VISALIA MARIJUANA ORDINANCE COULD HAVE POSITIVE AFFECT

Visalia - The City Council early this week unanimously approved a new
ordinance that will impose restrictions in the cultivation,
distribution and use of medicinal marijuana.

But even though the word "restriction" implies limitations or
obstacles for consumers of medicinal marijuana, for Jeff Nunes,
executive director of Medicinal Marijuana Awareness and Defense, this
new regulation will create a positive effect on his organization.

"It gives us a better insight of how we can grow as an organization,"
Nunes said.

"This helps us to work with the city and see what zoning we are
supposed to be in."

Through Medicinal Marijuana Awareness, Nunes and a group of
volunteers offer help and education to patients whose doctors have
recommended the drug.

Under Medicinal Marijuana Awareness, Nunes is also a director of the
Visalia Compassionate Caregivers where, with a doctor's
recommendation, they provide the drug to 300 patients.

Visalia Compassionate Caregivers is the only medicinal marijuana
dispensary in Visalia and one of the few in Tulare County.

With the new ordinance, Nunes will have to make some changes in the
way he operates his organization.

He has four months to relocate the dispensary from its current
location on Main Street to a commercial zone site. The new location
has to be 500 feet from residential zones and 1,000 feet from any school.

Nunes' and other dispensaries will also be permitted in agricultural areas.

The ordinance prohibits distributors to make a profit from this
activity and it states that marijuana for medical use has to be grown
in a locked location and the consumers have to use it in a private residence.

In 1996, Proposition 215 was passed in California. This law allows
patients to use marijuana if it is recommended by a doctor.

Therefore, the use of marijuana for medical purposes is legal in the
state. However, at the federal level it is illegal, as the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled in the Gonzales vs. Raich case in June 2005. In
this case, the Supreme Court held that federal laws prohibiting the
use of medical marijuana remain in effect regardless of state laws
that permit its use.

Nunes also mentioned that the use of marijuana for medical purposes
is an old practice that a lot of people know about.

"We have to reeducate the public with the facts instead of
propaganda," Nunes said.

Nunes added that in the Hispanic culture, the mixture of marijuana
with rubbing alcohol and Tequila is very common and this mixture is
used as a remedy.