- Vinnie Neuberg
In another chapter of “Washington State Screws with Medical Marijuana Patients,” Seattle Mayor Ed Murray has announced he wants to shut down half of the city’s Medical Marijuana (MMJ) dispensaries. As reported on thesmokingbud.com, all cannabis businesses must now purchase a special new business license, and favor will be given to those MMJ dispensaries that opened prior to January 1, 2013.
Officials say that 54 of the 99 Seattle-based MMJ dispensaries opened after that date, and thus have been operating illegally. Furthermore, all marijuana dispensaries must obtain the new license by July 2016.
Many patients believe this is simply a way to move people away from access to lower-priced medical marijuana, and into the arms of higher taxed—and thus higher priced world—of recreational dispensaries.
Anyone in Salem watching this? Anyone? Burdick? Burdick?
I’m the opposite of a prohibitionist, but we have created this situation by trying to legalize through the backdoor of medical pot. In most states, recreational users masquerading as people with real medical needs likely dwarf the number of legitimate patients.
It’s untenable to have a two-tier regulatory system for the same substance, with the division between tiers largely defined by “who was willing to lie about a medical condition so they could buy weed legally either at all or at medical user prices?”
The cleanest way to handle this (which makes it the least likely thing to happen) might be to tightly restrict the definition of medical necessity, then allow true medical users (who wished to certify as such) to buy from all-purpose dispensaries at subsidized prices while everyone else pays the fun tax.
The idea that a harmless, and medically beneficial, flower is regulated in any way is a tragic example of human stupidity and insect-like hive mind.