Task force agents made "several covert buys" through contacts employed at a medical marijuana dispensary, task force Cmdr. Lt. Marc Alcantara said.

And who says medical marijuana doesn't lead to more crime?

Um, "agents still actively gathering and analyzing evidence" (ahem, for potency?) LOL!

The fallacy in the pro Medicinal Marijuana camp is that they highlight only the supposed benefits of marijuana and refuse to acknowledge the downsides of this drug.

Its interesting too, that based on the news article above, marijuana can indeed be a gateway drug, for either people consuming with it, or for residents who decide to allow it in their communities.

It may very well be that after proper testing and study, marijuana will be proven to have medicinal properties.

However, the data already exists (in the form of police reports) that confirms what Marijuana will do to a community, when it is allowed to circulate without the controls offered by pharmacies, and the other checks and balances that all OTHER drug based medicines are required to comply with.

People who are against legalization of marijuana make me laugh, you're such hypocrates. Please, just one of you come up with a legitimate reason why you support alcohol being legal but not marijuana. If you think about an adult being able to make a choice for themself that doesn't affect others, they should both be legal. If you think about the number of people killed each year in under the inffluence auto accidents, then only alcohol should be illeagal. As for the "BS" argument of something being a gateway drug; first, stay out of my life and let me make my own choices, second, you need to take a closer look at what alcohol leads to and then re-evaluate your opinion.

And another thing, the only reason this article mentions "marijuana dispensaries" is because that's where the suspects happened to work. Did the dispensary have anything to do with their illeagal behaviour? Maybe we should shut down Safeway because I'm pretty sure some of their employees, somewhere, have commited crimes.

Shocking. Really.

It just shows how the local, state and federal law enforcement will target MMJ facilities as low-hanging fruit to catch druggies.

"Please, just one of you come up with a legitimate reason why you support alcohol being legal but not marijuana. If you think about an adult being able to make a choice for themself that doesn't affect others, they should both be legal. If you think about the number of people killed each year in under the inffluence auto accidents, then only alcohol should be illeagal. As for the "BS" argument of something being a gateway drug; first, stay out of my life and let me make my own choices, second, you need to take a closer look at what alcohol leads to and then re-evaluate your opinion."

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I think where your wires are crossed is that in your comparison of alcohol and marijuana, you are forgetting about the definitions of Medicinal use and Recreational use. Each application has a distinct set of rules that need to be followed in order to be legal, and trying to compare recreational alcohol with medicinal marijuana makes no sense.

Alcohol is not sold and distributed as MEDICINE. If it were, it would indeed be required to go through the same testing and FDA oversite that every OTC and prescribed drug does, for safety and efficacy. What is being expected of MEDICINAL marijuana is no different than any other drug used as MEDICINE.

Also, alcohol is considered legal for RECREATIONAL use, both by State and Federal governments, which prescribe the regulations required for its distribution and consumption. By contrast, RECREATIONAL use of marijuana is illegal, both at the State (California too!) and Federal level. It is classified as a Schedule 1 drug, like Heroin.

The alcohol related tragedies you refer to are substantially about how abuse of RECREATIONAL alcohol use. To that end, I agree with you that more should be done to minimize this. But that has no bearing on MEDICINAL marijuana, which should follow the same regulations like all other medicines do.

...So your assertion that Marijuana and Alcohol should be compared only works if you are talking about Marijuana for recreational use. And if you are, its illegal, end of story.

...If you are talking about Marijuana as medicine, then it should follow all the same rules that all other drug based medicines follow, end of story.

In fact, your comment highlights the key problem that the City Council and residents need to consider: THE POTENTIAL FOR MARIJUANA USERS TO CALL THEIR USE "MEDICINAL" WHEN ITS REALLY FOR "RECREATIONAL" PURPOSES, IN ORDER TO SKIRT EXISTING LAWS AND NORMS. And for those who truly use it medicinally, they should get it like any other controlled, prescribed drug for an illness, through a pharmacy.

You can't have it both ways, marijuana can't be both medicine and recreational, and it can't be neither, in order for it to be legal.

actually hardin, i believe the individual above you was making the point of marijuana verus alcohol in general. Which, scientifically speaking, he has a leg to stand on. Why is one deemed as a gateway drug, bad , etc, when the other is, statistically speaking as much a "gateway" for alcoholicism, domestic battery, and worst of all, drunk driving, which kills a very high percentage of individuals on a daily basis in this country. Simply put, what is the logical reasoning behind this double standard, when one is "equally" as bad as the other?

"actually hardin, i believe the individual above you was making the point of marijuana verus alcohol in general. Which, scientifically speaking, he has a leg to stand on. Why is one deemed as a gateway drug, bad , etc, when the other is, statistically speaking as much a "gateway" for alcoholicism, domestic battery, and worst of all, drunk driving, which kills a very high percentage of individuals on a daily basis in this country. Simply put, what is the logical reasoning behind this double standard, when one is "equally" as bad as the other?"

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You're making the same mistake as the previous poster....missing the differentiation between Medicinal use of a substance, and Recreational use of a substance. Without that distinction there is no logical reasoning on this issue.

In the eyes of the law, there is a substantial difference in how any substance is regulated and controlled, depending on whether its being used for recreational or medicinal purposes. Trying to "generalize" the issue misses the whole point.

