Way back in 1998 69% the residents of DC voted to make Medical Marijuana legal. Up until last week Congress had blocked the referendum from becoming law. Because this year Congress failed to act the referendum has now become law. It may still be a while before DC residents have access to their meds because Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and his admin. have yet to write the regulations, this is expected to take a few months. What is expected to be one of the most progressive MMJ programs the Poor will be given free medicine.
More on the flipside.
The delay is driven by a lack of detail about how the city will operate the program, which includes a first-in-the-nation provision requiring dispensaries to price the marijuana on a sliding scale so the city's poorest patients can obtain medicinal pot for free. District patients shouldn't expect legal sale of marijuana until early 2011
The administration of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) will draft regulations to license dispensaries, track doctors and users, and identify where to allow the wholesale production of marijuana. Health Department officials and Attorney General Peter Nickles said Tuesday they expect a draft of the regulations to be made public next week. The rules would then undergo a public comment and review period, which could take months.
The DC law allows up to 8 dispensaries which is another plus it has over many other States with medical marijuana laws on the books. In the State of Ca. it is left up to the local cities and counties as to whether or not they will allow any dispensaries. Acting contrary to the will of the voters way too many cities and counties have banned dispensaries and collectives. This has proved to be a major hardship on those that need the marijuana to ease their pain, make it possible for them to be hungry or hold their food down among other benefits. It is also my belief that these bans have driven the legalization ballot here in Ca. If the authorities had just accepted the will of the voters I don't think total legalization would of be on the ballot for a few more yrs, but it is as if they left us no other choice.
Another interesting difference in the DC law over the one in Ca. is that dispensary is allowed to make a profit, proving capitalism is alive and well in DC.
Catania said he expects the Fenty administration to formally solicit bids in the fall to operate the dispensaries, which can be run by nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Winning bidders, he said, would ideally have experience growing medical marijuana and would be able to comply with rigorous security procedures.
The law also requires dispensaries to set aside a portion of their proceeds to subsidize the cost of the drug for low-income patients. Other patients will have to pay market value for the drug as well as a 6 percent sales tax to the city.
Believe it or not the for nonprofit model has been a major headache in Ca.. Atty Gen. Holder announced a few months ago that the DEA would no longer bust those following the laws of their States. but his word doesn't seem to be worth much. Instead of letting the State decide if their laws are being broken the DEA has been making up their own mind and swooping in to bust legal growers and dispensaries. A case in point just happen a week or two ago in the case of pioneering grower Joy Greenfield.
After Mendocino County passed a new ordinance to allow medical marijuana growers to cultivate up to 99 plants, Joy Greenfield was the first to sign-up.
According to the Ukiah Daily Journal, she purchased 25 zip ties from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Department as part of a county program to regulate local medicinal cultivation by labeling pot plants to ensure residents don't exceed growing limits. She was in the process of purchasing 74 more ties.
But this month, federal drug agents swooped onto Greenfield's property, in the Chicken Ridge area of the Mendocino town of Covelo, seized her plants, a computer and cash.
Read more: http://blogs.sacbee.com/...
Both AG Holder and Pres. Obama need to be questioned about the ongoing busts. Just this weekend at the Netroots Convention Pres. Obama encouraged Progressives to hold him accountable. This is one way to do that. Another way I wrote about on Sunday when dkos was acting so wacking. it concerns the appointment of a new head of the DEA. Last week Medical Marijuana Advocacy Groups called on President Obama to withdraw nomination of Michele Leonhart to be DEA Administrator. Just to make that point again is a quote from Reason.com.
"the DEA has staged medical marijuana raids in apparent disregard of Attorney General Eric Holder's directive to respect state medical marijuana laws." As an example, the statement cites a recent raid on Mendocino County, California, grower Joy Greenfield, who "paid more than $1,000 for a permit to cultivate 99 plants in a collective garden that had been inspected and approved by the local sheriff." When told that Greenfield had approval from local law enforcement, the DEA agent in charge of the raid reportedly replied, "I don't care what the sheriff says." NORML et al. argue that "the DEA's conduct is inconsistent with an October 2009 Department of Justice memo directing officials not to arrest individuals 'whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.'" Who Is to Blame for the DEA's Medical Marijuana Raids?
One has to wonder how the Pres., the Atty. Gen. and the DEA will react to free pot being handed out in Washington DC don't you think ?