Should federal authorities be able to close medical marijuana dispensaries in California? >
California's Kids Need to Be Protected
Marijuana dispensaries have increased incidents of drug use and crime
October 26, 2011
About John Redman:
John Redman is the executive director of Californians for Drug Free Youth (CADFY), Inc; a statewide Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drugs (ATOD) prevention organization. Before joining CADFY, he was the Executive Director of the San Diego Prevention Coalition, a countywide ATOD prevention organization.
Speaking as a leader of the oldest statewide drug prevention coalition in California, the U.S. attorney action could not have come soon enough. California leads the nation in abuse of the "Compassionate Use Act," which law enforcement now mockingly refers to as the "Commercial Use Act." Thousands of so-called dispensaries--nothing more than marijuana storefronts--have popped up in the past 10 years, raking in a fortune's worth of profits and supplying more marijuana than our chronically ill population could ever consume.
We have seen that dispensaries have increased drug use and crime, and they are linked to numerous robberies, muggings, and murders. So it is high time that they be shut down.
[Read about a recent Gallup poll about legalizing marijuana.]
When California was having its debate about medical marijuana in 1996, preventionists had warned of the wrong message such a policy would send. Indeed, in the intervening years, drug use has risen (research is now emerging that directly links medical marijuana states with higher levels of drug use), and now more young people enter treatment for their marijuana use than for all drugs (including alcohol) combined. They now think that marijuana is "medicine"–-how bad can it be for you? Dispensaries, many of which market their wares around high schools and parks, have no doubt contributed to these higher use levels.
We in California are taking a second look at this whole issue. Now numerous towns and counties are banning dispensaries outright, and the owners of dispensaries are being called out for the millions of dollars in profits many of them have been making. For those working on the front line of this issue with California's kids, the enforcement actions by our U.S. attorneys are certainly welcomed.
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- Other Arguments
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#11731131
No — California, Colorado laws offer a safe way for the sick to receive needed medicine
BRIAN VICENTE, Executive Director of Sensible Colorado
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#21677128
No — Shutting down dispensaries sends patients into the illicit market
KRIS HERMES, Media Spokesperson for Americans for Safe Access
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#31641117
No — State has right to experiment; federal government has more important things to do
MORGAN FOX, Communications Manager at the Marijuana Policy Project
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#41641128
No — Feds should back off, leave state laws to state governments
PAUL ARMENTANO, Deputy Director of NORML
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#52241679
Yes — The FDA, not popular opinion, tests and approves medicines
KEVIN SABET, Former Senior Adviser for Policy to White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Director
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#61681699
Yes — System makes criminals money, makes highways unsafe, and doesn't make the sick any better
PETER BENSINGER, Former Administrator of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration
