The Politics of Pot

DISPENSARIES WOULD BE AN IMPROVEMENT FOR MARIJUANA PATIENTS

CHICO -- Though Kris Kidd hasn't received as much as a parking ticket
in more than five years, the 42-year-old Chico resident says she is
forced into criminal behavior on a routine basis, simply to relieve her pain.

Kidd, who holds a graduate degree and has an extensive resume in
social work, suffers from no less than 11 medical ailments, including
degenerative disk disease and scoliosis.

Most of Kidd's day is spent in pain. Though she can walk into any of
the more than 15 pharmacies in Chico and pick up a prescription for
Vicodin, she can't legally purchase the one drug that truly assuages
her body and mind -- marijuana.

"Right now, I have to get it illegally," Kidd said. "I don't have any
place to go."

Kidd is disabled, on a fixed income and has no means of travel.

She doesn't want to grow marijuana in her home but said she needs the
drug to balance the debilitating effects of the prescription
medications she takes.

"It's too much pain," Kidd said. "I live in pain 24/7. Marijuana
helps me function a little bit better."

For Kidd, a medical marijuana dispensary in Chico could make a world
of difference.

Though she admits that most of her friends would be shocked to
discover she medicates with cannabis, Kidd has held a recommendation
for medical marijuana for four years.

She vaporizes the drug and inhales it through a straw. She also
swallows a mountain of prescription medications each day.

Kidd sees no difference between medicating with prescription drugs
and medicating with marijuana, aside from the fact the
doctor-prescribed pills have more dangerous side effects.

"Using marijuana is more natural compared to the amount of
medications I'm putting into my body," Kidd said. "I have to have my
liver checked because of the prescription drugs. If I don't take one
of those pain pills I go into withdrawal immediately. There's no
withdrawal symptoms with the marijuana."

Not many will argue that marijuana can't be used for medicinal
purposes. Even Chico Police Chief Mike Maloney will attest to its benefits.

Although Maloney, a two-time cancer survivor, has never used
marijuana, at the tender age of 17 he saw first-hand how marijuana
can relieve pain for a terminally ill patient when he faced cancer.

Maloney said his roommate in the hospital smoked marijuana in their
room and changed his perception of its use as medicine.

"Out of that experience, and despite my 35-year career in law
enforcement, I have come to believe that there is in fact a
legitimate use of marijuana for medicinal purposes," Maloney said.

Yet when it comes to providing a place for people to procure that
medicine, Maloney doesn't believe a dispensary is necessary.

He argues the vast majority of those who want a dispensary simply
want increased access for recreational drug use, rather than medicine.

"It's my observation in general, that the overwhelming majority of
those we encounter with Proposition 215 cards appear not to be
legitimate medical patients, but rather people who are using Prop.
215 to legitimize using marijuana for recreational purposes," Maloney said.

But Kidd is someone who defies that stereotype.

So is 32-year-old Chico resident Rosalina Acevedo.

When talking about her pain and her need for medicinal marijuana,
Acevedo erupts into tears.

The petite artist said she doesn't want to use marijuana or
prescription drugs at all, but her "encyclopedia" of medical records
and extreme pain warrants the need.

She's been legally medicating with marijuana for five years, but said
she still feels like she's "living in a closet."

Acevedo doesn't often share her medical struggles with others.

She said she avoids mentioning her marijuana use to bypass the
judgment that inevitably comes from those she said are uninformed
about the issue.

"It's not something I should be ashamed of," Acevedo said. "But there
is shame. I'm more shameful that there's ignorance with it. That's my shame."

Acevedo uses marijuana as a salve or tincture, medicating on a daily
basis. She has a caretaker and is part of a collective, but said a
dispensary would provide her access to marijuana when she needs it,
rather than when the collective has it available.

She also sees a dispensary as a place where she can feel welcome and
where she can relate to others who are in her situation.

"I would feel safe," Acevedo said. "Safety is a big issue for me. I
want to have that accessibility without being worried and without
feeling judged."

Dylan Tellesen's model for a dispensary would do just that.

Tellesen, who occasionally medicates with marijuana for migraines,
has been working with the city of Chico in hopes of opening a
legitimate dispensary within the city limits.

Citizen Collective is already up and running with approximately 50
members, but Tellesen said the need for a storefront dispensary is
evident in the community and exemplified when one listens to the
stories of people like Kidd and Acevedo.

"Patients need access to medicine," said Tellesen, an artist and
Butte College instructor. "And they need safe, affordable access to
that medicine. It's fairly easy to obtain marijuana in an illegal
way. But let's be legitimate about it. Let's make it safe."

Although Kidd, Acevedo and Tellesen are all within their legal rights
to grow marijuana in their homes, Tellesen said that shouldn't be
their only option.

"I don't want to grow it in my house," Tellesen said. "I don't want
to grow my Advil in my house either."

Tellesen's dreams for a dispensary include educational classes on the
proper use of medical marijuana, medicine provided at a reasonable
rate and a self-imposed tax that would give money back to the city.

Along with Chico lobbyist Max Del Real, Tellesen has held workshops
and community forums on his plans, with Del Real saying a dispensary
will only strengthen the community.

"The black market goes away and streets become safer," Del Real said.
"Medical marijuana brings big business to town. Communities with
dispensaries show that crime is going down and business is going up."

Tellesen supports strict regulations on dispensaries and balks at
claims that dispensaries bring crime into communities.

"I'd like to see the statistics to support that crime goes up," Tellesen said.

He won't find them in the city of Redding.

The municipality recently began regulating dispensaries in the city,
providing zoning for the storefront shops and implementing a
licensing process that goes through the Redding Police Department.

Redding Police Chief Peter Hansen said prior to the regulations, the
city saw 35 storefront collectives pop up in a span of just two months.

With zoning and other regulations in place, the number of
dispensaries has dropped to 19.

Although Hansen admitted legitimizing dispensaries goes "against the
grain" for police culture, he said ultimately, the regulation of
dispensaries has benefited the Northern California community.

"It does bring it out of the back alley to operating legitimately,"
Hansen said.

He hasn't seen any correlation between crime and dispensaries in his
city, noting complaints are largely over the smell of a single dispensary.

"We've had some complaints, but nothing we would consider a crime
issue," Hansen said. "We just have not seen that. People are managing
and operating dispensaries responsibly. They're running a clean
operation and not causing problems."

Hansen said if problems were to arise, the city's rules make it easy
to address the issues.

He cautioned that if Chico doesn't take action on implementing
regulations, the city could easily see a proliferation of pot shops
similar to Redding.

"It doesn't take long and it doesn't take much to open up those type
of businesses," Hansen said.

In the past few months, Chico has seen rogue dispensaries emerge,
with what seems to be almost no retribution.

Tellesen said Citizen Collective will not be one of those
dispensaries and has been diligent about working with the city,
rather than against it.

And even though Tellesen is waiting to provide access to medicinal
marijuana to people like Acevedo and Kidd, he added that if their
pain was assuaged by any other means, the council wouldn't be
debating the issue at all.

"If that relief came in a pill, no one would say anything about it,"
Tellesen said.

Del Real agreed, saying medical marijuana has become so politicized
that the perspective of the patients has been lost.

"I don't want to change someone's medicine into politics," Del Real
said. "We've turned pot into politics. Someone's choice of medicine
has become an election issue."