Medical Marijuana’s Recent Local History

By Dave Hodges

In 1996, The Compassionate Use Act, Proposition 215, passed with 66 percent of the vote,allowing for the launch of medical marijuana clubs in the state. The Act itself dictates that “governments implement a plan to provide the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana to all patients in medical need.” Oakland, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco were the first local cities to provide safe access to medical marijuana for those in need.

In 1998, the late Peter Baez and Jesse Garcia opened San Jose’s first medical marijuana cooperative, the Santa Clara County Medical Cannabis Center. The assistant district attorney at the time referred to Peter as “the Eagle scout of the medical marijuana movement” and Baez believed he had the support of the local officials.

Though well intentioned and meticulous with his record keeping, SCCMCC was raided after a member was arrested for possession of marijuana. The police attempted to verify the member and were unable to do so. This gave the police an excuse to dig into the operations of the club. It was later found that this member did have a legitimate medical condition.

Approximately six months later a warrant was served and 270 confidential medical records were seized along with a bank account containing approximately $29,000. Baez, first cousin of the folksinger and activist Joan Baez, was arrested and charged with seven felonies. The case hinged on the belief that five of the 270 patients did not have written doctor’s notes recommending the use of marijuana. It was later found by Dr. Tod Mikuriya, former director of marijuana research at the National Institute of Mental Health, that of the five patients in question, “Each and every individual appears to suffer serious chronic illness that qualifies for protection by the Compassionate Use Act.”

In 2000 the case was resolved and Baez pled no contest to a single misdemeanor. He did not receive any jail time and was charged a $100 fine. The seized money was never returned.

In a Metro article about Peter Baez by Eric Johnson, John Carillo, the then SJPD Department spokesperson stated “I don’t know how long [Proposition] 215 is going to be valid,” Carrillo said. “It is not legal under federal statute, and that takes precedence over California law.” Thirteen years later, it seems not much has changed with the San Jose Police Department’s attitude toward Proposition 215.

Fast forward to recently, several cooperatives were raided in the fall by local law enforcement agencies. Angel’s Care, San Jose Patients Group and MediLeaf cooperatives all had their money and assets seized. While none of the assets have been recovered, the court dates and judgments continue to be delayed in an attempt to stall due to a lack of evidence.

Though other cities have worked within state law to provide patients safe access to medical cannabis, San Jose has denied their right to exist. Instead of working with the community to provide reasonable regulations, the city attorney’s reinterpreted the law in an attempt to prevent medical cannabis clubs from operating in San Jose. Based on information release by the city of Gilroy, San Jose’s current strategy to close all 130+ cannabis clubs in town, then open 10 new “legal” clubs, could cost well over $26 million.

When I opened the San Jose Cannabis Buyers Collective, two years ago, I could never have imagined the city would take this path to deny medication to the ill once again. The only way to solve our current crisis, is for the city to take a new approach and help medical cannabis become the dignified industry it should be.

66 Comments

  1. “The only way to solve our current crisis, is for the city to take a new approach and help medical cannabis become the dignified industry it should be.”

    Laughter really is the best medicine.

  2. Thanks, Dave, for reminding us of the pioneering work done my Mr. Baez, and the dishonorable way he was dealt with by local authorities.
      It seems to me that California has established a sort of de facto legalization of marijuana. While I have no doubt that marijuana is used by many for legitimate medical purposes, even the most die-hard medical pot supporter would have to concede that many dispensary customers are simply people who want to get high legally. These non-patients simply got their card from a questionable “doctor,” which allows them to legally use a natural substance that others cannot.
      The result is a situation that nobody really likes. People lie about a medical condition in order to get the card. Patients are lumped together with 18 year old stoners by the anti-pot crowd, and a handful of physicians are making a fortune handing out “recommendations” to people with no legitimate medical need at $50 to 100 for a 5 minute “examination.”  And cities, trying to keep everyone happy, are coming up with poorly-devised ordinances that will likely promote illegal sales. San Jose’s unworkable ordinance is a good example.
        The solution is obvious and overdue. Legalize personal possession and cultivation with restrictions similar to alcohol. Cut the cartels out of the equation and slap a big tax on marijuana sales in state-licensed facilities, again similar to alcohol sales. The Federal government should simply butt out, and allow states to establish their own guidelines.

