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.