Do you have a back ache, really... you better be sure. Carmen Trutanich, the newly elected city attorney promises a crackdown, arguing that there is a whole lot of recreational use under the guise of medical need.
Trutanich, has proposed an ordinance that would provide for dispensaries to have renewable permits, submit to criminal record checks, register the names of members with the police and operate on a nonprofit basis.
It would result in the closing of hundreds of the existing marijuana dispensaries.
If you are in need of a good joke, such as, "how do you get a one-armed stoner out of a tree? ...Wave." There are a million others just like this gem, floating around the estimated 800 medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, the marijuana capital of the country.
In June the Los Angles city council moved to close a loophole that had encouraged rapid growth and had allowed hundreds to operate in open violation of the city's moratorium. The city was stunned by the spread of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles.
At the federal level, Attorney General Eric Holder outlined in an October memo, looser guidelines simply instructing federal prosecutors to avoid prosecution when dispensaries comply with state medical marijuana laws.
The new policy is in line with what candidate Barack Obama promised in his campaign. As a presidential candidate, Obama said he would end federal raids on people who used marijuana for medical purposes.
"The evidence is overwhelming that marijuana can relieve certain types of pain, nausea, vomiting and other symptoms caused by such illnesses as multiple sclerosis, cancer and AID" said Joycelyn Elders, MD, a Former US Surgeon General.
Many community leaders in Los Angeles, caution against the use of medical marijuana due to the lack of consistent, repeatable scientific data available to prove the medical benefits.
By the government's count, 14 states are allowing marijuana for medical purposes: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. The law in Maryland only allows for reduced penalties for medical marijuana usage.
Main just became the 5th state to allow pot dispensaries. California, Colorado, New Mexico and Rhode Island allow for places where medical marijuana patients can legally buy pot.
The director of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency says the potential exists for a dispensary to become "nothing more than a storefront for the criminal activity of drug dealing, which is the experience in California," said Roy McKinney.
The director went on to say that If there isn't sufficient oversight, inspection, audits, etc., the potential is there for criminal activity to flourish.
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Comments
Why is it that articles always say that it is just a ploy for drug dealers? You tell me then, who can have collective and you won't call them that? The polititians who are against Medical Marijuana are on the pay of Mexican drug cartells and are afraid of loosing thier bribes. Stop prohibition it is unamarican. If you like children useing pot keep attacking the legal Collectives.
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I think this is a good thing.
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My 16 year old got pot from the legal collectives. Simple--a friend of his had a card and sold him the marijuana he got "legally." Of course, he did this secretly. I didn't find out until the police caught them. So don't tell me that I should not attack the "legal collectives" because they are a conduit to the high schools. Also, the kids get the idea that what they are doing is okay because it is medicine, even though the only thing wrong with them is that they are dysfunctional from smoking so much pot. The number of dispensaries should be reduced by 98%, because that is the number of people who are actually sick who really might need medical marijuana.
Firstly Lisa, I doubt you have any expertise to warrant the claim that only 2% of dispensary patrons are legitimate. Correct me if I'm mistaken.
Secondly, I think we should be more concerned with WHY kids choose to buy drugs, as opposed to WHY THEY ARE ABLE to by drugs.
@Lisa:
If your child wants pot, he's gonna find a means of obtaining it. It wasn't the collective/dispensary's fault, it was from your child's friend. If your kid wants a beer he can get it from anyone over 21 who's willing to buy it for him, is that gonna make you try to get all stores that sell alcoholic beverages shut down?
Don't go blaiming dispensaries for a patients mistake. I, personally, would never do what your kid's friend did so not all patients are what you believe they are.
Iron out the difficulties and let's move on.
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Support MPP.org - MJ Lobby in Wash, DC
Working in the industry MMJ users for the most part just want to get high legally. Why would you use a pschyo active drug for headaches, insomnia,pms, and so forth. You dont even know what it used to grow the weed let alone if it safe to smoke. People who sell to the clubs do not pay taxes on the money made from it. Clubs are also supposed to be non profit yet people are making big bucks of it. Also the same people who now want it legalized are the same who backed prop 215. So is it a medicine or is it like alcohol? Why does the LA city council go right to the source? The doctors who write recs like candy. Medicann America's leader in writing recommendations cleary does not obey medical board guidelines along with a ton of other doctors. You start enforcing the med board guidelines you will have a lot less patients just milking the system.
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