  3. Drugs, including marijuana, are physiological disruptive, toxic at some level, psychologically distorting, differentially affective for differnent consumers, and often physically or psychological addictive.

    This is the pronouncement of medically competent scientists who have applied the principles of the scientific method to actually understand the effects of drugs human beings.

    That’s why drugs are regulated by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

    A sane society that accepts responsibility for the health and welfare of its citizens does not facilitate the unrestricted use of disruptive, toxic, addictive, complexly affective, imcompletely understood drugs by its citizens.

    Decisions on the use of drugs by individuals where society picks up the mess when things go wrong should not be put in the hands of “community organizers”, profit-seeking businesses, and the pleasure-seeking democratic mob.

    The “medical” part of “medical marijauna” is a sham and everyone understands it is a sham.

    It is a sham that is promoted by those who do not have the interests of society at heart, only the venal and self-serving interests of the ruling class or those who aspire to become the ruling class.

    “Medical marijuana” has essentially zero benefit for society.  Those few individuals who actually gain some “medicinal” benefit from pot can use FDA approved and prescribed active agents contained in cannabis. 

    “Medical marijauna” is just a cynical demonstration by the ruling class of their belief that society is just a herd of drooling beasts who can be manipulated into any belief—including a belief that is the opposite of what they believed yesterday.

    “If you belived marijuana was bad yesterday, we can make you believe it is therapeutic today.”

    “If you believed that homosexuality is bad for your children yesterday, we can make you believe that you should want your children to be homosexuals today.”

    “If you believed that private property was good for the economy yesterday, we can make you believe that government seizure of private property is good for the society today.”

    You’re stupid.  You don’t realize you’re stupid.

    But we can cram any belief we want into you’re stupid little heads, and you can’t do anything about it.

      • Because I totally agree with him. People ARE stupid. Classic example…sheeples; those who can’t think for themselves but jump on the bandwagon as followers from one trend to another. When the wind sways, they watch to see where everybody is going…then they follow.

        • people who act like a heard of sheep. They follow without looking or trying to figure out where they are going. Just follow without thought.

        • OK so, “sheeples” are people who act like a “heard” of sheep?

          Are you for real, or are you just trying to make me laugh, because I’m rolling on the floor laughing over here. Are we really supposed to take your opinion seriously after that??

          Tip: spellcheck doesn’t correct your ridiculous grammar. Stay in school.

        • “OK so, “sheeples” are people who act like a “heard” of sheep?”

          I just realized what I wrote. Hilarious! I know full well that it should be “herd”. As for “sheeple(s)”, It is MY choice to include the “s”. I LIKE it that way. The true entertainment is the amount of pettiness you exerted to point it out. Just as with the poster who misspelled the word “wrong”…A NORMAL person would realize that was a typo. A PETTY person would point it out. You showed yourself really well, Jones—or is it John? As for your telling me to stay in school…I probably have more degrees than you and your mama put together. My suggestion to you would be to take a course in CLASS. Evidently, you didn’t get that training at home. Idiot.

    • When you’ve experienced some of the debilitating side effects from LEGAL PILLS that are approved by the FDA, maybe you’ll take a different view of cannabis, which is not cooked up in a lab by a corporation run by the RULING CLASS.

    • > A sane society that accepts responsibility for the health and welfare of its citizens does not facilitate the unrestricted use of disruptive, toxic, addictive, complexly affective, imcompletely understood drugs by its citizens.

      Yet harmful psychiatric drugs, confirmed by the FDA to cause damage to the brain, such as: Paxil, Zoloft, Xanax, Ritalin, Zyprexa and Prozac are given to children younger then 4 years old… This “sane society” accepts prescribing highly addictive pain management drugs, including Hydrocodone, OxyContin, Demerol, Morphine, Methadone, Dilaudid, Soma, Valium, Librium, and Klonopin on a regular basis… But when people who use these medications find they are able to reduce or even eliminate their use of these often highly addictive, disruptive and toxic medications with cannabis, and find cannabis to be much less addictive, toxic, and disruptive to their body, society should step in and prevent its use?

      > Decisions on the use of drugs by individuals where society picks up the mess when things go wrong should not be put in the hands of “community organizers”, businesses, and the democratic mob.

