CITY HEARTLESSLY PREPARES TO BAN MEDICAL MARIJUANA OUTLETS

It was a sad parade of suffering humanity. Wasted, wizened people fighting
cancer, multiple sclerosis and other horrible diseases. Some in
wheelchairs, others on crutches or walkers, some who could measure their
remaining time on Earth in months, and of course we never got to see the
ones who were simply too sick to make it down to the chambers of the
Modesto City Council for the last two meetings in which this topic was
discussed. These people use marijuana to ease nausea and to stimulate
appetite; for them, nothing else works. They pleaded with the council not
to shut down their local source; some told of being unable to get to
Oakland to buy their pot because they were just too sick to drive anymore.

It was a logistical nightmare, riveting in its stark simplicity, and for
us, the unafflicted, it was a window into a grim world that many of our
fellow Modestans inhabit.

The council oozed sympathy and reassurance: Don't worry, we're just
interested in controlling the spread of these outlets (there are two in
Modesto), we're not interested in closing down the ones we already have.

This was, to put it kindly, a whopper; the city attorney is preparing an
ordinance "to ban medical marijuana dispensaries in the City of Modesto,"
including the existing stores.

So much for reassurance and understanding. Or, for that matter, truth.

The people hardest hit by this double-cross will be those with little in
the way of money or a support system, and a terminal or otherwise
debilitating illness can put you in both categories with stunning rapidity.

The council apparently has made the political calculation that it can
safely give these folks the back of its collective hand. One reason is that
there exists a segment of belief (and don't besmirch a perfectly honorable
term by calling it "conservative") that these sick people are liars and
want the pot just so they can get stoned. Maybe they're all time-traveling
Haight-Asbury refugees just pretending to be sick.

Another reason is more subtle: People who are seriously ill or disabled
make some of us uncomfortable, even more so if they are obviously poor and
desperate. Many of us avert our eyes, wishing the afflicted would have the
good taste to stay out of sight ... and, therefore, out of mind.

In the next few months, we are going to find out if one or both of these
views really defines the kind of place we have here. Between now and the
time the city attorney finishes crafting this brutal law, council members
either will get an earful from good-hearted, compassionate Modestans or
they won't.

Bet on one thing: If nothing happens to change councilmembers' minds on the
political viability of this punishing approach, they will end up approving
the ordinance.

And what that will say -- not just about the council, but about us as a
community, a city -- will be something we will not want to confront. We'll
keep it in the closet, out of sight. And mind.

Like the unfortunate souls we will have casually and callously kicked to
the curb.

Flint is a Modesto resident.