Well, it looks like the Prohibitionists aren't giving up on California without a fight. LA city council voted 9-3 to impose heavy new regulations on medical marijuana distribution centers, including capping the total number of distribution centers in the city to 70 (there are currently estimated to be 800 to 1000 in the city). This is disappointing, as California has thumbed its nose at Washington more than any single state with its de facto nullification of Federal drug laws on marijuana. We'll just have to sit back and see how this one turns out. It will be a good barometer of the strength or weakness of US drug policy. If the Feds can be defied in California, they can be defied almost anywhere... and if that starts happening, our international drug policy will begin crumbling around the world. The repercussions would be widely felt.
The cartelizing effect of the city council capping the distribution centers at 70 should be obvious. The state creates mega-businesses, not the other way around.
Clayton -
Must be cartelization season.
Colo. pot dispensaries welcome state regulationBy COLLEEN SLEVINThe Associated PressWednesday, January 27, 2010; 4:22 PMDENVER -- Colorado lawmakers have an unlikely ally in their first attempt to curb the state's booming medical marijuana industry: owners of the some of the shops that sell pot.Many dispensary owners say they're on board with regulations if they give them uniform guidelines and avert a more severe crackdown like one approved this week in Los Angeles. Hundreds of Los Angeles pot shops face closure after the City Council voted Tuesday to cap the number of dispensaries in the city at 70.The Colorado proposal - which a legislative committee approved 6-1 Wednesday - would make it more difficult for recreational pot users to become legal medical marijuana patients. It would bar doctors from working out of dispensaries, make it illegal for them to offer discounts to patients who agree to use a designated dispensary, and require follow-up doctor visits.Most of the 150 people at the hearing opposed the bill. Many of them worry it will cost them hundreds of dollars on top of the $90 annual fee they pay to register as a medical marijuana user.William Chengelis said he can't get his regular Veterans Administration doctors to sign off on medical marijuana and said buying pot illegally and paying the $100 fine would be cheaper than paying a private doctor for follow-up visits."I cannot afford this bill," Chengelis told lawmakers.In response, the committee backed allowing the state to waive the $90 fee for those who can't afford it. Sponsor Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, said he would also see if there was a way to allow dispensaries to reimburse veterans for doctor visits.While some advocates see any regulations as a violation of the medical marijuana law passed by voters in 2000, many dispensaries say they welcome the certainty that more regulation would provide."We're saying we really can't operate without any rules," said Matt Brown, a medical marijuana patient and leader of a coalition of about 150 dispensaries and over 1,000 patients.Erik Santos, who operates a dispensary out of an office building in a trendy part of Denver's downtown section, thinks it makes sense to limit large marijuana growers to industrial areas and keep dispensaries out of residential areas. He wants lawmakers to pass laws now before even more dispensaries open up and prevent those with possible criminal ties from giving the industry a bad name.Another bill still in the works could set up more regulations on dispensaries and suppliers.Colorado cities are also looking to lawmakers to pass regulations. Hundreds of dispensaries have popped up across the state - in empty storefronts, office buildings and even a historic movie theater.Some cities have passed moratoriums on pot shops as they figure out how to regulate them and wait for more guidance from the state. The Denver suburb of Centennial voted to ban dispensaries and close a shop that had already opened, but a court blocked that move."Everyone is waiting to see what happens this (legislative) session," said Mark Radtke, a lobbyist for the Colorado Municipal League.Colorado already has some rules in place for medical marijuana dispensaries, including prohibiting dispensaries within 1,000 feet of schools, day cares and other dispensaries. Felons convicted within the last five years would be barred from running shops. Dispensary owners would have to be licensed, pass a criminal background check and pay a $2,000 application fee along with $3,000 a year to renew licenses.The rules are set to take effect March 1, although they could change depending on what state lawmakers to decide to do.Fear that dispensaries would attract crime has been raised by those concerned about the growth of dispensaries. But police in Denver are discounting that.Police say medical marijuana dispensaries were robbed or burglarized at a lower rate than liquor stores or even banks last year. A memo reported by The Denver Post on Wednesday says they were hit at about the same rate as pharmacies.
An older stoner told very clearly "cannabis should be decriminalized, not legalized; I don't want a government growing my weed"... how right was he?
Sadly the war on drug is here to stay. I say sadly because this means heavier clampdowns, resulting in more ruthless thugs taking over the business and lower quality dope being sold to our kids. Not only that, but the US is intruding more heavily into other people's business: Holland is being slowly cracked into submission and even Swiss farmers, who've grown cannabis as fodder for decades, are coming into the crosshair. That's typical of bullies: push around harmless hippies and powerless farmers to show how great and might you are... sorry for the rant!
ClaytonB: Well, it looks like the Prohibitionists aren't giving up on California without a fight. LA city council voted 9-3 to impose heavy new regulations on medical marijuana distribution centers, including capping the total number of distribution centers in the city to 70 (there are currently estimated to be 800 to 1000 in the city). This is disappointing, as California has thumbed its nose at Washington more than any single state with its de facto nullification of Federal drug laws on marijuana. We'll just have to sit back and see how this one turns out. It will be a good barometer of the strength or weakness of US drug policy. If the Feds can be defied in California, they can be defied almost anywhere... and if that starts happening, our international drug policy will begin crumbling around the world. The repercussions would be widely felt. The cartelizing effect of the city council capping the distribution centers at 70 should be obvious. The state creates mega-businesses, not the other way around. Clayton -
It just shows us that the states may have the power to nullify federal laws, they do not want to.
The fallacies of intellectual communism, a compilation - On the nature of power
Stranger: It just shows us that the states may have the power to nullify federal laws, they do not want to.
Agreed. I remember when the Feds pushed REAL ID through, there was a significant minority of states that openly opposed it, with state governors making political hay out of standing up to Washington and state legislatures outlawing REAL ID cards within their state, and so on. Many states are still in non-compliance but I remember reading that all the major opposition governors who had opposed REAL ID were fine with the PASS ID Act which is REAL ID with Federal dollars to subsidize state adoption of the REAL ID mandates. So, it wasn't the national ID card that the state governments opposed, just the absence of Federal funding for compliance with the Federal mandate.
"The mob has always behaved in this way – eagerly open to bribes that cannot be honorably accepted, and dissolutely callous to degradation and insult that cannot be honorably endured." - The Politics of Obedience, Etienne de la Boetie
The DEA came into Canada to coerce the RCMP and the Vancouver PD to arrest a man named Marc Emery for selling seeds over the Internet. Marc made a lot of money but gave 90% to causes supporting either decriminalization or legalization or charity. http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/articles/4639.html
Marc is now temporarily free while the American government decides what to do with a Canadian citizen notorious for providing cancer patients with free seeds and for blowing smoke in the face of fascist DEA agents working outside of their own borders.
British Columbia seems to have faired quite well during this latest economic downturn. I suspect it might have a bit to do with the ten billion american dollars that freely flow through our province as a result of our burgeoning pot business. In fact, the bulk of that money stays in the province to be spent by people such as our unemployed loggers who are laid off by the secretive trade war that goes on beneath our supposed free trade agreement.
long live liberty,
Sean