Some politicians are loathe to allow freedom of action even when they’re going out of their way to allow freedom of action.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown doesn’t want the federal government to harass patients who use medical marijuana, or to harass those who provide it. To implement this laissez-faire policy, Brown wants to make darn sure that any businessmen who provide cancer patients with marijuana are the ones who get raided and arrested.
What’s going on?
Cannabis for medical use has been legal in California since 1996, when voters passed Proposition 215. The federal government has not been playing along, however.
To clarify things, Attorney General Brown has issued an 11-page guideline to help “legitimate patients” avoid being arrested. The guidelines also confirm the legality of medical marijuana co-ops. Brown hopes that under the new guidelines patients will steer clear of the unapproved dispensaries.
Who is an unapproved provider? Anyone who actually makes money selling medical marijuana. Supposedly, it’s okay for a cancer patient to ease his pain with the plant, so long as there is no economic incentive for anyone to help him ease it. It must be done by nonprofit co-operatives.
Bruce Mirken of the Marijuana Policy Project doesn’t agree that socialist medicine is good, capitalist medicine bad. “Last I heard,” he says, “Walgreens isn’t a charity.”
He’s right.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
2 replies on “Jerry Brown’s Latest Trip”
As a former Walgreen’s employee, I can assure it is NOT a charity.
I understand the concerns of those who don’t want someone to drive or operate heavy machinery while under the influence of marijuana or any other “controlled substance.” (Is it really under control?) And I don’t have a problem with laws forbidding that, but what you are doing at home without endangering the lives of others, shouldn’t be anyone’s business but your own.
Thanks for continuing to bring governmental hypocrisy into the light, Paul.
Paul, Paul, Paul
Careful, you only included half the facts, as JB was upholding the law, and protecting the right and did not want illegitimate sales to poison the purpose, especially in the public’s mind. And there is not a difference between Walgreen’s and the legitimate purveyor of Marijuana.…dispensing of a PRESCRIBED substance is regulated in both instances.
One more thing, please remember the consistency of JB…the first major political figure to endorse term limits.…or have you forgotten that just to get in a sophomoric dig?