Comments on: Dispensaries raided for acting like for-profit businesses

By: Johnny

Johnny — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:42:36 +0000

These idiot’s are in it for the MONEY! WHY would you want to sell MJ= to help the handicaped?
The dispensaries should be ran by the government or police. Then there would be NO problems! THEY WOULDN”‘T DUHHHH
There is no Pharmacy owned by some young stoners!! The pharmacies don’t charge extra! they give you good deals for the same shit!! Duhhhhh
Someone told me the dispensaries sell low grade stuff for full price so that the patients keep coming back! RETARDED

By: Inflorescence

Inflorescence — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 08:49:40 +0000

“In particular, it excludes its use by medical marijuana “buyers’ clubs,” retail dispensaries and delivery services.”

But it doesn’t exclude true collectives, which even Bonnie and jerry sanders agree with.

By: kysmit

kysmit — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:32:05 +0000

Here, I think is the other catch that is being used against dispensaries.

EDMUND G. BROWN JR. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Attorney General State of California

GUIDELINES FOR THE SECURITY AND NON-DIVERSION OF MARIJUANA GROWN FOR MEDICAL USE August 2008

4. Collectives Should Acquire, Possess, and Distribute Only Lawfully Cultivated Marijuana: Collectives and cooperatives should acquire marijuana only from their constituent members, because only marijuana grown by a qualified patient or his or her primary caregiver may lawfully be transported by, or distributed to, other members of a collective or cooperative. (§§ 11362.765, 11362.775.) The collective or cooperative may then allocate it to other members of the group. Nothing allows marijuana to be purchased from outside the collective or cooperative for distribution to its members. Instead, the cycle should be a closedcircuit of marijuana cultivation and consumption with no purchases or sales to or from non-members. To help prevent diversion of medical marijuana to nonmedical markets, collectives and cooperatives should document each member’s contribution of labor, resources, or money to the enterprise. They also should track and record the source of their marijuana.

By: SlowDeath

SlowDeath — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:14:39 +0000

All of you are stupid. Please stop whining you hippy freaks, cut your hair, and get a real job so you can move out of your parents house.

By: kysmit

kysmit — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:15:02 +0000

The following (from NORML site) helped me to understand how they were getting away some of this nonsense…. hope it helps you !
California Supreme Court Ruling Limits Medical Marijuana Distribution
November 24th, 2008 By: Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director

Smelly Money Leads To Major Legal Review Of California’s Medical Marijuana Distribution
In an important legal case decided today that cannabis reform advocates have been waiting on for nearly two years, the California Supreme Court ruled that criminal defendants are not entitled to a defense as Proposition 215 (Prop 215) caregivers if their primary role is only to supply marijuana to patients.
“We hold that a defendant whose care-giving consisted principally of supplying marijuana and instructing on its use, and who otherwise only sporadically took some patients to medical appointments, cannot qualify as a primary caregiver under the Act and was not entitled to an instruction on the primary caregiver affirmative defense. We further conclude that nothing in the Legislature’s subsequent 2003 Medical Marijuana Program (Health & Saf. Code, § 11362.7 et seq.) alters this conclusion or offers any additional defense on this record. ”

Prop 215 defines primary caregiver to be the “individual designated by the [patient]… who has consistently assumed responsibility for the housing, health, or safety of that person.” According to the Court, these words ” imply a caretaking relationship directed at the core survival needs of a seriously ill patient, not just one single pharmaceutical need. ”

The Court concluded, ” a defendant asserting primary caregiver status must prove at a minimum that he or she (1) consistently provided care-giving, (2) independent of any assistance in taking medical marijuana, (3) at or before the time he or she assumed responsibility for assisting with medical marijuana. ”

The Court’s ruling effectively limits the caregiver defense to relatives, personal friends and attendants, nurses, etc. In particular, it excludes its use by medical marijuana “buyers’ clubs,” retail dispensaries and delivery services.

http://blog.norml.org/2008/11/24/california-supreme-court-ruling-limits-medica

By: Joe.Md

Joe.Md — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 06:47:37 +0000

LARGE AMOUNTS OF CASH HUH? I Wonder if they’ve tried to but the stuff for sALE THERE! It’s not cheap for the dispensaries either Officers of the LAW(oh yeah , BY the PEOPLE, OF the PEOPLE, And FOR the PeoPLE). 4k to 6k for most of what i’ve seen. HOW can they imburse patients for the fruits of their labor if they can’t break a 100? non-profit doesn’t mean you can’t make money, it means ur tax exempt UNTIL profit is made(this is where guidelines need to be made clear). ANd After such profit is made-THESE ARE SIMPLY THE RESULTS OF ANY ENTITY THAT HAS TO PAY BILLS.
Enterprise is not illegal-people will make money-BOOHOO-such is capitalism. Mebbe if the SHOPS STEP UP AND START CONTRIBUTING TO THE NEW D.A.’s non-profit ties(check it out)She’ll ease up like she did the alcohol industry here.

