Pubdate: Sun, 29 Jul 2012
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Column: The Bottom Line
Copyright: 2012 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Andrew S. Ross

RULINGS DON'T BODE WELL FOR MEDICINAL POT

It's understandable that President Obama didn't respond to pleas he 
call off the federal dogs shutting down medical marijuana businesses 
in the Bay Area when he was in Oakland last week.

That was the same week that the Democratic-controlled Los Angeles 
City Council voted unanimously to ban medical marijuana dispensaries 
in the City of Angels, a move backed by Democratic Mayor Antonio 
Villaraigosa, who also happens to be chairing the Democratic National 
Convention in Charlotte, N.C., where Obama will be formally 
renominated for the presidency in September.

It was also the same week that the U.S. Justice Department said that 
federal courts in all four California judicial districts have 
rejected appeals by dispensaries threatened with shutdown.

The most recent rejection came this month, when a federal court in 
Oakland rejected appeals filed by the Marin Alliance for Medical 
Marijuana in Fairfax, the Medthrive Cooperative and the Divinity Tree 
Patients' Wellness Cooperative in San Francisco, and Medthrive's 
landlords. Similar appeals by dispensaries in Sacramento, Butte 
County and Los Angeles County were rejected earlier this year.

Given those rulings, it's safe to say that Harborside Health Center, 
whose landlord in Oakland and San Jose received a forfeiture notice 
from U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag two weeks ago, probably won't have 
any luck in federal courts either. Revenue potential: All told, 
approximately 400 dispensaries in California have closed since the 
four U.S. Attorneys began their coordinated crackdown in September, 
depriving the state and municipalities - whatever one thinks of the 
merits of marijuana dispensaries - of much needed tax money.

According to the state Board of Equalization, medical marijuana 
dispensaries contribute $100 million in state sales tax revenue 
alone. Oakland garnered $1.4 million in local taxes from them in 
2011. San Jose gets $2.5 million from the city's dispensaries. In the 
third quarter of 2011, San Francisco hauled in $410,000 from its 
dispensaries, according to the Office of the Controller, which 
estimated annual sales in the city at $41.7 million.

What to do? State regulation would be a start - like most of the 16 
other states and District of Columbia that have legalized medical 
marijuana - instead of the patchwork of local ordinances overseeing 
California's $1.7 billion industry.

"There have been abuses. Some cities like San Francisco and Oakland 
have been great, but others have gone into Dante's hell," said 
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, who introduced a measure 
last year to tighten the rules statewide. He could have been 
referring to Los Angeles, with up to 1,000 dispensaries, many of them 
unregistered, and which even strong medical marijuana advocates 
regard as a disaster area. Tweaks needed: Ammiano's legislation, 
called the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Control Act, would put 
the state's Department of Consumer Affairs in charge of licensing 
businesses engaged in the medical marijuana trade, from crop 
cultivation to distribution and sales. The law would set fees and 
zoning standards, and empower municipalities to implement special taxes.

It would also make falsifying a physician's prescription for 
marijuana a crime, and give the state the power to rescind 
registrations and ban dispensaries in certain areas.

The bill passed the Assembly but was pulled from the state Senate 
after running into some flak on taxation matters and provisions 
giving local governments the power to ban dispensaries under certain 
circumstances. There is also disagreement over which state agency 
should be in charge, with some saying it would be better under the 
Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

Ammiano said his bill would undergo some "tweaking," and plans to 
reintroduce it in September. "It's generally in the right vein, but 
it's important to leave local communities with some discretion," said 
Kris Hermes, a spokesman for Americans for Safe Access, a medical 
marijuana advocacy group in Oakland.

Despite the recent bust of Harborside there, Oakland officials are 
looking to increase the number of dispensaries in the city from four to eight.

Whether Ammiano's bill would alter the federal government's approach 
to California remains to be seen. So long as federal law bans 
marijuana as a controlled substance and claims of its health benefits 
are officially dismissed, any change is probably in doubt.

Still, whichever administration is in office come January, sooner or 
later, Washington will have to get in line with the increasing number 
of states that regard marijuana differently.

"Any problems can only be solved by regulation and taxation under 
color of law, not by driving these businesses underground or forcing 
them to exist in a gray zone of legal uncertainty," said Betty Yee, a 
member of the Board of Equalization, protesting the federal 
government's current approach.

"Clearer, not murkier, regulation will make more Californians safer."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom