By snoadmin
There exist two kinds of people in California: the believers and the non-believers. Of course, we’re referring to medical marijuana. Some claim marijuana has worked wonders by treating health issues such as insomnia, depression, arthritis and even side effects of cancer. Others believe it does more harm than good.
Our first negative impression of marijuana came during the ’50s and the ’60s when propaganda loudly expressed the “dangers” of the substance and why it should be feared and frowned upon. After decades of familiarization with the plant, the California Senate Bill 215 was passed that allowed for limited use of prescribed medical marijuana.
Following SB 215, Los Angeles was home to hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries until this past Wednesday when city officials announced that more than 400 medical marijuana dispensaries must close, leaving only 41 dispensaries in Los Angeles and some surrounding cities.
In order to avoid lawsuits for shutting down such a drastic amount of dispensaries, the city attorney’s office is planning to sue the dispensaries first and have a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge confirm that “the city’s process [is] appropriate.”
There are many doctors who preach that marijuana may cause lung cancer and kill brain cells. There are plenty of other doctors who claim otherwise. We, however, cannot confirm whether marijuana is more helpful than harmful solely based on the word of these doctors. However, since we have declared it safe for use as medicine, we must now cater to its patients.
Maybe shutting down medical marijuana dispensaries was necessary, but did more than 400 need to be sued? The city attorney’s office is essentially weaseling its way out of a legitimate defense of its actions. Los Angeles cannot lump hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries together.
They could have attacked the issue by allowing dispensaries to be located only a certain number of miles from other dispensaries. This would take care of unnecessary clumps of dispensaries invading the streets of Los Angeles. City officials, nevertheless, chose to further a cause by any means they deemed necessary.
The lawsuit that Los Angeles officials have doomed many dispensaries with remains extremely underhanded. It is cruel for Los Angeles officials to — without discrimination — sue the city’s marijuana dispensaries. Many of them have been open for years.
It seems as though the city is trying to attack medical marijuana as if it is still that “psychotic” drug that ’80s propaganda attempted to frighten us with. We’ve grown out of our anti-marijuana phase. It can’t be any more dangerous than Oxycontin or Xanax and, in fact, it’s not. It’s much safer.
Under the new city ordinance, dispensaries are required to have no change in ownership and management, to not be associate with major criminal record, to be located where they were first established and to have had registered before Nov. 13, 2007.
If we have decided as a state that people do benefit from the use of medical marijuana, then we must make sure to comply with their needs. As much as we don’t want to admit it, maybe there is something about marijuana that truly does aid certain health issues.
If the amount of dispensaries in the greater Los Angeles area drops this heavily, many patients will be directly affected, and, therefore, ignored by Los Angeles county officials.
By allowing dispensaries to operate only if they are located a certain distance away from other dispensaries, this will assist in the regulation of medical marijuana dispensaries while assuring medicine can be accessed by people of need. Thereafter, the dispensaries can agree to the other regulations established by the new city ordinance.
Disclaimer: The Daily 49er is not responsible for Postings made on www.daily49er.wpengine.com. Persons commenting are solely responsible for Postings made on this website. Persons commenting agree to the Terms of Use of the website. If Postings do not abide by the Rules of Conduct or Posting Regulations as listed in the Postings Policy, the Daily 49er has all rights to delete Postings as it deems necessary. The Daily 49er strongly advises individuals to not abuse their First Amendment rights, and to avoid language suggestive of hate speech. This site also encourages users to make Postings relevant to the article or other Postings.
