Southern California Police and Sheriff’s Deputies from Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties armed with search warrants swarmed over medical marijuana dispensaries yesterday looking for evidence of operations outside the bounds of Proposition 215. Several arrest were made for a variety of offenses during the sweep reportedly all arrestees posted bail and were released pending trial.
Since the Compassionate Use Act (Proposition 215) passed by a million votes in 1996 the cloud of marijuana smoke has only thickened over California. The idea was that marijuana has medical uses but has to be prescribed by a physician. Since then medicinal marijuana dispensaries and so-called pot doctors eager to sell the needed indentification card , for $160 to $250, to anyone with the money and a complaint – no matter how spurious – reportedly some as young at 12 years old. The act was championed by a homosexual man whose lover was dying of AIDS that he claimed only marijuana relieved.
The result, in addition to an increasing number of stoned users staggering around the streets and ramming their cars into people and things, has been an array of crimes to buy the card, weed. or steal it. Neighbors and other citizens are up-in-arms over the consequences of those who frequent the dispensaries and doctorsresulting in intense pressure to close or at least limit their numbers.
What’s your opinion about Prop 215 and its consequences?