When I saw the first headlines regarding the guidelines Calif. Attorney General Jerry Brown issued this week on medical marijuana I was dismayed. The AP story emphasized the idea that a lot of dispensaries would be open to law enforcement raids under them, and that he had declared any profit-making entity likely illegal. Then I talked to the good folks at Americans for Safe Access, who were fairly pleased and actually read the guidelines in toto, and decided they're not so bad. The bit about profit-making dispensaries will probably be challenged in court on the grounds that the original law, 1996's Prop.215, didn't stipulate no profit, and laws passed by initiative can only be changed by a new vote of the people. Appellate courts have already invalidated possession limits on the same grounds, but Jerry's appealed that to the Calif. Supremes. I think he'll lose, but predicting how courts will decide is a fool's game.
Anyway, here's the Register's editorial. The rest of the guidelines take recent court decisions into account and set up fairly reasonable standards that most dispensaries are likely to meet. That might not keep the feds away, as Jerry said he wanted to do, but it's not a bad start.
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It sounds great to me. Given the fact that some dispenseries sell product at $20 a gram or $65-$85 for 3.5 grams or $370-$400 for an ounce is outrages. Hell that's the same price as the black market. Some profit should be made but they shouldn't set their prices by using the black market as a rule of thumb. Which seems to be exactly what they have done. Bummer...
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