palmspringsbum
A Rumble of Thunder or Imler Scolds The Sinners
Googling “medical marijuana” yesterday I see the Los Angeles Times has been honing in on medical marijuana. Besides staying on the tail of Obama’s Attorney General to end the federal raids, they had a two part discussion with Scott Imler and I had to stop, after reading Imler’s first two paragraphs, and exclaim out loud “Right On Scott!!!”
His words struck me like a bolt of lightening amidst all the blah blah blah.
There is little in your post with which to disagree, Stephen. Although the Obama administration’s policy change is good news for legitimate and illegitimate operators alike, it is bittersweet for thousands of patients and dozens of trail-blazing individuals and organizations who, acting in good faith over the last decade, have had their lives wrecked, financially ruined or been imprisoned while awaiting this logical and inevitable development.
While the Bush administration’s commando-style raids have been superbly effective in wiping out the original non-profit and charitable, community-based programs established in the immediate aftermath of Proposition 215’s passage in 1996 — in some cases with the support of local law enforcement — they’ve done little to curb the dominance of for-profit, black-market resale operations that constitute the bulk of the burgeoning “medical marijuana” industry.
I’ve never met Scott, though I feel like I know him and spent many hours defending him when I looked into what happened regarding his West Hollywood Club vs. McWilliam’s & McCormick’s Palace down the street from Nancy Reagan’s house.
Anyway, the context of this is U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s statement that the DEA will cease raiding medical marijuana in states where it is exempted by state law.
The next day in the second of a two-part series in the Los Angeles Times, Scott does it again:
The fact is, with the charitable community-based programs basically destroyed by initial federal actions, Proposition 215 and SB 420 have largely failed in their overarching goal of delivering patients from the high costs and indignities of the black market and the criminal justice system. Proposition 215’s intent was to liberate patients from the expensive but questionable products from dubious sources.
With federal law enforcement seeking to undermine Proposition 215 and with much of the marijuana legalization movement seeking to exploit it for commercial and political gain, state and federal cooperation never had a chance. This has, sadly, institutionalized the black market in the medical marijuana business.
And the day after that the Los Angeles Times announces:
The U.S. attorney in Los Angeles sent a confidential memo to prosecutors last week ordering them to stop filing charges against medical marijuana dispensaries, then abruptly lifted the ban on Friday, according to sources familiar with the developments.
U.S. Atty. Thomas P. O’Brien declined comment on what prompted him to issue the directive or to later rescind it.
Scott has succinctly and forcefully expressed my own feelings and what has been bothering me about this whole thing. I noted with much interest the last sentence in the L. A. Times Story about the U.S. Attorney O’Brien’s various memos over the past couple of days:
Alex Capron, a professor of law and medicine at USC, said … He doesn’t want to look like he’s abandoning his commitment to law enforcement,”
Well, what about his commitment to the LAW and the VOTERS and CITIZENS of California?
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