FDA approved? Give me a break...Who said you can trust that? I'd rather be hungry, and sleepy than have anal-leakage from FDA approved medication.
Mountain View could be a mecca for cannabis patients who cannot get their medicine in the surrounding areas.
Why do Cities welcome commerce and foot traffic for new stores and restaraunts and turn their nose up at the possibilities that dispensaries could provide for the City, especially economically. I mean what are you guys doing, smoking DOPE???? oh wait, no. cuz you're too paranoid. you probably should.

We should follow the lead of our surrounding cities. Don't bring it here.

Its already here, note all the arrests. Its silly to pretend its not. Time for the city to make money and strip away any money going into the current vibrant black market(which doesn't check for allowed use cards and will sell to minors). Regulating it is key and the debate will be spirited, but the end goal will be a win win for the city and its citizens. We just need all the irrational fear mongering and rhetoric to quiet down. I'm glad the majority of the council is in favor of it
as that represents the majority of citizens who are also in favor of regulated dispensaries. The last details are always the toughest.

I don't think the City Council has changed its views, its just realized there is another side to this coin, and those same Council members are now considering the other ramifications of a marijuana dispensary on the City's broad interests.

Its all well and good to espouse the benefits and alleged efficacy of Marijuana as medicine for sick people, but ignoring the cons is just shortsighted. Whatever little or much we think we know about the medicinal effects of marijuana, the fact is that it has a storied, colorful history, that includes abuse, crime, and violence. Insisting that marijuana is not abused, attracts a delinquent and often criminal element, is like insisting that the world is flat.

Good o' Mary Jane, THE most popular girl in school, seems to carry a lot of baggage, along with her sweet promises of love and peace.

And I still haven't seen a GOOD reason why distribution of marijuana through established channels, FDA oversite, prescriptions, and pharmacies is inferior to permitting a dispensary make an exception for a single drug.

I'm sure he must be very "economic", but I believe he must be a professor of "economics".

Hardin -

I believe you are well-meaning but you spout many half-truths and outright falsehoods. For instance, cannabis is NOT causally linked to any violence; indeed, the violence cited in the article is all *prohibition related* violence. Trying to pin the rap on cannabis is like blaming alcohol for the massive outpouring of violence that followed alcohol prohibition in the 1920s.

Cannabis has thousands of years of medicinal use and has never caused a single documented death in its history (CA NORML has a longstanding offer of $25,000 to anyone who can prove otherwise). Cannabis is effective for literally hundreds of conditions, and it is far safer than any drug in Walgreens, including aspirin. For millions of users, cannabis is quite literally a miracle plant.

When facts clash with prejudice, the facts often get cast aside. Sometimes, the only way people who are rabidly anti-cannabis come around to the truth is when they see a loved one helped or healed by this plant. In the meantime, you can find a scientific sorting of myth from fact here: Web Link

* Bryant was worried Mountain View would become the "go to" place for medical marijuana dispensaries which are banned in surrounding cities. Los Altos and Palo Alto have bans and there is a moratorium in Sunnyvale.*

What an amazing lack of compassion -- from a cancer survivor, no less! The surrounding cities hung their sick and suffering constituents out to dry, so we should too? The mayor is allowing her fear to trump science and facts, to the detriment of sick people.

All together now: Cannabis dispensaries do NOT attract crime. The LA and SF police chiefs have both admitted as much. In LA, where there are hundreds and hundreds of dispensaries, crime is at a 50-year low. Using the crime issue as an excuse to keep dispensaries out of Mountain View is simply codifying ignorance into political cowardice.

Buddy's has amassed a patient list near 600 people in only a few months. Obviously, there is a huge need for this amazing medicine. Mountain View should take the ethical lead in the issue. We should allow dispensaries and embrace patients from all over. Maybe that would shame the cowardly city councils in Los Altos, Palo Alto and Sunnyvale into doing the right thing, too.

The medical cannabis dispensaries in San Francisco exemplify what can happen in Mountain View, California. Nearly all patients undergoing chemotherapy are offered a gel tablet form of either a cannabis derivative or cannabis extract itself from a licensed physician to ease nausea. The need for “medical marijuana” is absurd. Beyond a nausea created by toxins in the human body, there are few legitimate medical applications for an extract of cannabis. In San Francisco, the "dispensaries" resemble outposts for the down and out. I recommend that the city of Mountain View’s City Council visit the downtown SF dispensaries to witness the operations and their “clients.”

The tars from the smoke of cannabis are greater than that of tobacco. Cannabis smoke is considered a carcinogen by the U.S. EPA, which tolerates and approves other carcinogens in our environment such as but not limited to "methyl iodide" a recently approved toxic and carcinogenic pesticide.