      Instead of doctors, the community & businesses, democratically making these types of decisions, you prefer to have these decisions made by misinformed politicians, drug dealers, and narcotics officers? Have you studied the “war on drugs”? What has gone right so far? If we’re fighting a war for 50 years something is wrong.  “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” -Albert Einstein

      > The “medical” part of “medical marijauna” is a sham and everyone understands it is a sham. It is a sham that is promoted by those who do not have the interests of society at heart, only the venal and self-serving interests of the ruling class or those who aspire to become the ruling class.

      Really the term “marijauna” is the only sham. Cannabis, the true name of the plant, has been used as a medication since at least 2737 BC. In the early 1930’s the term “marihuana” was used by the “ruling class” to promote their own ambitions without any regard for the interests of society. If congress had the interests of society in mind they would have not included cannabis in the Harrison Narcotics Act when the American Medical Association stated:
      “The medicinal use of cannabis has not caused and is not causing addiction, the prevention of the use of the drug for medicinal purposes can accomplish no good end whatsoever. How far it may serve to deprive the public of the benefits of a drug that on further research may prove to be of substantial value, it is impossible to foresee.”

      > “Medical marijauna” is just a cynical demonstration by the ruling class of their belief that society is just a herd of drooling beasts who can be manipulated into any belief—including a belief that is the opposite of what they believed yesterday.

      Your belief that “Medical marijuana has essentially zero benefit for society” is proof you are, in your own words, one of the “drooling beasts who can be manipulated into any belief”. Do some real research.

      > “If you belived marijuana was bad yesterday, we can make you believe it is therapeutic today.”

      Ponder this… If you believed Cannabis was therapeutic before 1930, we can make you think Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind, today!

  4. The fact is, the people of California voted and passed the Compassionate Use Act and the City should not stand in the way of patients getting their medication in a safe environment.

    • I totally agree with you!  The “people” of California voted and “passed”
      the Act.  So, until that changes, people who have a medical condition
      which necessitates the use of Cannabis and who have received a
      prescription for a Cannabis Card should be allowed to receive their
      “medication” in a safe environment and these “clubs” should not be
      hassled! 

      Also, if the “nay-sayers” want to look at “addictions” why not make
      all coffee, tea, coke a cola, etc illegal?  After all, we all know that
      caffeine is totally addictive and you don’t see these products being
      taken off the shelves!

      • I would like for you to point to any form of documentation or scientific study which states that caffeine has any deleterious effects on any person without a pre-existing medical conditions. I would further like for you to identify how the consumption of caffeine, on its own leads to any personal or public health or safety risk.

        On the contrary, a cup of coffee is full of non-soluble fiber which is great for the GI tract, and tea is full of all manner of anti-oxidants. And as for cola drinks, I think the worst that can be said for those is that drinking too many of them can lead to obesity, but here again, that’s an issue of moderate consumption rather than there being any inherent harm in consuming a cola drink.

        Perhaps, next time you post, you could use the appellation ‘Red Herring Vendor’ instead of ‘Momma Mia”?

  5. just another excuse to sell marijuana to people to make a profit.  Kind of like applying for a handicap tag, anyone can and no one verifies it.  Just need to pay a so called “doctor” to sign off.

    But then again, if the city taxes you to death like they do to the rest of us, who cares!  Not this council.

    • You don’t know what you’re talking about.
      1) A handicapped PLACARD (not tag) request must be presented to the DMV along with a DMV-issued form completed and signed by a physician. Currently there are few PLACARDS being issued for patients unless they have difficulty walking. How do you know no one verifies it? You’re just shooting off your mouth without any information. It is verified.
      2) What exactly is a so-called “doctor”? Are you a so-called person? Licensed physicians are the only medical professionals allowed to write recommendations. So now you know.

