Pubdate: Thu, 11 Aug 2011 Source: Sacramento News & Review (CA) Copyright: 2011 Chico Community Publishing, Inc. Contact: http://newsreview.com/sacto/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/540 Author: Matt Vaughn CO-OP REALITIES FOR CANNABIS Re "Who owns the Co-op?" (SN&R Letters, July 28) and "The 420" (SN&R Supplement): When a co-op incorporates with the secretary of state, the co-op must state whether it is a "member" or "non-member" corporation, referring to the membership's relationship as either voting or nonvoting in corporate decision-making. REI has voting members and Costco doesn't. Membership voting can get very cumbersome, especially in the early development of a co-op, with problems with like making quorums or enduring mob pressure. People are often unclear of the concepts involved in who actually "owns the co-op," and nowhere is that more evident than in SN&R's slick new "The 420" section, where dispensary "owners" are noted and quoted amongst the ads for medical-cannabis "collectives," "co-ops" and "nonprofits." Nobody "owns" a collective, or co-op, or nonprofit, or a Boy Scout troop, or a blood bank, or a Moose Lodge. These entities are run by a group of individuals, as officers and directors and even voting members, and anyone who claims to own a distribution center of medical marijuana sounds like they are on really shaky legal ground in that [Senate Bill] 420 did not provide for proprietorship in medical-marijuana production and distribution. Maybe an article in "The 420" with more specific details of the technical parts of the law and how that law is shaping and evolving would help clear things up. Missing also is information about the local politics, including which municipalities oppose the legislative intent of S.B. 420 of promoting consistency among the counties and exposing some of their efforts to thwart patient access. There are important and exciting things going on, and all I see in "The 420" are an extraordinary number of expensive ads and a couple of goofy stoner articles. Matt Vaughn Rescue - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.