I have written to you before about the continuing debate by the Los Angeles
City Counsel over cannabis dispensaries in Los Angeles. Just before the
Thanksgiving holiday, the council had a meeting and debated regulations that
would have essentially shut down all dispensaries within the city. I
personally doubt that the steps taken by the city counsel will be draconian,
but I really don¹t know. None of us know. Therefore I believe the more
certain we can be, the better.
As things are now, you have the ability to grow cannabis if you are a
medical patient under the Compassionate Use Act as well as possessing up to
8 oz. We are all aware though that this is still not clear to the legal
system and patients are being hassled all the time.
Until cannabis is legal, your ability to obtain or grow medicine remains
threatened. In addition, research to create better medicines, such as
tinctures, is impossible because samples of cannabis cannot be possessed.
Fortunately, there is now an opportunity to fix this problem. A group of
cannabis entrepreneurs joined together to hire focus groups and conduct
field polls, discovering that 59% of Californians are ready to make change
and legitimize cannabis by taxing and regulating it. The result of their
investment is the Tax Cannabis 2010 initiative. It does NOT legalize
cannabis, however, it guarantees immunity for all adults over the age of 21
to possess up to 1 oz. This initiative will offer cities the opportunity to
allow the sale and distribution of cannabis in their local jurisdictions
according to what they are willing to accept in their communities.
Passage of this initiative will not affect your medical marijuana rights, it
will simply clarify once and for all to the authorities that you are able to
legally possess and grow cannabis.
The campaign is gaining momentum and I endorse their efforts. Already
almost 600,000 signatures have been gathered to put the Tax Cannabis 2010
initiative on the ballot. There has been a flurry of media attention from
the New York Times, to CNN and the Los Angeles Times. Now the campaign
needs your help to get this initiative passed.
Please visit the tax cannabis website and show your support at:
https://secure.taxcannabis.org/page/contribute/MRN1940
