cannabisnews.com: L.A.'s Reefer Madness
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L.A.'s Reefer Madness
Posted by CN Staff on October 05, 2009 at 05:31:12 PT
Editorial
Source: Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles, CA -- This is Los Angeles, where laws that seem sensible on the first quick reading turn out to be studded with exceptions or are enforced sporadically. Consider billboards. The city's porous legal barriers encourage rogue sign companies to ignore the law and then to sue when they are challenged. They often win -- because the laws were so clumsily drafted or applied as to be deemed void by the courts.
As it is with billboards, so it threatens to become with medical (ahem) marijuana and the city's attempt at a regulatory scheme to accommodate Proposition 215, the "compassionate use" act that voters adopted in 1996. The City Council called a moratorium on new clinics and denied every request for "hardship" exemptions -- yet it failed to block many of those rejected applicants from opening anyway. Hundreds of storefronts now sell the drug, adding to the impression that, in Los Angeles, the initiative is a cover for virtual legalization. Present your physician-approved card and you can buy the stuff to treat a bad day at the office.Let's be clear: Virtual legalization is not and should not be the city's goal. There is a nationwide debate to be had over fully legalizing marijuana, but neither Proposition 215 nor city regulation of clinics is the proper vehicle for that discussion. The council should be -- and finally seems to be -- working to allow legitimate medical patients to treat their illnesses without turning the city into a new Amsterdam.City Atty. Carmen Trutanich is recommending a very cautious approach, with outright sales banned in favor of patient cooperatives. That comes as a jolt not just to recreational users but to patients who finally have safe and convenient access to pain relief and treatment. With the drug now so widely available, it would be hard to return to the days of cannabis clubs.But Trutanich also points out that the marijuana being sold all over the city could (and he says in at least two test cases did) contain dangerous levels of pesticides and other contaminants, and that clinics may well get their stash from the same cartels that have wreaked so much havoc -- and violence -- in Mexico. It may not be the city's role to regulate the product or its importation, but what's the value of "compassionate use" for medical purposes if the product actually is poisonous and if clinics, rather than providing safety, are supplied by criminals?Even if his advice to disallow sales is too draconian, Trutanich makes some valid points. It may be too late for Los Angeles to move slowly on medical marijuana, because hundreds of clinics are now operating. But it's not too late to move wisely, and with the safety and health of patients and other residents at the top of the agenda.Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)Published: October 5, 2009Copyright: 2009 Los Angeles TimesContact: letters latimes.comWebsite: http://www.latimes.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/BDIiLtDgCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #17 posted by FoM on October 08, 2009 at 18:31:07 PT
L.A. County Med Pot Dispensaries Face Prosecution
All L.A. County Medical Pot Dispensaries Face Prosecution, District Attorney SaysOctober 8, 2009URL: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/10/cooley-says-pot-dispensaries-will-be-prosecuted.html
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Comment #16 posted by FoM on October 07, 2009 at 05:36:15 PT
Compassion
The word compassion means to me to help a person with no concern for monetary compensation. I am looking forward to the day when honest and true compassion is seen by all concerning cannabis.Free like a tomato is all I ask.
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Comment #15 posted by Sam Adams on October 07, 2009 at 05:29:50 PT
compassion
I'm fascinating by the fact that all this is new - in the 1800's and before there was no with-holding of pain relief from the sick and dying.I'm still trying to figure it out, but I"m sure it has something to do with racism being "officially" repealed. Somehow this persecution of those who seek pain relief - or a buzz - from "drugs" has replaced official racism. It's like the system needs to persecute someone to function
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Comment #14 posted by Hope on October 06, 2009 at 18:43:03 PT
Sam
There is actually quite a bit of that psuedo compassion where the psuedo compassionate say, "Here... I'm really helping them"... by slapping them down to the ground... for their own good... of course.God help us and protect us all from that awful, demented sort of "compassion" and those who come bearing it.
