cannabisnews.com: Jerry Brown Gets Tough on Medical Pot Clubs Jerry Brown Gets Tough on Medical Pot Clubs Posted by CN Staff on August 26, 2008 at 20:47:28 PT By Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross Source: San Francisco Chronicle CA -- California Attorney General Jerry Brown has ordered a crackdown on medical pot clubs that are selling the drug for big profits.The move puts the state a bit more in line with the feds in dealing with the explosion of questionable marijuana dispensaries since the passage of Proposition 215 more than a decade ago. The first target was Today's Health Care club in Northridge (Los Angeles County), which agents from the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement raided over the weekend. The club owner and an alleged middleman were booked on drug-dealing charges.Brown said Tuesday he would "not be surprised" to see similar raids here in the Bay Area. "The voters wanted medical marijuana dispensaries to be used for seriously ill patients and their caregivers - not as million-dollar businesses," Brown said.In recent years, pot club raids have been conducted mainly by federal authorities who don't recognize Prop. 215, the initiative California voters passed in 1996 to let patients use cannabis to treat what ailed them. Although medical marijuana is still illegal under federal law, the feds say many of their targets were actually sham outfits that were dealing marijuana for, shall we say, nonmedicinal uses.This week, Brown issued an 11-page directive laying out guidelines that medical marijuana cooperatives must follow to comply with Prop. 215.Among them: Sell only to legitimate patients. Operate as nonprofits. Buy pot only from fellow cooperative members at prices that cover cost, as opposed to professional growers out for big bucks."We are not out to harass legitimate clubs," Brown said. "The targets are those clubs that are part of a larger criminal operation where medical marijuana winds up being sold on the street and contributing to crime and violence." Snipped Complete Article: http://drugsense.org/url/cngaArMZSource: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)Author: Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross Published: Tuesday, August 26, 2008Copyright: 2008 San Francisco Chronicle Contact: letters sfchronicle.comWebsite: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/ CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #4 posted by Commonsense on August 27, 2008 at 12:05:59 PT mykeyb420 "A 'club' must offer AT LEAST, a safe place to medicate,,if you don't, then you are just a drug dealer."Why? Why does a medical marijuana dispensary have to offer a place to smoke? Drug stores don't offer places for people to hang around and take their Oxycontin or whatever. I don't get how the people that make home deliveries are more drug dealers than the "pot bars" where people can go and smoke. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by mykeyb420 on August 27, 2008 at 10:03:14 PT green cross guy Sam regarding that green cross guy Kevin Reed,,,his " club " is a delivery system. He takes your order over the phone,,and then delivers it to your home. What kind of " club " is that? He offers nothing such as support groups or the like. A " club " must offer AT LEAST, a safe place to medicate,,if you don't, then you are just a drug dealer. His overhead is next to nothing,,and his profit margin is HUGE. He has been a thorn in our side for a couple of years. His enemy is not the DEA,,it is other clubs. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Sam Adams on August 27, 2008 at 06:32:06 PT one more Also, how can a document that is 11 pages long "clarify" things for patients & providers? All I see is more hurdles being placed in the way of getting medicine to patients.Now even the most altruistic dispensary operator will have to hire additional accountants and lawyers. The political class siphons off even more money on the backs of the sick and dying. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on August 27, 2008 at 06:24:31 PT absurd Just wanted to post my comment - this is total BS. Where in Prop 215 does it say medical MJ must be non-profit only? I can't believe ASA is trying to spin this as a positive development. Last week the state couldn't raid any dispensaries, now it appears that anywhere from 40% to 90% of them may be raided by STATE officials, in addition to feds.Consider how much the average liquor store makes in profit, without helping any patients, and selling toxic drugs. Who has been hurt by the dispenary businesses? Who has gotten sick, who has turned into a drug addict, who has been injured in any way? No one.Jerry Brown says he wants to stop "violent criminals" but he's taken a huge chunk of the state's MJ trade away from legitimate, tax-paying, regulated businessmen and handed it directly back to the violent criminal underworld. He's liar.Sorry to see the comments from the Green Cross guy - perhaps he's trying to knock out his competition? [ Post Comment ] Post Comment