      • Cal. DMV itself just issued a press release that fully one-third of the handicap placards are fruadulently obtained or fraudulently renewed.  I’d bet the dope prescriptions have an even higher rate of fraud.  wink, wink

  6. Until the feds get on board, opening a collective is a gamble.  Sometimes you win, most of the time you lose.  I can’t imagine every single person who starts a collective doesn’t know the risk they are taking.  If they do not, then they have willingly closed their eyes to reality.  Will it be legal nationally?  I suspect so eventually but until then, those that try to blaze new trails are going to fall of a cliff now and again.  I think the biggest farce though is the medical excuse.  I say abandon that ruse and just lobby for making it like alcohol.  Until then, the silent majority is going to just snicker at the compassionate use argument.  Call it like it is and I bet more people will accept it.  It really comes down to states rights, but that is a whole other subject…

      • Hey, Johnny, you get a thrill out of being a pissant?

        Your posts of filled with snickering on every issue.

        You stand on that corner handing out red hots to the rich and powerful, and then you come home and shoot off bile?

        Can’t you get more relish on that dog, fella?

        It seems small.

    • If nobody “blazed the trail”, no changes would ever be made…to anything. Is that the world in which you want to live?

      Regarding your characterization of a “medical excuse”, you clearly no nothing of what you write. You’re just guessing, or repeating claims by those who oppose safe medical marijuana access.

      When you get cancer, or another disease for which medical marijuana can provide relief, you will realize how ignorant you truly are.

      • The same can be said for your arguments that medical marijuana is a valid issue.  For every doctor you can point to that claims marijuana is the way to go, there is another doctor that will vehemently deny that is the case and trot out their resume to prove it. You are trying to claim the high ground and treat opposing arguments with condescension. This is exactly the problem. 

        There really are no undeniable facts that can substantiate the claim of medical use at this time.  As a result, why not just admit to what is really happening anyway and that is for every person who uses marijuana under the guise of medicine, there are 10 others puffing away recreationally with their supposed doctor’s card in their pocket.

        This is what continues to hurt the move towards complete legalization.  Nearly every person knows somebody who has a “condition” requiring them to smoke pot and who has a cannabis card.  Therefore the credibility of the medical use argument is severely damaged.  So, I still say just make it completely legal and be done with it.  This would benefit those that you claim need it for medical reasons and in the end, provide oodles of tax dollars for the liberals to spend on more entitlement projects.  And we can’t stop that apparently….

        • Please cite the study or the poll that found 10 cannabis-cardholders out of every 11 do not have a valid medical condition, as you claimed above.

          Or are you just talking out your ass?

        • The smoke you are blowing up people’s asses with your claims of medical need.  You can claim all day long that all those potheads lighting up after purchasing their pot at some “cannabis collective” have a medical need but the public at large just isn’t buying it.  Just legalize it and quit lying through your teeth about the reasons.

        • > For every doctor you can point to that claims marijuana is the way to go, there is another doctor that will vehemently deny that is the case and trot out their resume to prove it.

          Assumptions, lack of knowledge & outdated information in the medical field is a serious problem. I’m sure you can find plenty of doctors that are willing to “trot out their resume to prove” that sugar causes hyperactivity in children. Double-blind trials have shown no difference in behavior between children given sugar-full or sugar-free diets, even in studies specifically looking at children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or those considered sensitive to sugar.

          > There really are no undeniable facts that can substantiate the claim of medical use at this time.

          Please research this statement for yourself. A good place to start is Nixon’s “Shafer commission”. For thousands of years, cannabis has been used for medicinal purposes. It has only been in the last 50-75 years that the political agenda started pushing that “Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”

          >As a result, why not just admit to what is really happening anyway and that is for every person who uses marijuana under the guise of medicine, there are 10 others puffing away recreationally with their supposed doctor’s card in their pocket.

          As a result of you’re lack of understanding of the California law this is what you might believe. Fortunately, Californians voted for a prop 215 with the understanding that it was meant for “any illness for which marijuana provides relief”. This means ADD/ADHD, Anorexia, Anxiety, Arthritis, Depression, Insomnia, Migraines and Stress, are all 100% valid medical conditions to use medical cannabis for. I’m sure all 10 the people you think are “puffing away recreationally” are all 100% valid medical patients in the state of California.

        • “I’m sure all 10 the people you think are “puffing away recreationally” are all 100% valid medical patients in the state of California.”

          I believe you, I really do.  That is because in the State of California you can get a medical marijuana card without having any medical problems at all.  You just claim to have something wrong with you and voila, a card magically appears from a doctor who then collects their fee.  As for your claim of outdated information, just because you can find doctors who support your argument doesn’t mean that other doctors who disagree are outdated, misinformed or behind the times.  This argument is as old as arguing itself.  My experts are better than your experts so yours are stupid….. 

