We’re going to play “blame the media” in a second. It’s fun and entertaining, even more so if you’re a former print journalist. But first…
Time magazine takes notice of the Los Angeles City Council’s efforts to pass an ordinance regulating medical marijuana dispensaries in this article posted Sunday. It begins:
“California and Los Angeles have been pioneer sites for the expansion of the legal right to use marijuana. But local officials may now be at the forefront of curtailing some of that exuberance. If the Los Angeles city council has its way, the plethora of largely unregulated medical-marijuana facilities that have become a neighborhood blight in parts of the city may finally be brought under control. L.A. officials and medical-marijuana advocates estimate there may be as many as 1,000 such dispensaries. But in a preliminary vote on Tuesday, Dec. 8, the council indicated its intention to cap the number at just 70.
“At the same time, the language of the medical-marijuana ordinance being debated is putting dispensaries under increased scrutiny. At the moment, the proposed ordinance would allow the facilities to accept monetary contributions for their services, a way of finessing the stipulation under state law that dispensaries remain essentially nonprofits. Currently all dispensaries stay in business by selling marijuana, a status that city attorney Carmen Trutanich and Los Angeles County district attorney Steve Cooley believe already violates the nonprofit requirement. According to their interpretation, recent court decisions have shown that marijuana collectives cannot sell the drug over the counter for a profit, although members can be reimbursed for the cost of growing it. “Whatever [the city council does] come up with, we will study very carefully, and if they’re proposing anything that is inconsistent with California state law, we will ignore their act and enforce the law as we’re sworn to do,” Cooley tells TIME.”
And now, let’s play Blame The Media! Today’s segment is on the fine art of headline writing. Time’s hed reads thusly: “Trouble Ahead for Medical Marijuana in California.” That’s a fairly broad (and inaccurate) statement, given the story is solely focused on wassup in L.A. But we’ll give the hed writer a free pass on that one (L.A.? California? It’s all the same when you live outside the fabled land of fruits and nuts).
No, the real trouble with the headline is the word “Trouble.” It’s like we’re trapped watching “The Music Man” in an endless loop of stale pot cliches. With apologies to the late Meredith Wilson”
Trouble, oh we got trouble,
Right here in River City!
With a capital “T”
That rhymes with “P”
And that stands for Pot!
Memo to Time: If there’s any trouble brewing for medical marijuana, in L.A. or elsewhere in the state of California, it involves district attorneys and law enforcement types who look for ways to obstruct both the spirit and the letter of the Compassionate Use Act. Such efforts are not only counterproductive, they fuel public sentiment for outright legalization, which will only make their jobs that much harder.
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