Pubdate: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 Source: Visalia Times-Delta, The (CA) Copyright: 2011 The Visalia Times-Delta Contact: http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/customerservice/contactus.html Website: http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2759 CITY CAN'T HIDE FROM MEDICAL POT FOREVER California's experiment with medical marijuana has not worked as expected. Confusion and corruption reign in about equal measures. We can't blame the Visalia City Council for its action this week in continuing to prolong a ban on sale of medical marijuana in the city limits, even though we have criticized the council in the past for its position. Things have not changed for the better with the medical-marijuana laws. In fact, they have only gotten worse. For every example of individuals who are using marijuana legally and therapeutically, there are probably 10 examples where the intent of the law is twisted to permit illegal sale, use and trafficking. The state of California is still not providing enough support for its individual jurisdictions on administering the medical-marijuana law. We had hoped that it would, but clearly things have not improved. Most jurisdictions, even ones that had embraced the medical-marijuana law, are pulling back from their support. So it is understandable that the Visalia City Council prefers to take the conservative approach and ban the sale of medical marijuana altogether. We continue to urge the city and the council not to make this their final word on the subject. That appears to be the track that the council has chosen. Monday, the council unanimously approved the first reading of an ordinance that would prohibit sale of marijuana in city limits. It would also limit the amount of marijuana that could be grown for personal use in the city limits. Again, it's hard to argue with those decisions considering how the law is working so far. As Councilman Warren Gubler attested, the Compassionate Care Act, passed by California voters in 1996, could be the most abused law in California. In permitting the cultivation and sale of marijuana for medical purposes but without any restrictions or provisions for oversight, the law created a confusing mess in which legitimate use and criminal use are equivalent. In community after community in California, the results of rampant implementation of the law without oversight have been tragically apparent. Neighborhoods have become havens for drug trafficking. Criminal businesses sprout up under cover of legitimacy. Individuals routinely flout the law to take advantage of marijuana use with no medicinal purpose whatever. Use of drugs in the United States is a huge contradiction anyway. We are a society that relies on medication and fails to practice restraint while blurring the line between what is legal and what is not. California's medical-marijuana law simply contributes to the overall confusion. But California voters approved the medical-marijuana law, and marijuana does have a place in the realm of medical treatment. That doesn't even begin to approach the argument of whether marijuana itself ought to be legalized totally. Visalia is right to take a strictly conservative approach for now. There are too many instances where the law has led to conditions that ruined neighborhoods. Eventually, the city will have to deal with the reality of the law. And the reality is that medical-marijuana use and sale is legal in California. Continued denial of that law will lead to plaintive legal action, to contradiction of enforcement and to reversal in court. It already has in Tulare County. Ultimately, the law properly administered can serve some Visalia residents. Eventually, the city will have to figure out a way to live with the medical-marijuana law with a policy that is more sophisticated than simply denying it exists. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.