IF I RAN A POT DISPENSARY ...

I would like to make a pitch to the city of Merced and any sensible
citizens. Allow medical marijuana dispensaries to open up. I'd like
to address some valid concerns.

First, put a tight cap on how many dispensaries are allowed to open,
preventing our area from becoming riddled with them like Los Angeles
and the Bay Area.

Second, if allowed to open a dispensary, here's the way I would run
it. First off, I would use a computerized bar code system that would
allow me to work with law enforcement and when medicine is found in
the hands of those who cannot legally possess it, like our children
and nonpatients. We can track the medicine back to the patient who
resold it, banning them or even handing info needed to prosecute such crimes.

I would have an open-door policy with the city and police, no warrant
needed you want to drop in and make sure the laws are being followed,
fine by me.

Also, in order to operate legally a dispensary must operate as a
nonprofit and I know for a fact that selling 3.5 grams of medicine to
patients is a rip off and not affordable. Clubs in the Bay Area
generate sometimes $50,000 a day. They are not working as a nonprofit.

I would promise to have the lowest prices anywhere so patients could
afford it. For those who's income level are low enough, it should be
nearly given away.

Properly regulated with respect for the public with security guards,
cameras and a no-smoking policy.

I'm sure we could come together, make hundreds of thousands of
dollars in tax revenue, boost the economy, lower marijuana-related
crime and provide much needed medicine with sick patients.

Also, the nearest dispensaries are north in Stockton and Tracy and
south in Bakersfield and Fresno.

So simple economics would tell us that the area with no dispensaries
is so huge there would be a huge influx of patients to ensure high
tax revenues and sales and nearly no competition with only a few
dispensaries being allowed to operate.

Such a club could employ easily 10 to 15 people. Our economy needs
this legal money and jobs, which nearly every other county and city
has embraced. We should also be able to learn from other
dispensaries' mistakes and be one of the safest most successful
dispensaries in California.