Cannabis has many chemical compounds including ones, which block the chemical production of estrogen from androgen at the site of the female human ovaries. Consuming these active compounds may cause miscarriages of fetuses younger than 12 weeks of age based on the lowering of estrogen in a pregnant woman.

Further: If there is such a thing as "medical marijuana" then there is also pharmaceutical grade cannabis with measurable and accurate control of all the active compounds of which a licensed physician may prescribe.

What is missing from the argument by the Mountain View City Council is the issue of a so-called "medical certificate" for smoking a carcinogen. In my personal effort to compel the City of Mountain View to develop an ordinance prohibiting tenants and homeowners from cultivating and smoking cannabis in proximity to any real property for rent, I sought medical evidence of my personal allergy to the smoke of cannabis. Here is the result: no licensed physician will test cannabis or tobacco on a human because they are carcinogenic or illegal. The allergists and doctors I saw about this informed me that they are prohibited by law from applying either on the human body for testing purposes. The pharmacies in Santa Clara County have huge signs stating that they do not distribute or provide any schedule substances. Apparently, despite the proliferation of the cannabis clubs in San Jose as recreation "medicine", the people seeking cannabis don't understand that a cannabis certificate is not a prescription for scheduled substances.

Someone has to take a stab at challenging the demise of cannabis intoxication as "recreation." Here, a crazed attorney wants a business in Mountain View, California for no other purpose than profit off so-called recreational cannabis use.

My final argument made to the City of Mountain View was cannabis smoking leads to heroin use. My unstated opinion to them is that the Mexican illegal-drug trade has established trade lines, networks, and dealers of all kinds of illegal substances - anything it can sell it will. What "legitimate" selling of cannabis is doing now in fact in reaction to the decrease of their market share of cannabis sales, is to cause this industry to push selling its drugs harder. I have been arguing without facts but now have them that indeed the Mexican drug dealers are resorting to selling heroin at rock bottom prices - $10.00 for a super concentrated amount of heroin that is so powerful that it kills the user instantly upon uptake - by needle injection or inhalation or skin popping.

My personal solution is to have a STATE Department of Health issued CANNABIS STAMP program, and give the regulated active substance - hopefully not to smoke, to users who present a legitimate reason with their physician's consent for free.

The issue is not whether cannabis sales leads to crime - that is a non-issue, it does. What is more important is what the whole drug selling will do to the drug market, which has been heretofore illegal.

We must undercut the Mexican drug dealers and give the cannabis for free thereby cutting into merchandising or business sales around cannabis - as an industry. What I am saying is that there is a cannabis industry which should be stopped as it undermines our cultural strength. Getting HIGH is losing.

The U.S. has to grasp that this stuff is an intoxicant - actually a hypnogogic drug that alters awakened states of mind (neurological) and confuses it with a sleep state. A person when under the influence of cannabis, one is awaken while asleep at the same time and cannot be said to be in control of what they are doing.

I am extremely disappointed by Mr. Means' illogic. Perhaps if he took better care of his body he might understand the deleterious nature of such drugs as a cannabis compounds

"Hardin -

I believe you are well-meaning but you spout many half-truths and outright falsehoods."
---------------------

Careful there, anyone who has read our exchanges (in previous related articles in MVV)and my dispelling of your proposed "facts" will see you are the pot (no pun intended) calling the kettle black.

For instance, the link you reference is from an advocacy group whose mission it is to advance marijuana use:

Web Link

Not exactly an unbiased wellspring of truth coming from that fountain.

Let's be frank, the jury on the efficacy of marijuana is not yet out because the scientific and clinical studies that all drug based medicines go through have not yet been completed for marijuana. I'm not saying that Marijuana ISN't medicine, I'm saying it hasn't been PROVEN to be medicine yet.

And I STILL haven't seen a good reason why distribution of marijuana through established channels, FDA oversite, prescriptions, and pharmacies is inferior to permitting a dispensary make an exception for a single drug.

Cannabis is not a drug. It is a plant. Why on earth would anyone want to insert the government and the corrupt pharmaceutical establishment between a common plant and the end user? I don't want the government controlling the supply of ANY medicinal herbs, whether eucalyptus, ginseng or cannabis.

Cannabis has thousands of years of history as a medicinal plant. There has never been a documented death solely from cannabis. This conclusion is shared by the DEA, the WHO and the National Academy of Sciences.

Hardin- You once again misrepresent the facts, this time about the Drug Policy Alliance. You state that they are "an advocacy group whose mission is to advance marijuana use." This is false:

"The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) is the nation's leading organization promoting policy alternatives to the drug war that are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights."

