Pubdate: Sat, 21 Apr 2012
Source: Bakersfield Californian, The (CA)
Copyright: 2012 The Bakersfield Californian
Contact:  http://www.bakersfield.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/36

REGULATE MEDICAL CANNABIS AT STATE LEVEL

A bill that would create a state authority for regulation of marijuana
dispensaries makes sense. It would bring order to an industry that
currently lacks it and legitimacy to the idea of marijuana having
medicinal benefits by establishing clear rules for its sale,
production and use.

The legislation would do this by creating a nine-member medical
marijuana board within the state's Department of Consumer Affairs --
the same department that houses the state's medical, registered
nursing and pharmacy boards. The board would be in charge of
permitting and establishing rules for businesses that sell, grow and
transport medical marijuana and levying fines and penalties against
violators. The legislation would allow one dispensary per 50,000
residents in a city or county area and, most importantly, would allow
local voters to ban them outright or impose tighter
restrictions.

The law will require careful crafting but if done correctly will
accomplish what many individual counties have not been able to do:
create a credible, sensible means to get medical treatment to those
who legitimately need it -- an objective that was the intent of
California voters who passed the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. It
would also bring California in line with most other compassionate-use
states which have established a centralized authority for the drug's
regulation. Furthermore, it would present a more united front to the
federal government, which at times has warmed to the idea of allowing
states to permit the medical use of marijuana -- even as it has
pursued prosecutions in California.

However, the bill should be amended to include some of the safeguards
requested by law enforcement groups. They have advocated for
provisions such as requiring marijuana workers to be licensed,
mandating surveillance of marijuana shops and requiring preapproval
for transportation of medical cannabis. These requests deserve
consideration by the bill's author, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San
Francisco.

Consensus is building in the medical community that marijuana has a
role in patient therapy. Eighteen states have legalized this use. The
federal government must do the same at some point. Still, regulation
will be key to controlling the conditions for which one can be
prescribed marijuana and how it's packaged and distributed to those
patients.

This bill consolidates those rules under a single authority while
retaining the right of voters in a municipality to impose further
limitation or bans on medicinal marijuana. This is a far better
approach than leaving regulation subject to local law enforcement and
a handful of local politicians.
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MAP posted-by: Matt