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Los Angeles and medical marijuana
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a bud of legally grown marijuana is held by a cancer patient, in Portland, Maine
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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