          As for the law, as long as the feds don’t agree with Californians, collectives will still get raided and those who think they are “blazing trails” (they are blazing, but in another way) will continue to lose their property and go to jail.

    • Bottom Line is right, Don’t insult the intelligence of the folks. If you need MJ because of your intense pain (MJ is a supposedly a pain medicine), Then you probably shouldn’t be out partying at Music in the Park passing your joint around with your friends. Just call a spade a spade, ” I just wanna do drugs in public without any ramifications.” Heres one for you:

      Q: Why do you have a medical prescription for MJ?

      A: Because I have asthma!

      Really, A sane doctor prescribed smoke for a lung disorder? COME ON!!!

      • Prop 215 provides for the use of marijuana when a physician has determined that the person’s health would benefit from its use in the treatment of “any illness for which marijuana provides relief.”. I doubt a doctor would have recommended cannabis for asthma, but if a Californian finds that using cannabis helps with their asthma, it is their legal right to use it for that condition.

        • California can pass all the laws they want but as long as the federal government keeps sending their agents to prosecute marijuana collectives, it is a literal pipe dream to call it “legal.”

        • Wishful thinking,

          Here’s a little bit of knowledge for you courtesy of the A2C2 collective membership agreement, page 4.

          NOTICE TO LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT:
          Pursuant to the Constitution of the State of California, Amendment III, Section 3.5(c), state enforcement officials do not have the authority to refuse to enforce a statute on the basis that federal law or federal regulations prohibit the enforcement of such statute.

          Furthermore, in Garden Grove v, Superior Court, the Court of Appeal for the Fourth Appellate District has observed that:
          “it is not the job of the local police to enforce the federal drug laws.”

          Thank you for your understanding and compliance.

        • That states “local police”.  The Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, a state agency, and the DEA don’t qualify as “local police”.  Thank you for your new understanding and welcome to federal prosecution….

        • You clearly miss the point,

          Maybe the next line in that ruling will help you understand it’s point.

          “For reasons we have explained, state courts can only reach conduct subject to federal law if such conduct also transcends state law, which in this case it does not.”

          In other words “The Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, a STATE agency” follows the law of the STATE, regardless of what they may think… at least if they what the case to make it in court.

          … but you’re right… the DEA (a Federal agency) follows federal law. Guess it’s a good thing I’ve been expecting them since the day I opened my doors.

        • Our lovely federal government is also very good at blackmailing local and state officials into doing many things they don’t want to as well.  This is why legalization proponents would be better off nationalizing their efforts and abandoning the medical side of it.  Just call it like it is, recreational like alcohol and call it an individual rights thing and I bet you’d have some surprising supporters.

  7. The city FINALLY has hired a person in the City Managers office who is supremely qualified to handle this complex issue!!!  A great day for the City!

  8. If proponents of marijuana really want it to be legitimate, then they should lobby for it’d distribution like every other drug/narcotic.  It would be distributed through a pharmacy, in a safe manner (not smoking) with verified, consistent dosage.

    But weed smokers can’t do that.  Smoking is not a healthy way to ingest medicine, marijuana leaves are not refined or regulated to ensure a specific amount of THC is ingested.  It could be .1 mg or 25 mg… who knows but the grower?

    THC has been reduced to pill form but that’s not how potheads want their “medicine.”  Plain and simple.  Prop 215 is a sham and 66% of our voters are too stupid to see through the reefer smoke.

    • Marinol, the synthetic THC, which you speak of is actually difficult to obtain through one’s doctor.  So even though they have made a pill, it too is difficult to get.  Furthermore, if THC does NOT have medical benefits, why was a synthetic THC pill ever made by our wonderful pharmaceutical companies?

      But i’m just a reefer smoker, so what do I know?  Oh yeah, I know they wouldn’t give me Marinol and none of the other meds helped with my illness and I was skin and bones and very ill.  Prop. 215 and medical cannabis saved my life.  That’s what I know.  When a drug, and all medications are drugs people, saves your life, you think of it a bit differently than the general public.

  9. I have one simple question.  Maybe I’ve missed something.  If medicinal pot is now legal for precribed medical purposes why is it not in Pharmacies like every other medication?