Why do you think its even called "Medicinal" marijuana, and not just marijuana in the first place? If there's really no difference, if we can really "generalize" it, then it should just be called marijuana. Try using "just" marijuana in front of a police station without your doctor's note and/or medicinal use card and let me know how that goes...

Contrary to what you wrote, there is no "double standard", just two standards: one standard for recreational use, and one standard for medicinal use. When you start calling Marijuana medicine, that substance needs to be treated like any other drug-based medicine we have.

So once again, the assertion that Marijuana and Alcohol should be compared only works if you are talking about Marijuana for recreational use. And if you are, using Marijuana for recreational use is illegal, game over.

What this whole discussion is centered on is setting up dispensaries for MEDICINAL marijuana, and if you are talking about Marijuana as MEDICINE, then please explain why it should be allowed to skirt all the rules and regulations all other drug-based MEDICINES are required to go through.

alcohol was also once illegal, game over. Laws change, so it reallly isn't game over for marijuana.
A huge issue here is whether marijuana should become legal for recreational use, because it is so widespread that it is impossible to control (like alcohol use was during prohibition - they couldn't actually make the law enforceable, so they dropped it). Alcohol is often suggested by doctors for medicinal use (red wine for heart), but because it is legally available for any use, no one has gone through the process of defining it as a drug, and therefore under the FDA.
My concern is the amount of money that is being spent in this state on trying to put pot farmers and users out of business in jail. Is this really the best use of our money? We are talking many millions of dollars. There are many ways to discuss this issue - financial, health, law enforcement, moral. When we give an opinion, let's say which area we are addressing. Mine is financial.

Great, let's speak about this issue more plainly now:

In your opinion, this really isn't about marijuana as medicine, giving sick people what they need, or "compassionate" care. It's really about changing existing laws to legalize recreational use of marijuana. And your main motivation is Money.

Thanks for clearing that up, that is actually much more believable then some of the other justifications I've read for Medicinal Marijuana...

Here's where I'm coming from:

1. Health - There is insufficient scientific research and testing to call Marijuana, medicine. However, if/when it is PROVEN to have medicinal benefits, then it should be manufactured, prescribed and distributed like any other drug based medicine.

2. Law Enforcement - There is already decades of data linking crime and drug use, including marijuana. Legalizing it does not reduce crime, it just shifts the potential consequences.

Case in point: Legalizing alcohol reduced the black market making and selling of it, but what increased due to widespread legal recreational use of alcohol is drunk driving, drunken assaults, spousal abuse...

3. Financial - Its easy to count all the dollars that can be generated by taxation of legalized marijuana and even savings from reduced policing, but that is only half the story.

Case in point: we tax cigarettes up the ying yang now, but that doesn't begin to cover the costs that society pays in terms of the negative effects of smoking on health. Bottom line, before counting your pennies on what funds will be generated by legalizing recreational marijuana, you'd better calculate for all the costs it may potentially generate, and I don't think anyone has a definitive answer what that amount may be for marijuana.

It's a good thing drug deals never take place in alcohol serving bars.

If they worked at a hospital would everyone be making the grand leap of logic to say hospitals cause crime? Unreal.

"It's a good thing drug deals never take place in alcohol serving bars."

You think they don't? Where the heck have you been for the last half century?!?!

Priests have been known to molest children so I assume we are to shut down all churches.....

Let's clear up some falsehoods:

1. Cannabis should NOT be regulated by the government because it is a plant, not a drug. We don't regulate eucalyptus, ginseng or other medicinal plants. The only reason we are having this discussion about cannabis is that our laws are inconsistent with science and reason.

Pharmaceutical companies love the lie that all medicines come in standardized pill form that they can patent and sell for exorbitant profits. In fact, standardized dosages are bad medicine because they ensure that most people will get the wrong medicine or dosage. Every person is an individual, and what works for one person may not work for someone else.

The medical cannabis movement is comprised of many brave souls who work to help patients find the right strain to help them. Some patients are helped by sativas but not by indicas. Others find tinctures more effective than smoking. When people find the right strain, dosage and method of ingestion, cannabis can be much more effective, with far fewer side effects, than any pharmaceutical product.

A growing body of evidence, both anecdotal and "scientific," points to the use of cannabis for literally hundreds of conditions. Those who dismiss the safety and efficacy of cannabis are either willfully ignorant or brainwashed by years of extraordinarily dishonest government propaganda. I doubt many of these people have ever known someone who was helped by this amazing plant.

2. The "Gateway Drug" myth has been debunked by every scientific organization that has examined it, including the Institute of Medicine and, most recently, a 12-year University of Pittsburgh study: Web Link

3. The link between drug use and crime a simple tautology. Cannabis is illegal so any use is defined as a crime. If you're looking at a link between drugs and violence, only alcohol is causally linked to violence. Cannabis most certainly is not.

What DOES cause violence is prohibition, whether of alcohol in the 1920s or of other drugs today. Prohibition-related violence can't be fairly pinned on the drugs that have been outlawed. Such violence is the result of bad public policy.

4. Taxation is a very BAD idea. We don't tax plants and we don't tax medicines. Taxing medicine is especially heinous. Putting more burden on sick and suffering patients is no way for a civilized society to raise money.

PeaceLove:

You need your own planet to live on.