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Legal concerns have doomed Napa's mission to provide a local medical marijuana dispensary.
The federal government's surprising shift in 2011 toward aggressively fighting city ordinances that support these facilities has made it impossible for Napa to move forward with its previously approved initiative.
Tuesday, the City Council wisely decided to reverse course and repeal the law permitting dispensaries within city limits. Legally, there weren't many other options.
Where does that leave Napa's medical marijuana users?
Most likely, in Vallejo.
Despite police raids and court battles in the last few years, dispensaries continue to operate in Solano County's largest city, the closest option for most Napa residents. At least one of those dispensaries, Enhanced Energies, offers delivery to Napa, according to its website. Enhanced Energies opened for business after the city of Napa unanimously voted for a medical marijuana ordinance permitting a city-approved dispensary in June 2010.
State and local laws governing Vallejo's dispensaries are murky and have been repeatedly challenged in the last two years after the Vallejo Police Department began a crackdown on facilities it believed were operating illegally. Two cases associated with those series of raids were tossed out of court last year and in April, Vallejo police were forced to return an estimated $200,000 in seized marijuana and other supplies to local dispensaries.
Decriminalizing medical marijuana dispensaries, as Napa Councilman Scott Sedgley moved to discuss at Tuesday's meeting, comes with its own set of complexities. It was the inability to control who operates a dispensary – to ensure reputable and legitimate sources are selected – that led the council to eliminate the possibility of decriminalization three years ago.
It was compassion, not data, that drove that campaign to initially get Napa in the medical marijuana business. Personal stories of pain and marijuana's anesthetic powers dominated that debate. The justification most often cited for the local need for a dispensary was the fact that 60 percent of Napans voted in favor of the statewide medical marijuana initiative in 1996.
There's no evidence that local support has since waned.
Where are those advocates to turn now?
The best answer, if inconvenient, is the federal government. It may not be the easiest course to chart, but it was change in national policy that ended Napa's initiative, and that is where proponent energy is best spent to reverse it. That means contacting local Congressman Mike Thompson and U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein.
Effecting change at that level isn't easy, but if the passion displayed in public comment at Tuesday's council meeting is any reflection, Napa has plenty of people willing to put in that time.
Napa's ordinance was designed to initially serve up to 8,000 patients, although hard statistics on how many medical marijuana users live in the county were never cited during the seven months of public testimony that preceded the City Council's approval in 2010. Statistics from the Marijuana Policy Project indicate that there were 553,684 medical marijuana cardholders in California in December 2012. Applying that number to the county's population would put local need around 20,000 users.
As one of the most abused medical prescriptions in California, there's certainly room to question the legitimacy of that number with an untold chunk of users falling into the recreational rather than medicinal category. But testimony in the last three years has shown that public sentiment in the city favors a local source for those truly in need.
It is now up to that group to start this fight anew.
News Hawk- Truth Seeker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: napavalleyregister.com
Author: Napa Valley Register Editorial Board
Contact: Contact | Napa Valley Register
Website: napavalleyregister.com/news/opinion/editorial/medical-marijuana-advocates-must-effect-change-at-federal-level/article_bff03bc8-0d3b-11e3-8bd3-0019bb2963f4.html?comment_form=true
The federal government's surprising shift in 2011 toward aggressively fighting city ordinances that support these facilities has made it impossible for Napa to move forward with its previously approved initiative.
Tuesday, the City Council wisely decided to reverse course and repeal the law permitting dispensaries within city limits. Legally, there weren't many other options.
Where does that leave Napa's medical marijuana users?
Most likely, in Vallejo.
Despite police raids and court battles in the last few years, dispensaries continue to operate in Solano County's largest city, the closest option for most Napa residents. At least one of those dispensaries, Enhanced Energies, offers delivery to Napa, according to its website. Enhanced Energies opened for business after the city of Napa unanimously voted for a medical marijuana ordinance permitting a city-approved dispensary in June 2010.
State and local laws governing Vallejo's dispensaries are murky and have been repeatedly challenged in the last two years after the Vallejo Police Department began a crackdown on facilities it believed were operating illegally. Two cases associated with those series of raids were tossed out of court last year and in April, Vallejo police were forced to return an estimated $200,000 in seized marijuana and other supplies to local dispensaries.
Decriminalizing medical marijuana dispensaries, as Napa Councilman Scott Sedgley moved to discuss at Tuesday's meeting, comes with its own set of complexities. It was the inability to control who operates a dispensary – to ensure reputable and legitimate sources are selected – that led the council to eliminate the possibility of decriminalization three years ago.
It was compassion, not data, that drove that campaign to initially get Napa in the medical marijuana business. Personal stories of pain and marijuana's anesthetic powers dominated that debate. The justification most often cited for the local need for a dispensary was the fact that 60 percent of Napans voted in favor of the statewide medical marijuana initiative in 1996.
There's no evidence that local support has since waned.
Where are those advocates to turn now?
The best answer, if inconvenient, is the federal government. It may not be the easiest course to chart, but it was change in national policy that ended Napa's initiative, and that is where proponent energy is best spent to reverse it. That means contacting local Congressman Mike Thompson and U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein.
Effecting change at that level isn't easy, but if the passion displayed in public comment at Tuesday's council meeting is any reflection, Napa has plenty of people willing to put in that time.
Napa's ordinance was designed to initially serve up to 8,000 patients, although hard statistics on how many medical marijuana users live in the county were never cited during the seven months of public testimony that preceded the City Council's approval in 2010. Statistics from the Marijuana Policy Project indicate that there were 553,684 medical marijuana cardholders in California in December 2012. Applying that number to the county's population would put local need around 20,000 users.
As one of the most abused medical prescriptions in California, there's certainly room to question the legitimacy of that number with an untold chunk of users falling into the recreational rather than medicinal category. But testimony in the last three years has shown that public sentiment in the city favors a local source for those truly in need.
It is now up to that group to start this fight anew.
News Hawk- Truth Seeker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: napavalleyregister.com
Author: Napa Valley Register Editorial Board
Contact: Contact | Napa Valley Register
Website: napavalleyregister.com/news/opinion/editorial/medical-marijuana-advocates-must-effect-change-at-federal-level/article_bff03bc8-0d3b-11e3-8bd3-0019bb2963f4.html?comment_form=true
