The mess of medical marijuana

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2011 AT MIDNIGHT

The successful referendum challenging San Diego’s restrictions on the location of medical marijuana dispensaries, and the City Council’s subsequent decision to repeal the restrictions, has boomeranged on the drug’s proponents. More importantly, it has served to make an even mushier mess of the 15-year effort to provide access to marijuana for legitimate medicinal purposes while still protecting neighborhoods and not running too far afoul of the outright prohibitions of federal law.

Rightly concluding that in the absence of the ordinance he has a moral responsibility to enforce state law and local zoning, City Attorney Jan Goldsmith last week intensified efforts to take the dispensaries to court to shut them all down, in phases, beginning with those he believes are the most flagrant violators. He sought injunctions against a dozen dispensaries allegedly operating within 600 feet of schools, a violation of state law.

He said he did not want to “overwhelm” the judge considering the injunctions by going after all the dispensaries at the same time, but that he will do it “in waves” until all 187 or so dispensaries are closed.

The City Council is legally limited in what it can do in the wake of the referendum, but Goldsmith said the court has more leeway to impose conditions on the dispensaries, which have mushroomed from an estimated 160 since the restrictions were repealed, or even to order Goldsmith to halt his enforcement effort.

“I’m just looking for some direction and some help,” Goldsmith said.

All of which serves to highlight just how badly written was Proposition 215, the 1996 measure approved by California voters that sought to legalize marijuana use for medical purposes but which has essentially become a vehicle for legalized recreational use of the drug.

There is ample evidence that marijuana offers more relief than conventional medications for some patients who suffer from some serious ailments, such as multiple sclerosis, AIDS and cancer.

But if marijuana is to be used as medicine, it ought to be treated as medicine under the law. And the only state that comes close to that standard is New Jersey.

Under the New Jersey law passed last year, there can be only six nonprofit dispensaries, scattered geographically around the entire state. Like other dangerous drugs, patients are limited to how much marijuana they can buy each month. The level of THC – the active ingredient in marijuana – is limited. Patients can get a recommendation for marijuana only from a doctor with whom they have an established and bona fide relationship, and the doctor must be registered and approved by the state. And the list of ailments qualifying for marijuana treatment, while lengthy, is limited.

Sadly, it is 15 years too late for California to be that smart. The medical marijuana mess will be with us for a long time to come.