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Comment #13 posted by Sam Adams on October 06, 2009 at 18:27:55 PT
Medical marijuana
it has a way of revealing things - teaching things - about our society and country, things we don't want to know or think aboutofficially, we are a society without compassion. that is one of things I've learned from medical cannabis
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Comment #12 posted by Hope on October 06, 2009 at 08:51:30 PT
RChandar
That's horrible. It's unreal what some people will willingly and self righteously do to keep other people from getting relief from pain or grief. They walk around acting like they're good or are saints of some sort of righteousness, when they are actually nothing but cruel, seething monsters bent on harming the less fortunate.I'm sorry about the misery the man you speak of is being put through.If there is a judgment day, lots of self righteous do gooders are going to have a lot of explaining themselves to do. I don't think I'll have any problems explaining to God, Himself, and any number of spiritual judges, why I want this prohibition to be over. I believe myself to have a relationship with God now, and I don't have any qualms as far as He is concerned and what I believe He wants of humanity, about my actions in speaking out against this prohibition in the here and now. I thought about it and prayed about it a long time before I came to the certain realization of what is right and what is wrong concerning this prohibition of cannabis.But those who persecute and inflict misery on others over the prohibition of this plant, it seems to me, will have a lot to explain to a merciful God as to why they weren't merciful to these afflicted people in these matters.
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Comment #11 posted by rchandar on October 06, 2009 at 05:32:31 PT:
Los Angeles
I was there recently. I had never driven in the city before; before, the main plan was to get out of the city as quickly as possible......an old friend told me he knew someone. However, it turned out he lived on the other end of the city, near the East Los Angeles barrio. Took me two hours. The highways are so jam-packed it's a miracle anyone can get where they're supposed to go. I found this gutter apartment next to the 7-11 and went in. Bano lost his leg in a motorcycle accident and basically lost everything--he was a recording DJ, and said he once had a house in the San Fernando Valley. The accident took away everything: he tells me that he was robbed of his equipment and his girlfriend started to cheat on him. I asked Bano if he had tried to get a medical card, and the usual: "the court would deny me my compensation if I had one, they told me so." We did not talk about his plans for the future, there appear to be none: I didn't know why losing a leg was such a big hitch in the recording business, but aside from that, he has a daughter to take care of now that his girl has left him. I won't go on about what the MJ scene is in LA; there is one, I guess you've less chance of being arrested if only because the highway traffic is so massive. Driving back was pretty frightening; I enjoyed seeing the huge number of cars and the massive skyline, but it's clear that even there, the WoD does a lot of bad things to people and it's a shame. Why shouldn't Bano have access to MMJ? Why couldn't they cover the costs of his insurance payments. He's in a lot of pain, and the other medicines don't work that well.Bano, I'm prayin' for you dog. I hope you'll pray for me.--rchandar
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Comment #10 posted by HempWorld on October 05, 2009 at 20:27:31 PT
FoM
Thank You! I hope you can visit Amsterdam someday.
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Comment #9 posted by FoM on October 05, 2009 at 20:01:16 PT
HempWorld
That video was great! Thanks.
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Comment #8 posted by HempWorld on October 05, 2009 at 19:39:25 PT
Sam Adams, Hope, BGreen ... et al
Thank You!
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Comment #7 posted by BGreen on October 05, 2009 at 19:31:17 PT
The Los Angeles Times (ahem) Newspaper
Real (ahem) credible (ahem) journalism.It's rags like this that make me not so unhappy to see the end of the newspapers.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #6 posted by HempWorld on October 05, 2009 at 19:27:53 PT
Bill O'Reilly ...
Here it is folks!Check the link!Lol! or reality check?
Bill O'Reilly is a liar!
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on October 05, 2009 at 19:07:06 PT
Whoa!
Amsterdam is a shining city!No one in Amsterdam or the Netherlands is "Homeless" unless they want to be. No one in Amsterdam or the Netherlands goes without a job if they want one and no one goes without medical care or dental care or a good education. The citizens of Amsterdam and the Netherlands are freer from arrest and prison and general misery than any American could ever imagine.It's so sad. Really. Would that LA could be as good a place to be as Amsterdam or the Netherlands.They get SO MUCH for their tax money... even though the taxes are high. They get work. Maybe they don't get so many hours, because everyone can work and hours are shared. They don't have to worry about the company benefits because their benefits are from their tax money and they are real benefits. Even the poorest people get paid vacations from their work like we can't imagine. They just don't have the huge wide open spaces and long long highways that we have. If you don't have land in your family... you aren't likely to get land of your own... if that's what you want. That's why people come here from there and why they go to Africa and Australia. They want their own land. It's hard to get your own land there or expand if you already have it. It's crowded, compared to here. That's about the only reason that I know of that anyone leaves besides just wanting to travel. They have a lot though. A lot. A lot that really matters and makes for a better life for every man, woman, and child there.We should be so lucky. LA can only wish!
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Comment #4 posted by HempWorld on October 05, 2009 at 08:36:20 PT
Don't turn LA into new Amsterdam ...