    This would get the “medication” to those who truly need it – keep out the fake riff raff that I’ve seen at the “co-ops” and be a well controlled and regulated product.  But then sadly scores of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers would be out of work.

    Besides children know that the drug store is where we get medicine.  “So what’s a marijuana collective daddy.”

    • Hugh,

      This is one of the most confusing parts of the current state of marijuana prohibition. The fact that cannabis is considered to be a schedule I substance means that doctors can not “prescribe” it, and pharmacies can not provide it. This is the reason why doctors must “recommend” cannabis, and why cannabis “collectives” & “co-ops” exist.

      If it were fully legalize, it would be much easier to explain to your child.

      • You’re right it would be easier. Pot smoking for the losers that don’t ever amount to anything. But that’s obvious to smart kids anyways. My teenage son has many stories of kids he knows who start puffing dope and their participation at school suffers. Dopers are losers. Easy as that.

        • “Romulan is named after the Star Trek Romulans with ridged foreheads because the high can dent your head.  A very strong indica, couchlock and trouble concentrating is virtually guaranteed.”

          Sounds absolutely awesome. 

          On a related note, I’ll be lobbying Pier, et al. for spraypaint huffing legalization later this year.  We’ll donate 5% to San Jose’s grafitti abatement program.  Win-Win-Win.

        • Driving under the influence of either will greatly increase your chances of killing or maiming yourself or others. Moderate alcohol consumption is actually correlated with better health although the binge drinking that is associated with idiots will wreck your liver. Daily pot smoking will wreck your lungs. There are many other dangers to both of these substances but everyone know that pot saps ambition. With the potheads I’ve known it often seemed like the joint was sucking on them.

        • So you’re saying that Albert Einstein, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Queen Victoria, George W Bush, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Bruce Lee, Carl Sagan, Ted Turner, Willie Nelson, John Wayne, Jennifer Aniston, just to name a few… are all “losers that don’t ever amount to anything”.

          I sure hope you’re son doesn’t turn out like any of them, he might actually turn out to be useful to society… unlike his ignorant, prejudice, and close minded father.

        • Novice,

          Nice to know someone in the DA’s office enjoys huffing paint. Now all the raids on pot clubs make sence.

          Hey, maybe if you huff it all, there won’t be any left for the gang banger graffiti artists. Sounds like winning to me! If you really find paint huffing treats one of your medical conditions, I say go for it! Unfortunately, I don’t think being a prejudice douchebag counts as a medical condition.

          Sorry, but I won’t be supporting your lobby. I like my braincells. I’ll be sticking to the medication that has safely been used since at least 2737 BC, know as cannabis.

        • I agree that being over medicated on cannabis while driving is an issue, but when you understand that this is a medication, there are cases where someone should not drive unless they are properly medicated. At the proper level of medication MS patients stop shaking, and can perform tasks such as driving much safer than without their medication. People with rage / stress issues, when properly medicated, can think calmer & clearer when behind a vehicle… and then you have people with conditions like Federal Medical patient, Irvin Rosenfeld ( http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001173796914 ), who can’t move much less drive without smoking cannabis. When you know how the medication will react with your body, it is possible to safely medicate and drive.

          As a heavy daily cannabis user, who gets yearly lung x-rays, my doctors would disagree that “pot smoking will wreck your lungs”.

          WillowGlenDad>“everyone know that pot saps ambition”

          Pot smoking is an excuse for unambitious people & an excuse for their parents as to why the child they raised is unambitious. If pot really did make you lazy, we wouldn’t have 130+ clubs in San Jose, all the stoners would be to lazy to go to work.

          An unambitious person is an unambitious person, pot or no-pot.

          WillowGlenDad>“With the potheads I’ve known it often seemed like the joint was sucking on them.”

          You watch too much TV. Believe it or not, the anti-pot commercials you see are blatant propaganda without real facts to back them up. I know thousands of people who use cannabis on a regular basis and do not fit your concept of the stereo-typical stoner.

        • So you’re a heavy dope smoker. Its interesting how addiction gets control of a person’s reason. I didn’t learn this on TV, as a child growing up in the 70’s, I’ve seen it all myself. In fact, I hardly watch TV.

