cannabisnews.com: CA Med Pot Advocates Call For Statewide Regulation
function share_this(num) {
 tit=encodeURIComponent('CA Med Pot Advocates Call For Statewide Regulation');
 url=encodeURIComponent('http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/26/thread26319.shtml');
 site = new Array(5);
 site[0]='http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[1]='http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit.php?url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[2]='http://digg.com/submit?topic=political_opinion&media=video&url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[3]='http://reddit.com/submit?url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[4]='http://del.icio.us/post?v=4&noui&jump=close&url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 window.open(site[num],'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=620,height=500');
 return false;
}






CA Med Pot Advocates Call For Statewide Regulation
Posted by CN Staff on February 13, 2011 at 06:10:49 PT
By Peter Hecht
Source: Sacramento Bee
California -- Alarmed by a police backlash against pot dispensaries in some California cities, lawmakers and advocates for medical marijuana are calling for statewide regulation of medical cannabis stores and new laws to clarify rules under which they operate.Additionally, some medical marijuana advocates are pushing lawmakers to consider regulations – similar to those in Colorado – that would permit medical marijuana providers to operate as for-profit businesses.
Currently, under California law, dispensaries providing medical marijuana must operate as nonprofit "collectives" of registered medical marijuana patients who reimburse dispensaries for the costs of providing medicinal pot. But medical cannabis in California has boomed into an industry generating an estimated $1.3 billion in transactions and paying hundreds of millions of dollars in salaries, rent and overhead costs.Authorities, looking for illicit profiteering, last year raided scores of dispensaries in San Jose and Chico and prosecuted medical marijuana providers in San Diego County. The district attorney in Los Angeles, Steve Cooley, branded a local boom in medical marijuana outlets as "storefronts illegally pushing pot."Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, said he intends to introduce an "omnibus cannabis bill" to create a state oversight program to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries and all aspects of delivering marijuana to legal medicinal users.Ammiano said the Legislature needs to clarify the rules due to the wildly divergent approaches towards dispensaries. They are embraced in some California cities and raided in others."In the context of suspicion by law enforcement, I think we need a cohesive response," Ammiano said.Some medical pot advocates blame the raids on vague state laws that fail to define how dispensaries should account for cash flow, what they may pay in salaries and what constitutes illegal profits. Snipped  Complete Article: http://drugsense.org/url/FK3IxSFKSource: Sacramento Bee (CA)Author:  Peter HechtPublished: February 13, 2011Copyright: 2011 The Sacramento BeeContact: opinion sacbee.comWebsite: http://www.sacbee.com/CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help 
     
     
     
     




Comment #1 posted by The GCW on February 13, 2011 at 08:04:16 PT
Let them not eat cake.
Some Colorado Republicans are attempting to prohibit edible cannabis in this state which has legalized cannabis for sick citizens. -Really.Here's an editorial about it:US CO: Editorial: Bill Seeks To Outlaw Mmj FoodPatients Could Smoke - Not Eat - THC Medical marijuana users could no longer buy edibles that contain the drug, if a bill introduced into the Colorado Legislature Wednesday becomes law. Call it the Brownie Bill. Cindy Acree, R-Aurora, introduced House Bill 11-1250, which would enact "a prohibition on ingestible medical marijuana-infused products," including brownies, cookies, candies, and a seemingly endless array of other food and drink products that contain marijuana. It is time for state politicians to stop trying to work around the will of voters, who approved medical marijuana with an amendment to the Colorado Constitution 11 years ago. For the past year, since the Obama administration announced it would respect state medical marijuana laws, the medical marijuana industry has thrived in Colorado. It has not led to mayhem and not one person has died as a result of medical marijuana consumption. Hundreds of Coloradans have died as a result of alcohol consumption in the past year. Entrepreneurs all over Colorado have invested in businesses that produce marijuana-infused foods and beverages to serve the needs of marijuana patients who do not want to smoke or who cannot smoke. If the entrepreneurs are impoverished by an arbitrary law, they will sue and win. cont.http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n091/a07.html?397Pubdate: Sat, 12 Feb 2011
Source: Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO)
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment