Pubdate: Sat, 14 Apr 2012
Source: Times-Herald, The (Vallejo, CA)
Copyright: 2012 James D. Davis
Contact:  http://www.timesheraldonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/993
Author: James D. Davis

THE NUTTY MEDICAL MARIJUANA FIGHT IN VALLEJO

Instead of getting a mass shutdown of all the marijuana clinics in 
Vallejo, the mayor instead instructed the city manager to write a 
letter more fully explaining their tax obligations and their legal 
status. Perhaps it will go like this:

"You are responsible for city sales taxes, license fees, and business 
taxes, but you may be shut down at any time. You never know when 
Elliott Ness, our police chief, will strike."

The clinics are warned that several raids have "occurred" since 
February, like they were lightning strikes, and that one never knows 
when they will "occur" again. They occur when the police chief 
decides to strike. Does he call up his buddy at the DEA, who assists 
in this high-level crime fighting as the chief ramps up his Gestapo 
squad to "bust" another illegal operation to drive these criminals 
out of the city for good, and destroy the lives of the operators and employees?

This is the same duplicitous double-talk the council, city manager, 
mayor, and chief have been engaging in from the beginning. The 
clinics should have been controlled. They weren't. They grew up all 
over the city. No one was in control. Now that they are a problem, 
the city still can't write sensible regulations and the chief can't 
engage in a soft approach to what is more a social problem than a 
criminal problem.

The mayor's campaign to rid the city of these businesses ignores the 
fact that they are businesses, occupy a space (has he walked down 
Georgia Street lately?), bring customers/patients to the location, 
pay taxes, and provide relief to some folks in unrelenting pain or 
discomfort. With the mayor it seems to be more about a "sin" that 
these people use this drug. He seems to want it wiped off the face of 
the earth. A good and moral man, the mayor.

You are watching an Italian opera. What a way to use our money. What 
a way to convince businesses not to come here. The place is just a 
little nutty.

James D. Davis

Vallejo
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom