Young marijuana plants are shown Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009, in Seattle. The marijuana is distributed to members of a cooperative of medical patients who have received doctor's authorization to use the drug to treat their illnesses, such as AIDS and multiple sclerosis. Unlike several other states which permit marijuana sales to patients, Washington requires patients to grow marijuana themselves or designate a caregiver to grow it for them. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
by Arthur Salm / San Diego News Network / October 5, 2009
Somewhere, a dog has bitten a man. And from the desk where I write, I can — by leaning back a little and looking around the orange tree – report that the sun has risen in the east.
Not only that:
Some of the local establishments that have been authorized to dispense marijuana for medical reasons may have been dispensing marijuana to individuals who may have partaken of the substance for non-medical reasons. Worse, the establishments may have dispensed the aforementioned substance with full knowledge, or at least, a pretty damn good idea that their customers intended to go straight home and crank up “Dark Side of the Moon,” and don’t even pretend that you don’t know what I mean.
In response, more than a dozen clinics in San Diego County were shut down last month. San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis declared that “These so-called businesses are not legal. They appear to be run by drug dealers who see an opening in the market and a way to make a fast buck.”
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
No kidding!?
God forbid any person(s) use a an herb from the earth for personal enjoyment. Especially NOT in conjunction with hearing Pink Floyd music. That would be an unlAWFUL perpitude which I would be remiss for not having pointed out in this OBiquitous forum. The ingestion of the devil’s weed stands as an egregious offense to we law imbibing citizens of this State of consciousness.
I admit, I wouldn’t want to buy from a dispensary that was just a front for drug dealers. I want my money to support local growers, not drug cartels.
I support drug dealers of all kinds. From your friendly pill dispensing family doctor to your street level thug.
Thank you, Satan for drug dealers. I would be married with children and sobbing in a cold and lonely Catholic church had your drugs not enlightened me to escape oppression.
cough, cough…you’re welcome.
whoa! not that i usually read this magazine,
but…if it’s on the cover,
it must be true…
right? CNN Cover story on medical marijuana
Any coops that had the correct amount of cash and medicine were left alone.
T-shirt and hat sales at dispensaries tipped off the feds in this case.
Plus, they do not target patients so who cares really?
As a great friend once said to me: “Go get your card. there has got to be something wrong with you.
I think it was in citybeat or the reader one was advertising “4 gram eighths!”
If only Advil gave 210 pills in their 200 pill bottle, they could compare.
Or if San Diego’s legal system gave “all the rights and justice the people are entitled to, and more!”
No, that would be a fantasy.
The Reader also has coupons for “free gifts” for new patients. My apartment is getting full of free medicine.
Thank you, California.
According to this article legal marijuana sales are hurting the drug cartels business.
Maybe now we can end this pointless, costly “war”.
The feds would have to give up their beloved DEA for the drug war to end.
Not
Gonna
Happen
I wonder if that’s why last year’s version of the yearly threat assessment by the DEA seemed to headline prescription drug abuse so heavily?
What worries me is all these DHS agencies hired a lot of people after 9/11, to fight a “war on terror” at home and abroad that at least stateside, has turned out to be a fully bogus no show. Despite the government repeatedly attempting, and partly succeeding, in enacting programs to get citizens to be “the eyes and ears of homeland defense” and “be vigilant against terrorism, crime, and threats of all kinds”, (quoted from citizenscorps.gov, circa post 9/11) and hiring new personnel in multiple agencies, there are NOT hordes of young arab males lurking in US cities cataloging our monuments, bridges, tunnels, etc. 9/11 was an anomaly, the rest is largely bull****.
These budding career spooks, including DEA, aren’t going back to the office every day and telling the boss “well there aren’t any terrorists out here. Again. What the hell were we hired for? What are we suposed to do all day?” Hell no, job security is human instinct, they are going to legislate more laws to invent crimes, and find ways to nail people for lawful behaviour.
Medical Marijuana is surely one, and the other human instinct here is survival. Why go after cartels and smugglers who have guns and real thugs? You could get hurt that way! Maybe even have to actually earn that 20 and out retirement package! Isn’t it a lot safer to go after cancer patients, maybe seize their homes, possessions, they don’t shoot at you when you go on those pre-dawn no-knock raids. You’ll get an easy bullseye on grandma’s back when she’s running to flush her bag in the bathroom!
There are a lot of fine men who choose careers in law enforcement. Those are the ones who don’t carry a “throw down bag” in the trunk of their car should they come up empty on a raid. However they will throw innocent and guilty alike into the grinder of the justice system, figuring if they’re innocent the system will decide that and they should nail everyone all the time.
If only there were as many “fine men” who choose careers in the district attorney’s office. In case you hadn’t heard, that is what they call “future politicians” and who can afford competant defense to counter?
All players at all levels ultimately treat the job like it’s a game. The citizens they go after, targets. It’s a social crime, people. In this case, one society decided wasn’t a crime.
Finally, you know why I think marijuana kept coming up in surveys as a “gateway” drug?
Of course it is. Look at all the people you ended up hanging around with chasing after illegal drugs. Going to places where illegal drugs were sold. Doing, an illegal drug.
I have pretty much hung around doctors, lawyers, and other professioanls when trying to score drugs. As a matter of fact the first time I ever tried marijuana was with a friend’s dad who was a lawyer.
Maybe this is part of my skewed vision of things. I realize that we are all the same at the end of the day.
Well my vision is even more skewed, at least in summertime.
I usually think the difference between po folks and the well off is the well off can afford to be air conditioned.
Check it out next sweltering summer day. From their luxury cars, to workplace, and home to central air.
But you’re right, tho I believe over the years the earning as well as education Gods tends to favor those with some level of abstinence/moderation.
( a guy I knew years ago, now dead, who lived near infamous Delta St. in Logan Heights, once told me “crack saved my life, homey”. I asked why was that. “because if I didn’t smoke a 20 rock every day to distract me, I’d still be doing heroin”. Frank Rollins, RIP. Homey.)
Hmmm…
I rather Americans get paid for growing and selling pot than the scuzball Mexican cartels that decapitate men, women and children for laughs (over 5000 dead this year). Also, how else will local growers afford their Seedless gear and Phish tickets? Support white Rastafarians, buy local…
I’d say support black Rastafarians too, but you are likely not cool enough to speak with one and they are way too smart to sell pot to a stranger.