helps sick people, Californians voted to give very ill people that option, and that ought to be how the law is administered.

Source: Whittier Daily News (CA)
Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Newspaper Group
Contact: https://www.whittierdailynews.com/writealetter
Website: Whittier Daily News: Local News, Sports, Things to Do

 

[Brett2theMax]

They should not be passing out fliers to High Schools, thats wrong.

 

[420]

i totally agree...
however, it's hard to believe the shop owner would do this himself..
i think this is a simple case of a mass marketer, paid to pass out fliers all over town, made a poor decision and put some of these fliers on cars near a school... and of course the dea had a field day with it...
then there is the possibility of the dea taking fliers from somewhere else and replacing them on cars at a school, to use against them... these guys are sneaky and bend all the rules to get their way...
just my 4 dollars and 20 cents.

 

[Happy Kitty]

Was it the club that passed out the fliers, or someone else. That would seem like a very stupid thing to do for a club. I remember someone asking about passing out fliers for this site. 420 said don't, and I see why now.

The law is too gray, so the law has been taken advantage of.

Let's define the law better and have some firm footing on the issue. I really believe it is big part of the problem. FEDS will always want to stick their nose in, but if we define the law, it makes it easier to be compliant, and maybe they will find bigger fish to fry, because things are done the same way at every club.

I had so much more to say about this, but I erased it. I'm just gonna hold my hand over my mouth.

 

[ZedRules]

While organizing and detailing local & state regulations sounds like it would take the heat off ...Federal Law Surpasses State Law...lil' trump card them DEA boys like to throw down all the time...we need federal changes, not just tighter community standards...the State of California has already acknowledged the neccessity of MMJ and wants guidance from the Feds, except they continue to tote the anthem of gateway logic...so no meaningful debate can take place because the weed is just illegal. I'm a Creationist & not an evolutionist...I believe evolution is demonstrating the reverse...like at the "brain trust" in Washington DC...these guys are worst than caveman...Bush need to step up to caveman in order to evolve

 

[classclown]

Children being what they are,of course you don't show a teenager (are you so stuck on the under 21's not having legal access?)a flier about what they already know about, on school time. To me, a big no-no. but not to penalize the WHOLE MOVEMENT for this.
Get fucking real..PLEASE- Were you created from a seed or the Universe? Don't be a Fool.

 

[classclown]

also 420, where is the right to smoke in this case, equateable with the need to smoke? Are the patrons not all victims of the big Pharma and the government? arren't these exactly the people who have been screamng for the right to self med w/MJ? Blame them, the victim? by sayingthey are coming out of the woodwork does seems a very cavalier way to say It's too much of a bother to care.

 

[Happy Kitty]

Ok, now that we are all fools, what is your solution to the problem?

And what is happening in New York state on this issue?

 

[classclown]

Yes I am also a fool, but not the same reasons, though not necessarily a better fool...I am a fool because I am still standing for the utter crap that has been formally dined on by Amerika for too many excruciating years. Kick Big Pharma to the curb. I Knew I shoulda blown them up years ago..that's right just blow them the fuck up..Garbage mother fuckers..My children have smoked since 16 and they are briliant and think for themselves..They don't whine, they get constructively adverse to current society and don't leave tracks. New York State decided to arrest me at the age of 55 for a half of a joint..LOL. 5 years ago. The cops said it was a sweep on behalf of some Bigger cop getting bigger arrest numbers. they resented having to do menial expensive and high profile for regular potheads. Meanwhile New York State is doing nothing new except spending my tax dollars, and trying to medicate me with regular med from big Pharm and charge Medicaid for it.These are unforgivable scams that are foisted on the sick..Gets us poorer ones no where. In essence, How do you talk to any dumbass? I don't know but the answers in talking. Or Anarchy.

 

[classclown]

You know, 430, I've always been a rabble rouser and the 80th time I read your post I understood a bit better what the essence of your posts are. I guess I sounded pretty feisty for a message replier but we are in a war dammit..I just go nuts..I don't try to pick a fight I just do..I'm very soRRY if I came off as an ingreate to you, I'm not. I'm really, really not.