subcool
Well-Known Member
June 4, 2010 | Gary Cohn & Michael Montgomery | California Watch / KQED
Next week, hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles face a deadline to close or risk criminal charges. But the crackdown is doing little to slow another trend: businesses that offer to deliver pot directly to homes, workplaces and more unconventional locations.
A flourishing and unregulated industry of pot delivery services is circumventing bans on storefront dispensaries and bringing medical marijuana directly to peoples homes, offices and more unconventional locations across the state, records and interviews show.
The unfettered delivery of marijuana through hundreds of these services highlights how quickly Californias fabled pot industry is moving from the shadows and into uncharted legal territory. These new couriers include enterprising farmers, business entrepreneurs and even a former Los Angeles pot dealer methodically switching her former clients to legal patients.
In newspapers and on the Internet, hundreds of mobile dispensaries advertise a wide range of strains and other products, such as brownies and cookies laced with THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. One service delivers organic vegetables along with medical marijuana, as part of a farm-direct service.
Some operate in multiple counties, including jurisdictions where storefront dispensaries are banned, or make local deliveries to drop-off points, such as Starbucks parking lots and gas stations. At least three ship to clients around the state using private prescription-drug couriers.
Although delivery of medical marijuana is not a new phenomenon, advocates say the growth of these services could be a game-changer in the states pot war, which pits law enforcement, elected officials and community groups in some localities against dispensary owners and patients.
A question remains on whether these services are legal. Some local and federal officials say delivery services violate the 1996 Compassionate Use Act that legalized medical marijuana in California for qualified patients, as well as other laws. The services are viewed as a way to circumvent local regulations clearly banning dispensaries.
My Favorite Comment
Well of course, you didn't think they were just going to stop using cannabis did you? Get a clue prohibitionists, your law banning cannabis only costs you money to pretend you're doing something about it. You haven't affected the PRICE of marijuana in over 70 years, its still the most widely available and cheapest of the banned substances you can find, and its cheaper than many legal drugs. The nature of cannabis prevents its prohibition, if you can't enforce ALCOHOL prohibition you'll NEVER enforce cannabis prohibition, cannabis is easier to produce. Whether legal or not, the same number of people are going to engage in cannabis consumption, so the only choice is whether you want the money spent on cannabis to go to GOOD people who check I.D.s and have it support our regulatory system, or you can have the money go to bad people who will buy guns to point at our law enforcement personnel. That's the ONLY choice: where the money GOES. You don't get the choice of whether OTHERS consume cannabis or not, that's their choice, and they'll prove it to you even if you write a law that says they could go to JAIL for it.
Most feeble minds at this point say "well if not being able to stop it is reason to legalize it, why not legalize murder" to this I point out that murder has actual VICTIMS that need to be compensated by the justice system, cannabis use does NOT have a victim. Cannabis consumption is no different than sugar consumption, yes it is bad for you, yes it can be mildly habit forming. So the hell what? Wanna make sugar illegal too? We trust people with GUNS, who's only purpose is to kill and cause damage, we trust people with alcohol which inebriates far beyond what psychoactive effects marijuana has, the only reason to keep it illegal is to give the cops very expensive busy work. You'd have the same effect on cannabis usage if you had them dig holes and fill them up again. If you're dealing with 99.999% of the issue after throwing millions upon millions of dollars at the issue, you need a new strategy. How about focus on the things that are actually dangerous in regards to cannabis like driving under the influence, you CAN prohibit that, and it actually has victims amazingly enough. You have to put MORE thought into laws than "everybody just give up the right to choose what goes into your body". OR "lock 'em all up and throw away the key" Yeah right, lets lock up over 40% of america.
Next week, hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles face a deadline to close or risk criminal charges. But the crackdown is doing little to slow another trend: businesses that offer to deliver pot directly to homes, workplaces and more unconventional locations.
A flourishing and unregulated industry of pot delivery services is circumventing bans on storefront dispensaries and bringing medical marijuana directly to peoples homes, offices and more unconventional locations across the state, records and interviews show.
The unfettered delivery of marijuana through hundreds of these services highlights how quickly Californias fabled pot industry is moving from the shadows and into uncharted legal territory. These new couriers include enterprising farmers, business entrepreneurs and even a former Los Angeles pot dealer methodically switching her former clients to legal patients.
In newspapers and on the Internet, hundreds of mobile dispensaries advertise a wide range of strains and other products, such as brownies and cookies laced with THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. One service delivers organic vegetables along with medical marijuana, as part of a farm-direct service.
Some operate in multiple counties, including jurisdictions where storefront dispensaries are banned, or make local deliveries to drop-off points, such as Starbucks parking lots and gas stations. At least three ship to clients around the state using private prescription-drug couriers.
Although delivery of medical marijuana is not a new phenomenon, advocates say the growth of these services could be a game-changer in the states pot war, which pits law enforcement, elected officials and community groups in some localities against dispensary owners and patients.
A question remains on whether these services are legal. Some local and federal officials say delivery services violate the 1996 Compassionate Use Act that legalized medical marijuana in California for qualified patients, as well as other laws. The services are viewed as a way to circumvent local regulations clearly banning dispensaries.
My Favorite Comment
Well of course, you didn't think they were just going to stop using cannabis did you? Get a clue prohibitionists, your law banning cannabis only costs you money to pretend you're doing something about it. You haven't affected the PRICE of marijuana in over 70 years, its still the most widely available and cheapest of the banned substances you can find, and its cheaper than many legal drugs. The nature of cannabis prevents its prohibition, if you can't enforce ALCOHOL prohibition you'll NEVER enforce cannabis prohibition, cannabis is easier to produce. Whether legal or not, the same number of people are going to engage in cannabis consumption, so the only choice is whether you want the money spent on cannabis to go to GOOD people who check I.D.s and have it support our regulatory system, or you can have the money go to bad people who will buy guns to point at our law enforcement personnel. That's the ONLY choice: where the money GOES. You don't get the choice of whether OTHERS consume cannabis or not, that's their choice, and they'll prove it to you even if you write a law that says they could go to JAIL for it.
Most feeble minds at this point say "well if not being able to stop it is reason to legalize it, why not legalize murder" to this I point out that murder has actual VICTIMS that need to be compensated by the justice system, cannabis use does NOT have a victim. Cannabis consumption is no different than sugar consumption, yes it is bad for you, yes it can be mildly habit forming. So the hell what? Wanna make sugar illegal too? We trust people with GUNS, who's only purpose is to kill and cause damage, we trust people with alcohol which inebriates far beyond what psychoactive effects marijuana has, the only reason to keep it illegal is to give the cops very expensive busy work. You'd have the same effect on cannabis usage if you had them dig holes and fill them up again. If you're dealing with 99.999% of the issue after throwing millions upon millions of dollars at the issue, you need a new strategy. How about focus on the things that are actually dangerous in regards to cannabis like driving under the influence, you CAN prohibit that, and it actually has victims amazingly enough. You have to put MORE thought into laws than "everybody just give up the right to choose what goes into your body". OR "lock 'em all up and throw away the key" Yeah right, lets lock up over 40% of america.