        • In this day and age, WGD, your own opinion based on your own personal observations and life experience count for nothing.
          Nowadays only the opinions of ‘experts’ count, even if they appear to defy common sense. And if you say anything contrary to the official ‘expert’ platform they will demand that you ‘cite a study’. What you, a thinking, intelligent human being, have witnessed with your own eyes and ears doesn’t count. You’re required to forget all that, ignore what you know, and ‘cite a study’.

        • Let’s see:
          So the spokesman for the Big Marijuana Cartel says that getting stoned… er medicated before driving helps you drive better… except for those times when it doesn’t.

          Check.

          Nixon brainwashed all of us – except for Dave who, when he’s not “couchlocked”, has been busy “fighting the man” or “choking the chicken” or whatever ever it is he does ever since.

          Check.

          Give ‘em hell Dave.  The entertainment value you bring is appreciated.

        • John,

          The problem with opinions based on “observations and life experience” is they do not factor in all the possible causes. As my grade school teacher said, if you assume something, you make an ass out of you & me. The shafer commission clearly pointed out:

          “Our youth can not understand why society chooses to criminalize a behavior with so little visible ill effect or adverse social impact… These young people have jumped the fence and found no cliff. And the disrespect for the possession laws fosters a disrespect for laws and the system in general”

          When society says pot=heroin & kids try pot, but don’t experience the lies they have been told, it’s a easy leap to say, “We’ll pot isn’t the devils weed, so heroin must be ok too”

          I will not deny that there are lazy pot heads that do nothing with their life, only that the cannabis is not the cause of the problem. These people would simply be alcoholics if they didn’t have pot. Proper education & parental support is the key to making sure that kids are safe, motivated and do not end up on hard drugs, dead or in jail. Continuing to spread propaganda, and incorrect information regarding the true nature of cannabis, will not solve anything, as the past 50 years have demonstrated.

  10. After living in San Jose (born and raised) for 20 years, marijuana is practically legal here anyway. I’ve seen countless people walk around smoking a joint, or people lighting up in their homes and backyards with no legal ramifications (presumably because SJ cops have better things to deal with).

    Whether or not it’s obtained legally through dispensaries, or acquired through “other means”, the city and county needs to stop wasting their time and OUR money on busting dispensaries. People faking illnesses to get a card are no different and probably less harmful to society than people who doctor shop to get feed their Vicodin addictions.

    Clearly the majority San Jose residents (and more importantly voters) have no problems with dispensaries existing within city limits and the city council needs to start acting in our best interests. Treat them like any other tax paying business (liquor store, pho house, Taco Bell turned check cashing place, etc.) and let the city collect the tax revenue it already voted to increase. The city needs to spend its time dealing with real issues like the budget, unions, police officers, getting businesses to come and stay here, maintaining our streets and not letting downtown crumble back into what it was in the 80’s.

    • Did anyone notice that Los Gatos just banned all pot dispensaries. All of the better-off and better-educated neighbors of ours are taking a similar position. On the other side we have Oaksterdam. Nuff said.

      Certainly there are plenty of dopers in Los Gatos. They just choose to use San Jose as their whore. IOW “We want to get it but not to close to home. ” This is the fastest way to make “downtown crumble back into what it was in the 80’s.” But I realize that you’re too callow to understand this.

      Also, if you’re so sure about what San Jose residents want, try putting a set of options on the ballot. I’d bet that Pierluigi’s anything goes program would fail.

      • I really don’t think you want to open up the can of worms that is the Los Gatos drug problem. My main point is, pot always has and will always be a part of this city. I’d much rather have the city get on the gravy train and atte regulate it.

        • And how does this relate to this issue. San Jose is a little more than half of the population of Santa Clara county and has all of the dope stores. If each of our neighborhoods were a small city we would resemble the rest of the county which is small towns directy adjacent to other small towns. By your logic, that would change the parameters of this issue. I can’t imagine how.

  11. WillowGlenDad,
    >“as a child growing up in the 70’s, I’ve seen it all myself.”

    As I expected, so you were brainwashed by Nixon’s propaganda in the 70’s. That explains a lot. It’s interesting how otherwise intelligent people can be so easily manipulated by government propaganda as a child. I find it pretty amazing that 40+ years later this can still effect your rational judgment & ability to research facts.