No, that would be too good. LA would wish to be turned into new Amsterdam (New York) but we have a weightlifter for governor and we lack involvement of our citizens as in a truly democratic society. That is the situation but we will still criticize other countries and other cites, we know nothing about, etc. etc. blah, blah, blah ...
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Comment #3 posted by Sam Adams on October 05, 2009 at 08:35:55 PT
laughable
LA is a sh**hole when compared with Amsterdam! If cannabis turned LA into Amsterdam, LA would have to give up its tent cities of discarded poor people, its cancer-inducing air that kills many thousands of poor minorities and other every year. It's violent street crime and huge prisons up in the hills. Maybe cannabis will make LA suddenly develop a huge public transportation infrastructure overnight, like Amsterdam? we should be so luckyThe problem for the cops and pols is that NOTHING has happened since the dispensaries opened! No one's been hurt, or mugged, or seen their property value drop (god forbid).It's intersting, using cannabis for a bad day at the office is verboten! However, it's fine to take alcohol or tobacco to "treat" a bad day at the office! You can purchase your cigs and booze within 500 feet of a school - no problem!Using cannabis to treat a bad day at the office is horribly wrong. But tens of millions of Americans do precisely this, with the full approval of their doctor - with pills. Dozens and dozens of different anti-depressant and anti-anxiety meds are perfectly fine after a hard day at the office, and on weekends, and vacation, because all those DRUGS must be taken 24/7.
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Comment #2 posted by HempWorld on October 05, 2009 at 08:13:43 PT
"working to allow legitimate medical patients to
treat their illnesses without turning the city into a new Amsterdam."Oh no, lets not turn the US in to a new Netherlands! Idiots! We all know where the LA Times stand, obviously they believe medical marijuana is a hoax. This alone should disqualify them from the debate. But I am getting a little tired of all the sideswipes at either Amsterdam or my home country the Netherlands, where marijuana is supposedly legal, which it is not. And the insinuations and innuendos about God forbid let's not turn this into new Amsterdam ...The stupdity of it all. New Amsterdam was the name for New York, before it became New York. So New Amsterdam was turned into New York not the other way around and certainly not LA!The murder rate and the rate of overdose in the Netherlands and/or Amsterdam are a fraction of that of the US or Los Angeles. The whole cannabis regulation with regard to patients is in complete disarray in the US with state and federal law conflicting and the policians do nothing about it for 13 years and counting ... And meanwhile, oh no, let's not turn it into new Amsterdam ... Oh yeah, why not, have you even been to Amsteram? Have you even looked at the death statistics in the Netherland and compared them to the US. The US is a meatgrinder with off the charts figures of death and mayhem and calls itself a democratic nation, when it is not. Look at the state of healthcare in the US it is robbery by daylight!
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Comment #1 posted by RevRayGreen on October 05, 2009 at 07:34:31 PT
Iowans 4 Medical MJNA: Pharmacy Board orderd
to appear in Polk County District court again on October 9th10/5/2009...Contact: Carl Olsen 515/343-9933 The Iowa Board of Pharmacy will conduct a third in a series of four monthly public hearings on the medical value of marijuana. The hearing is scheduled to take place Wednesday, October 7, 2009, Noon to 7:00 p.m. in the 3rd Floor Auditorium of the Bowen Science Building, University of Iowa, Iowa City. Carl Olsen and George McMahon of Iowans for Medical Marijuana will attend the hearing in Iowa City and will be available to answer questions from the press and public. On April 24, Polk County District Judge Joel D. Novak ruled that the Pharmacy Board unlawfully rejected a petition by Iowans for Medical Marijuana’s Board of Directors to remove marijuana from its current classification as a substance having no accepted medical use in treatment in the United States. The petition was based on the fact that marijuana has been accepted for medical use in 13 states in the United States. On July 21, the Board of Pharmacy again rejected the petition, ruling that accepted medical use in treatment in the United States means accepted medical use in all 50 states. The Iowa Board of Pharmacy insists it can determine whether marijuana has accepted medical use in the United States based on science, not on 13 state laws. Another court hearing has been scheduled for October 9 in the Polk County District Court to review the Board’s July 21st supplemental ruling. Whatever the science shows, it’s clear the Iowa Board of Pharmacy has no authority to recommend marijuana be accepted for medical use in any state other than Iowa. The authority of a state administrative agency ends at its own state’s borders. For More Information: Carl Olsen, 515-343-9933 http://www.iowamedicalmarijuana.org/
IowaPolitics.com Press Release
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