Pubdate: Thu, 02 Aug 2012
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: John Redman

CALIFORNIA'S POT PARTY IS OVER

When Californians passed the "Compassionate Use Act" - otherwise known
as Proposition 215 - in 1996, most voters thought that it was
reasonable to allow chronically ill patients to use marijuana without
fear of arrest. And if those patients could not grow marijuana on
their own, the initiative stipulated that patient caregivers could
help to grow marijuana for their patients collectively or
cooperatively for a patient's personal use.

Those descriptive words were adverbs not nouns.

That is an important distinction that advocates disregarded.
Flagrantly violating both the law and common sense, for-profit
"collectives" - smartly renamed "compassion centers" - spread like
wildfire throughout the state.

But there are some major signs that the pot party is
over.

Last week, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to shut all
medical marijuana stores after hearing from residents outraged by the
fact that they were bombarded by shady dispensary owners and wafting
marijuana smoke at all hours of the day. Immediately afterward, all
four federal judicial districts in California announced that federal
judges had dismissed lawsuits this year advocating for
dispensaries.

Marijuana advocates have overplayed their hand. Though the medical
profession has largely rejected smoked marijuana as medicine because
it has not passed FDA muster, a handful of unscrupulous doctors and
dispensary owners have made millions of dollars in the name of
compassion off of the sick and dying. They have been trying to fit a
square peg in a round hole, and not only has it not worked - it has
made many of us angry.

A recent California study found that most people use marijuana
medically to help with pain, sleep and relaxation. Another study found
that less than 3 percent of people using medical marijuana had a
chronic disease like cancer or AIDS. The average medical marijuana
card holder in California is a 32-year-old white male with a history
of alcohol and marijuana use.

That is why it should not surprise anyone that U.S. Attorney Melinda
Haag in San Francisco moved to shut down the biggest granddaddy
offender of them all: Harborside Health Center. Harborside is the
antithesis of what was intended by voters, as it takes in million of
dollars in sales every year and does nothing to ensure its product is
safe or effective. Rather, its owner thinks that time is better spent
on television evangelizing the cure-all wonders of pot.

This is hardly what Californians voted for, and there are signs that
California's love affair with marijuana is receding. Medical marijuana
moguls bankrolled an unsuccessful effort to legalize marijuana
outright, and it turns out that none of the five attempts to get it
back on the ballot in 2012 will be successful.

The Rev. Scott Imler, who co-wrote Proposition 215 and advocates for
the limited use of medical marijuana, put it best recently when he
said, "We created Prop. 215 so that patients would not have to deal
with black market profiteers. But today it is all about the money.
Most of the dispensaries operating in California are little more than
dope dealers with storefronts."

Selling joints to anyone with a pulse and $200 cash was never the bill
of goods that the voters were sold.
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