New at Reason

February 1, 2007

Greg Beato looks at how zoning boards in San Francisco are targetting medical marijuana dispensaries and wonders:  If San Francisco isn't even fully on board with medicinal pot, where does that leave the rest of the country?

Comments

|2.1.07 @ 11:40AM|#

San Francisco has a NIMBY problem? Get out!

Pi Guy|2.1.07 @ 11:48AM|#

I still chuckle every time I read State Bill 420. I mean, can that be have really been a accident?

At any rate, we all know the issue here. We have a guaranteed right to free speech but not many can risk speaking out because we fear losing our jobs, families, and respect of our neighbors.

Somehow we've got to get back to the notion that the government works for us and not the other way around. If the people want it, on what ground do the feds stand to continue to oppose it? Smacks a little too much of imperialism to me.

non-med-dealer|2.1.07 @ 12:06PM|#

I'm for legalising ALL drugs all of 'em with no special taxs or regulations. That said,I largely agree with the DEA that that California crap is not "medical marijuana" as much as it is some sort of half-assed decrim/legalisation scheme.

I'm all for the sick getting any medication that they feel will help them. I'm all for people getting high if thats what they want to do.
I'm not suprised these "dispensaries" are running into zoning/licensing problems. "Regular" drugstores get them as well in many urban areas. Maybe they aren't greasing the right politicians and bureacurats.

tros|2.1.07 @ 12:14PM|#

There is too much smug coming from the homes of yuppies who are SOOOO past the "stoner phase" and don't want their kids going to Humbolt County to sit in Redwood trees.

Justin Raimondo|2.1.07 @ 1:17PM|#

Um, the pot clubs are NOT in danger of being closed, either because of rampant NIMBY-ism or due to the Planning Commission. This whole business about setting up a pot club in, of all places, Fisherman's Wharf, is a red herring: that club wouldn't have lasted very long, as NO ONE who lives here actually goes to Fisherman's Wharf, unless it's with out of town friends on a lark.

The best pot clubs have evaded over-regulation -- a pandemic in the City -- by becoming membership-only clubs and restricting sales to those they already know. Under this system, a whole different set of rules applies.

In any case, an effort to close down the clubs would provoke a political backlash in this town that no politician would want to excite. Trust me: pot clubs in SF are here to stay, unless, of course, the DEA moves in with a few tanks .... and even then...

Too bad Reason missed the real story here: that the Board of Stupidvisors, led by the "Green" Party wackos, tried to regulate the pot clubs to death, but the latter fought back and reminded the Greenies that they are alienating their own constituency. Also: many of the pot club owners naturally sought to restrict the creation of new pot clubs, and have succeeded in setting up what amounts to a government-regulated pot cartel, which they profit from.

A good story could be written about SF pot clubs and SF's inability to deal with the concept of the free market, but this story ain't it ....