Pubdate: Sun, 18 Mar 2012
Source: Tribune, The (San Luis Obispo, CA)
Copyright: 2012 The Tribune
Contact:  http://www.sanluisobispo.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/391
Author: Bob Cuddy

SUPERVISORS ARE MASTERS OF WEAKNESS

Here's something I'd like to see, but never will: I'd like to see our 
county supervisors stand up at a public meeting and say, in unison 
like a Greek chorus, "We have an announcement to make about medical 
marijuana dispensaries."

"If you would like to put one in this county, forget it.

"It ain't gonna happen. No way, no how, no chance, nada, fuhgeddabout it.

"Here's the reason: Politically, it's a scorching potato and we 
aren't going to touch it and get blisters, especially when we're 
running for re-election."

Tragedy and comedy

OK, as Greek choruses go, Aristophanes did it better. But you take my 
point. When supervisors shot down a proposed dispensary in Oceano 
this month - the third time they have done so in this clinic-less 
county - they gave a variety of reasons.

But it was clear from the outset that the fix was in. None of them 
was going to vote for the proposal because the prevailing political 
climate in this nation and this county is stuck in 1937, when the 
flick "Reefer Madness" was making the rounds, persuading everyone 
that marijuana is the devil's weed.

Never mind that medical marijuana dispensaries are designed to help 
suffering people suffer less. I've spoken to folks who use marijuana 
medicinally, and their stories are heartbreaking - trying to endure 
through relentless pain and, in some cases, in the hovering presence of death.

Why anyone would deny them comfort is beyond me. There is something 
heartless, even callous, about it.

It is true that such dispensaries could be and have been abused. But 
that is why the planning process supposedly is in place - to head off 
those problems and make sure the clinic is safe and lawful.

A pot odyssey

If you want to read a tale of woe and frustration about this 
particular doomed dispensary, however, check out Tammy Murray's 
Viewpoint published Tuesday. It is an epic saga of Murray's struggle 
to bring the cannabis clinic to Oceano, in the proper way.

Murray runs a successful similar operation in the Central Valley, and 
she began her efforts here a year ago.

She spoke with real estate agents, planners, neighbors, local 
government, all five county supervisors. She jumped through all the 
hoops, or so she thought.

She received approval from the Planning Commission. But then an 
Oceano resident appealed the decision to the Board of Supervisors.

Watching the supervisors' hearing was an exercise in restraint. These 
guys stretched the definition of "mealy-mouthed" to new dimensions.

They all were "greatly conflicted," as Adam Hill, doing his best 
Hamlet "to be or not to be" interpretation, put it. "It truly pains 
me" to oppose the dispensary, said Bruce Gibson, agonizing like 
Abraham about to polish off Isaac.

After seemingly endless squirming of this nature, all five voted 
against it. But it wasn't because they opposed the use of marijuana 
as medicine, oh my heavens no. They had no problem with that concept.

Location, location

And it wasn't because of Murray. They fell all over themselves and 
each other praising her presentation.

"It is the best we've seen," said Jim Patterson. "You've done a 
dynamite job," gushed Frank Mecham.

Instead, supervisors rattled off supposed concerns about location, 
distance from a park, and the character of the neighborhood.

Never mind that all those arguments were in dispute. Some Oceano 
residents had no problem with the dispensary. The definition of 
"distance from a park" changed during the planning process, in a way 
that harmed Murray's attempts.

And as to the location, well, it is either, as some said, a place 
where children congregate (no doubt to be seduced into a life of 
drugs and crime if the dispensary were to move in), or it is a 
dangerous, "dark" and "spooky" place that attracts "nondesirables," 
as Paul Teixeira said.

The Oceano woman whose opposition brought the dispensary to the Board 
of Supervisors and ultimately killed it, Barbara Mann, even had the 
effrontery to say she worried about Murray's safety. Puh-leeze.

Somewhere a place

In the end, this was one of those government hearings where you 
recognize that, as someone once said, "zoning is a tool of the 
special interests."

There is plenty of ammunition in county planning and building codes 
and regulations for elected officials to come down on any side of a 
project. In other words, it can give them cover to make unpalatable decisions.

That is what happened here. From where I sit, their stated reasons 
for voting against relieving the pain of suffering people were not 
their actual reasons. They just succumbed to a malady for which 
medicine has no cure: insufficient strength in the spine.

Supervisors agreed on one other thing. The county needs a medical 
marijuana dispensary.

"Someplace else might be good," Teixeira said, "and we need to look at that."

Oh, really? I'll believe that when I see it, after three applicants 
were sent packing. I'd love to be proved wrong.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom