Pubdate: Mon, 09 Sep 2013
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2013 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: Joe Garofoli

BILL WOULD INCREASE STATE'S OVERSIGHT OF POT CLUBS

With federal authorities demanding more oversight of California's
medicinal marijuana dispensaries, the state Legislature is again
trying to create order where there has been chaos.

On the eve of a U.S. Senate hearing on changing federal marijuana
policy, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, on Monday introduced
AB604, his latest attempt to regulate the state's estimated 1,000
dispensaries.

The Medical Cannabis Regulation and Control Act is similar in many
ways to AB439, an Ammiano-crafted measure that narrowly failed this
year in the Legislature. But advocates say this version provides more
safeguards that law enforcement officials have long demanded, plus it
is co-written by Sens. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Mark Leno,
D-San Francisco, two of the more influential politicians in
Sacramento. Patchwork of regulations

The measure would create the Division of Medical Cannabis Regulation
and Enforcement within the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to
oversee not only the state's dispensaries, but also the production,
processing, distribution, transportation and testing of medicinal pot.
Advocates hope the measure will provide uniform rules to guide
providers and law enforcement in place of the quilt of laws now in
place.

In California, more than 50 cities and counties have approved laws
regulating medical marijuana dispensaries, while more than 200
municipalities have banned them. Northern California has been home to
scores of medicinal pot clubs, but some large regions of the state -
such as San Diego and much of the Central Valley - have no medicinal
pot outlets.

"Not only are patients in California barraged by virtually daily
closures of dispensaries due to aggressive attacks by the Justice
Department, but the patchwork system of local bans and regulations in
the state leaves hundreds of thousands of patients without safe access
to medical marijuana," said Don Duncan, California director of
Americans for Safe Access, a national medical marijuana advocacy
organization.

"This time, the legislation gives law enforcement what they wanted
before," said Diane Goldstein, a retired Redondo Beach (Los Angeles
County) police lieutenant who is a board member for the drug reform
group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, which supports the measure.
"If they don't support it, they're just being intransigent."

But a top lobbyist for a coalition of California law enforcement
agencies called the measure "a terrible bill."

"It's as objectionable as its predecessor," said John Lovell, a
lobbyist for the California Narcotics Officers Association. Included
in the bill, Lovell said, are numerous loopholes that would enable a
club to slip past a city's ban on medical cannabis centers. Lovell
also was dubious about whether the Department of Alcoholic Beverage
Control could manage cannabis facilities "when they can't even keep up
with complaints about neighborhood liquor stores and bars." National
perspective

It will be a rush to get this legislation through the Legislature.
Friday is the last day for each house to pass bills. But advocates
think they might have the political muscle to do it.

"The difference (from Ammiano's previous attempt) is that the
leadership of both houses is going to make an effort to pass it," said
Dale Gieringer, who leads the California chapter of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Nationally, the issue has come into greater prominence as the Justice
Department recently tried to clarify its rules on when federal
authorities should crack down on medicinal marijuana operations in the
20 states where voters have approved medicinal pot.

On Tuesday, a top Justice Department official will testify before the
Senate Judiciary Committee in an effort to offer some clarity on how
the federal government will treat the two states where marijuana is
legal to all adults and the 20 where it is available only for
medicinal purposes. The Drug Enforcement Agency still officially
classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug with "no currently accepted
medical use and a high potential for abuse."

Last month, Deputy Attorney General James Cole wrote in a memo that
the feds weren't going to be as focused on "states and local
governments that have enacted laws legalizing marijuana in some form"
and have "strong and effective regulatory and enforcement systems."

The question that many inside and outside California's medical
marijuana industry ask is: Do federal authorities think California has
a strong system? The memo didn't mention California or medicinal
marijuana specifically. Question of size

In July 2012, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag in San Francisco - who has
cracked down on dozens of dispensaries that she says are violating
federal law - wrote: "The larger the operation, the greater the
likelihood that there will be abuse of the state's medical marijuana
law and marijuana in the hands of individuals who do not have a
demonstrated medical need."

Cole's memo, however, states that prosecutors "should not consider
size or commercial nature alone" in determining whether a dispensary
violates federal guidelines on marijuana.
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MAP posted-by: Matt