    When the Controlled Substances Act in 1970 was passed, Congress created a presidential commission to review the research and recommend how to handle marijuana. President Nixon loaded this commission with “drug warriors”. The National Commission on Marihuana & Drug Abuse (aka:the Shafer Commission) launched 50 research projects, polled the public & members of the criminal justice community, & took thousands of pages of testimony. Their work is still the most comprehensive review of marijuana ever conducted by the federal government.

    After reviewing all the evidence, these “drug warriors” came back talking about legalization. When Nixon heard such talk, he denounced the Commission before it issued its report. Nixon saw marijuana as part of the culture war that was destroying the United States & claimed that Communists were using it as a weapon. Without the support of Nixon, the Commission was ignored & Marijuana was made a Schedule I, a drug with no medical purposes.

    From the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse “Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding” March 1972:
    “Our youth can not understand why society chooses to criminalize a behavior with so little visible ill effect or adverse social impact… These young people have jumped the fence and found no cliff. And the disrespect for the possession laws fosters a disrespect for laws and the system in general… On top of this is the distinct impression among the youth that some police may use the marihuana laws to arrest people they don’t like for other reasons, whether it be their politics, their hair style or their ethnic background.” “Federal and state laws (should) be changed to no longer make it a crime to possess marijuana for private use.” ; “State laws should make the public use of marijuana a criminal offense punishable by a $100 fine. Under federal law, marijuana smoked in public would merely be subject to seizure.”

    Here are a few quotes from Nixon I’m sure you’ll agree with:
    “You see, homosexuality, dope, immorality in general. These are the enemies of strong societies. That’s why the Communists and the left-wingers are pushing the stuff, they’re trying to destroy us.”

    “You have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this all while not appearing to.”

    “Soft-headed psychiatrists who work in places like NIMH (National Institute for Mental Health) favor marijuana because they’re probably all on the stuff themselves.”

    WillowGlenDad, please open your mind and do some real research.

    • I never supported Richard Nixon. I don’t know where you got that idea. Myself and my family were all Democrats of that era and my first vote was for Jimmy Carter over Ronald Reagan. We were so opposed to Nixon that even when he agreed with us (like on his Obama-like health care proposals) we rejected it because it was Nixon. If you knew me, you’d know that I am almost the definition of a free thinker. I’m often told by people I meet that they have never met anyone who thinks like I do. I grew up around pot heads however and I saw it ruin many lives. A few drifted towards hard drugs and complete ruin (early death, prison etc) but mostly they just delayed growing up so much that they missed many important things and didn’t become the people they were capable of. Its all very sad right now and at the stage of life they are in, not much will change. It’s even hard to recommend that they give up the weed because it provides an anathesia that protects them from the harshness of their failed lives.

  12. WillowGlenDad,

    If you were not influenced by Nixon’s policies, why do you continue to push the stereotypes and message he pushed regarding cannabis?

    > “I grew up around pot heads however and I saw it ruin many lives. A few drifted towards hard drugs and complete ruin (early death, prison etc)”

    As the shafer commission clearly pointed out:

    “Our youth can not understand why society chooses to criminalize a behavior with so little visible ill effect or adverse social impact… These young people have jumped the fence and found no cliff. And the disrespect for the possession laws fosters a disrespect for laws and the system in general”

    That is the only explanation for how cannabis “ruin many lives”. When society says pot=heroin & kids try pot, but don’t experience the lies they have been told, it’s a easy leap to say, “We’ll pot isn’t the devils weed, so heroin must be ok too”

    > “mostly they just delayed growing up so much that they missed many important things and didn’t become the people they were capable of”.

    Unambitious people have only their parents to blame. If pot really did make you lazy, we wouldn’t have 130+ clubs in San Jose, all the stoners would be to lazy to go to work, mush less start a business. We would not have thousands of people who have dedicated their lives to seeing the failed cannabis Prohibition end.

    If you’d like I can introduce you to hundreds of people who would tell you they would not be as successful as they are today if they had not found cannabis as a medication..

    I will not deny that there are lazy pot heads that do nothing with their life, only that the cannabis is not the cause of the problem. These people would simply be alcoholics if they didn’t have pot.

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