Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Medical Marijuana




First, I live in one of the medical marijuana states. I believe for a few individuals it could be a useful medicine. It helps cancer patients, glaucoma patients and some others. But let’s get real most people who claim they use it for medical purposes are just getting stoned.


I was thinking about this again today because I heard on the radio that San Jose had 70 pot club or medical marijuana dispensaries and only 41 Starbucks. They want to regulate and close many of them. So a quick Google search revealed this is common in many big cities like Denver and LA, where medical marijuana is legal. They also have almost twice as many pot clubs or medical marijuana dispensaries as Starbucks. Funny they use Starbucks as a gauge, because we all know they are everywhere. 



If you have ever seen or been in a pot club or medical marijuana dispensary then you know 95% of them are a joke pretending to be clinics selling medicine. Remember the Speakeasy’s during prohibition or the 1800’s traveling snake oil salesman, that sold alcohol tinctures to cure everything from your libido to the mother-in-law visiting. Well probably cured both of those at times.



Anyway, most of these medical marijuana clinics and pot clubs are nothing more than bars with pot instead of booze.  They have counters, menus of different way to smoke or eat your marijuana, and tables to hang-out with your friends.  Does this sound like a clinic or an Applebee's. 



Two states have now legalized marijuana and a bunch more pretend that it is only distributed as medicine. In addition more than twenty states will fine you less than $100 for getting caught with less than an ounce or growing a few plants. Not even a slap on the wrist.





Outside of a few cases, people need to stop pretending it is some kind of wonder drug for everything from hangnails to gonorrhea,  and the states need to just legalize and tax the shit out of it, like alcohol.









3 comments:

MamaDoodle said...

I live in a medical marijuana state. NPs are authorized to "prescribe" marijuana. While looking for a job I've occasionally checked craigslist and found many listings for "alternative medicine clinics." When I google the phone number it's almost always a dispensary. Projected annual salary about $250k. Does this sound legit to you? Me neither. I worked hard for this certification and license and am not going to risk it for some idiot to get stoned "legally."

Like you, I wish it were legalized and taxed like crazy. The impact legalized pot would have on the drug cartels would be enormous! The taxes brought in would more than pay for health reform. Legalization would take it out of dark alleys and improve safety. Unfortunately, the national/international political implications are too huge and this will never happen without renegotiating treaties. Our congress doesn't even have the will to consider background checks for gun purchases, why in the world would anyone think they'd take on treaty negotiation for legalized marijuana?

Rant over!

NPO said...

MamaDoodle, good rant. Considering your prescribing license is issued nationally by the DEA, and not by the state. I would worry and not jeopardize it by getting someone a little pot.

MMJSource said...

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