Was your statement a careless mistake or a deliberate smear?

"the corrupt pharmaceutical establishment"???

Give me a break. You are paranoid PeaceLove.

Heroin also comes from a plant. No need to have the government control since the drug cartels are doing such a fine job of it along with their trafficking in MJ.

While the big-pharma companies do make hefty profits, the costs to discover and develop new medicines are enormous. And that considers only those compounds that are selected for development.

But I understand people's suspicion of the pharmaceutical industry. There is an easy way to stand by your convictions. The next time you or a loved one need a medication, stick to MMJ and whatever herbal remedies/cures you know to be efficacious. Do not use any marketed products from the corrupt pharma companies.

"Hardin- You once again misrepresent the facts, this time about the Drug Policy Alliance. You state that they are "an advocacy group whose mission is to advance marijuana use." This is false:

"The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) is the nation's leading organization promoting policy alternatives to the drug war that are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights."

Was your statement a careless mistake or a deliberate smear?"

-----------------

Um, neither.


Web Link

You don't go to the dealership to get unbiased information on the car you want to purchase, nor should you get your information about medicinal marijuana from an advocacy group, and expect it to be balanced.

"You don't go to the dealership to get unbiased information on the car you want to purchase"

Maybe, but that doesn't mean what they will tell you will be untrue.
Don't negate the message because you don't like the messenger.

"Don't negate the message because you don't like the messenger."

---------------

So if we're going spout quotes, here's my answer for you:

"Its strictly business Sonny, not personal."

Let's be clear, I don't negate the message because I dislike the messenger. Rather, I evaluate the message considering its source. What I've found is that much of what I've read as "facts" about marijuana's efficacy turn out to be assumptions and extrapolations of isolated data in an effort to support an agenda.

Its lean on truth, and fat on hearsay....like what you get at the dealership.

There are an estimated 100,000-200,000 deaths from prescription drugs EVERY YEAR here in the United States. Hemp was found on pottery that dated back 12,000 years. There has never been a recorded death in the history of worldwide Marijuana use. Caffeine, high fructose corn syrup, and Great America can all be considered gateway drugs along with Marijuana. Insinuating Marijuana leads to heroin is baseless. Healthy skepticism is an important tool to utilize in life. Being cynical and closed minded with an overwhelming amount of science contradicting your stance is counterproductive if your intention in life is to right wrongs and better society.

My son recently purchesed medical marijuanna products from Buddies: he has neither a medical permit or anyillness related to needing marijuanna.
Buddies is allowing minors with fake id's to purchase from their facility. THIS HAS TO STOP. We are raising a culture of addicts and permiting theese retail boutiques of special needs to get the ball rolling to our youth getting addicted..

Ipersonally have seen several friends and relatives become addicted to marijuanna/ cannibis products. It striped their lives of ambition, soul, motivation for work and meaning; other than getting high.

Who are you all kidding. It may be warranted as a medicinal....if so then let it be bought through regulated pharmacy's and monitored for side effects and make the companies accountable like all other pharmaceuticals.

My son recently purchesed medical marijuanna products from Buddies: he has neither a medical permit or anyillness related to needing marijuanna.
Buddies is allowing minors with fake id's to purchase from their facility. THIS HAS TO STOP. We are raising a culture of addicts and permiting theese retail boutiques of special needs to get the ball rolling to our youth getting addicted..

Ipersonally have seen several friends and relatives become addicted to marijuanna/ cannibis products. It striped their lives of ambition, soul, motivation for work and meaning; other than getting high.

Who are you all kidding. It may be warranted as a medicinal....if so then let it be bought through regulated pharmacy's and monitored for side effects and make the companies accountable like all other pharmaceuticals.

Quote: Posted by Clean Living, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Aug 11, 2010 at 8:45 am

My son recently purchesed medical marijuanna products from Buddies: he has neither a medical permit or anyillness related to needing marijuanna.

Buddies is allowing minors with fake id's to purchase from their facility. THIS HAS TO STOP. We are raising a culture of addicts and permiting theese retail boutiques of special needs to get the ball rolling to our youth getting addicted..END QUOTE

That is an unsubstantiated claim.

Plus, If your son is running around with fake IDs to "Score Pot"........The problem lies with your parenting skills.

If your claim is true that the juvenile delinquent you call your son is smart enough to secure a false ID for the purposes of defrauding a legal medical marijuana dispensary........you may wanna keep an eye on your medicine cabinet.......He's probably been raiding that as well !!!

I suggest you get a grip on your kids and the problem goes away.