By: Inflorescence

Inflorescence — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 02:35:27 +0000

Yes, Big pharma should also make No profit.

That’s why we SHOULD socialize medicine.

It’s just that prop 215 was ahead of the curve in realizing this.

Medicine and capitalism should not mix.

Medicine is a Right, not a commodity only reserved for the wealthy.

By: LostClusters

LostClusters — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:06:53 +0000

It seems the point of contention is profit. Co-ops are not suppose to make a profit. From the reading I have done it seems that all dispensaries fall into this category. Can anyone in the know expound on this?

By: Donna Lambert

Donna Lambert — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:20:11 +0000

The important thing that Bonnie has not done, is to set up guidelines, or a positive description of what she actually thinks is legal. She promised to do this in 2003, but changed her mind after a visit from the then Bush administrations federal drug czar.
Bonnie needs to understand that medical marijuana patients need and deserve the safe and affordable access that was mandated by sb420.
The fact that she would raid Hillcrest Compassion Care, and Movement in Action, two very legitimate collectives illustrate that she makes NO DISTINCTION between the legitmate collectives and the illegal storefronts.
The fact that she has me, an almost 50 year old woman with no criminal record, who has dealt w/ Hep C, Cancer, Cirrhosis, Sjoegrens disease, and several related surgeries on trial for helping a valid medical marijuana patient twice (with NO storefront), when the judge at my prelim ruled I was clearly NOT in it for profit, the fact that she is putting me on trial for 7 felonies is all the illustration that anybody needs that these indiscriminate raids have absolutely nothing to do with law enforcement, and everything to do with pursuing a political agenda.
Donna Lambert

By: David

David — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:50:03 +0000

I’m all for medical marijuana. Hell, I’m for outright legalization, but that’s another issue. I do believe, however, that these co-ops/dispensaries/whatever you want to call them have been doing some things to shoot themselves in the foot.

Driving into PB the other day, on Garnet, if you look left near the Wienerschnitzel, there’s the most blatantly ridiculous advertising for the dispensary on the second floor. It basically screams “WEED, Man! CHEECH AND CHONG!” Pictures of pot leaves, Rasta colors, etc.

In and of itself, this stuff is fine – but if you’re trying to live up to specific state regulated guidelines for an business in the health care industry, in an legal area with (ahem) “grey areas”, in a notoriously anti-drug/conservative city, where not long ago ALL dispensaries were raided and shut down, to promote your business like it’s a head shop is just plain stupid.

I guess, though, that if they’re in it to win it, make 1/2 million dollars in a few months and then shut up storefront and move on, they have to go balls to the wall with their advertising/promotion. But they do not better than come across as drug dealers – they need to professionalize and realize where they are, and how they are contributing to their own demise.

By: Relaxed

Relaxed — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:22:31 +0000

Let’s see, co-ops follow AG guidelines, BUT, if they run in a manner in which benefits patients and patients flock to this location due to the respectable and responsible manner in which they operate and they become a large entity, let’s say they get a patient base of 5000, all of a sudden they turn into some sort of profit based business because a safe has a what looks like a lot of cash and marijuana in it? Where are the forensic accountants within the Sheriffs office to have determined this in advance for them to have come to this conclusion? How does this work for MMJ Collectives but not other non-profits, like the: RED CROSS $9.4B revenues and $5.4B expenses with $539M surplus and $3.9B in assets; UNITED WAY, SALVATION ARMY $3.2B revenues and $3B in Expenses with $309M surplus and $9.64B in assets; SHRINERS HOSPITALS FOR CHILDREN $1.24B revenue and $605M expenses with surplus $636M and $9.54B in assets, BOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS OF AMERICA $1.45B Income and $1.27B expenses with $178M surplus and $2.61B in assets; should all of these be looked into also? It would appear from most lay-men eyes that these entities would also have problems because of the lack of expenses vs revenue with the logic the police are using to justify these raids….

Numbers were taken from Forbes list of America’s 200 Largest Charities – http://www.forbes.com/2007/11/21/largest-american-charities-pf-philo-07charities-cz_wb_1121charities_land.html

By: Patient

Patient — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:10:26 +0000

STOP persecuting patients! Some of these collectives were legitimate as they paid taxes. So farmacies that sell Oxycontin should also be not for profit? Makes no sense. Oh yeah, Pharmaceutical companies don’t make money off MMJ, that’s why these scumbags target the industry..