IF SUPES BAN MEDICAL POT, DOPE DEALERS WIN

Marijuana cultivation is out of control in Fresno County. When men in
gun turrets protect plots, medical marijuana plants are diverted to
street sales and residents complain that dispensaries foul their
neighborhoods, the county has a problem.

Criminals and a poorly written medical marijuana law passed by
California voters bear the blame. So, too, does a Fresno County Board
of Supervisors that refused to confront the reality of what voters
approved in 1996.

Instead of adopting regulations that protected neighborhoods while
allowing people that need marijuana for medical reasons to get it, the
board did what it often does nothing.

This approach worked for more than a decade until medical marijuana
growers, sellers and outlaws recognized a potential gold mine in
wide-open Fresno County.

Now that they've woken from their slumber, the supervisors predictably
are reacting with a proposed ordinance that for practical purposes
bans medical marijuana. Story Marijuana online chat sparks lively discussion

It's a terrible proposal that likely will lead to lawsuits and drive
medical marijuana patients to buy from illegal peddlers.

It's so insane, in fact, that someone with a medical marijuana card
wouldn't be allowed to grow a single plant in the backyard for
personal use.

Reasonable people can come up with laws that ban 50-acre dope farms
and for-profit dispensaries catering to recreational tokers.
Reasonable people also can see to it that people with cancer and
glaucoma can legally buy marijuana for pain relief.

But we're talking about the Board of Supervisors, where reason is
buried beneath political posturing and where the perks include
ignoring state law. We're talking about a board intent on punishing
law-abiding citizens for the sins of law-breakers.

The board and Sheriff Margaret Mims claim that the medical marijuana
dispensaries have created a crime wave. There have been robberies,
true. Residents near some dispensaries don't like them, true. But I
doubt that the dispensaries are bigger crime and blight magnets than
some liquor stores. I haven't heard the board say a peep about
restricting the operating hours of pharmacies because of drug thefts.
And speaking of robberies, what about banks and convenience stores?

What we have here are politicians playing games. Bluntly put, they
don't care about sick people who hurt a little less when they use
medical marijuana. To the board, everyone growing marijuana is the
same whether they tend to one plant or 10,000 plants. If the
supervisors thought otherwise, they wouldn't have given preliminary
approval to this sham of an ordinance.

The board's sole goal is to show that it's tough on marijuana, and it
has decided to go the prohibition route. Prohibition didn't work with
alcohol and it won't work with medical marijuana. But it will pay off
handsomely for organized crime.

You can be assured that street hustlers are cheering on the board to
officially adopt the medical marijuana ordinance today. With the
county lacking staff to keep nonviolent law-breakers in jail for more
than a couple hours, it'll be a win-win for the dope dealers.