DISPENSARY BAN HAS SIDE EFFECT

It comes as no surprise that Vacaville's City Council voted
unanimously this week to prohibit medical marijuana dispensaries from
setting up shop here. The council, after all, initiated a moratorium
on dispensaries nearly two years ago, and there have been no signs
that officials were eager to change that situation.

There are good reasons for the ban. In the 14 years since California
voters became the first in the nation to approve the use of medical
marijuana, it has become big business. Fourteen other states have
followed California's lead, and another dozen are considering it. This
week, Time magazine reported online that a new study estimates medical
marijuana sales run about $1.7 billion a year -- comparable to the $19
billion annual sales figures for Viagra.

No wonder medical marijuana dispensaries are flourishing in
California, even though the attorney general has ruled that they are
not necessarily legal.

California law allows only patients themselves and their primary
caregivers to grow or provide medical marijuana, although they may do
so through nonprofit cooperatives or collectives. Too many of
dispensaries cropping up these days, however, operate more like
for-profit businesses with questionable client-eligibility practices.
Vacaville certainly doesn't need that sort of business.

The ban on dispensaries, however, raises questions about how
legitimate patients in Vacaville are supposed to acquire medical marijuana.

Police Chief Rich Word told the council that his department doesn't
cite legitimate caregivers or patients, as long as they are following
the law. That's great. But under this new ordinance, legitimate
patients may find themselves out of compliance since the city's new
rules define "dispensary" as any medical marijuana facility with "two
or more qualified patients." It eliminates Vacaville residents'
ability to form nonprofit cooperatives or collectives.

Perhaps Vacaville patients don't mind traveling to Sacramento, Oakland
or Vallejo to obtain medical marijuana, or calling upon services that
deliver it. But if they do, they should let their council members know
before the next meeting, when the ordinance will be finalized.

Of course, the city wouldn't be stuck having to make decisions like
this if the federal government would give up its out-of-date policies
about marijuana.

There is growing evidence that marijuana benefits patients in ways
that synthetic marinol -- the only legally recognized form of the drug
- -- cannot. The government should open the doors to more marijuana
research so that drug companies could freely study its effects and, if
warranted, develop standardized dosages and ways to ingest them.

As it stands now, patients who rely on dispensaries are getting their
medical marijuana from the equivalent of a liquor store, rather than a
pharmacy, and that's crazy.