[Bonus] Part 13: Cities and counties can vote it out anytime

scene showing dispensaries on the boardwalk Santa Monica CA

The old Muscle Beach sendoff: sayonara, sensimilla-san.

I’m adding Part 13 in August, 2012, in response to the recent 14-0 vote by the Los Angeles City Council to oust all dispensaries within the month. The annoying reality that virtually every state’s MMJ amendments allow any city or county to vaporize existing dispensaries after they’ve been up and running for years has been pointed out numerous times, in passing,  in this series.

After this most recent, highly publicized, exercise of city and county prerogatives, it’s clear that this form of collateral damage deserves more than just mention in passing.

It is hereby elevated to Reason #13.

Unlike some concepts presented previously in this series which people can’t yet see with their own eyes, the world has already been provided with ample video examples of exactly what dispensary closures look like after regulatory agencies like the LA City Council get through turning the lives of the people who worked at them upside-down.

But I will offer some insight the rest of the world seems to be missing: The voters of California gave the LA City Council their permission to act ruthlessly and remorselessly any time they feel like it, without having to provide any justification at all, when they passed California Proposition 215 in 1996 which clearly allows for mischievous behavior by cities and counties. That’s the truth. Period.

It’s no different than when you sign up for a credit card. You give the credit card company your express permission to change your rates and terms any time they damn well feel like it. So, if they jack up your rates, or change the day of the month your payment is due, causing you to incur a late fee, is that something terrible they did to you out of the blue — or something you authorized them to do right from the start? Same deal: you sign up to be an MMJ state, you give groups of legislators large and small your express permission to f**k with you.

Just like the voters of California and every other MMJ state give local authorities permission to f**k with them.

wacky scene from Crawford, CO July 4th parade

Can you believe a cow town as wacky as Crawford, Colorado kicked its lone dispensary out? What was the reason? They don’t need a reason.

So, if the blame game must be played, who’s fault is it really that LA’s remaining dispensaries [US Attorneys already subtracted hundreds of them earlier this year] are on the chopping block?

The really funny thing is that Americans for Safe Access and their ilk still can’t see the forest for the trees: they’ve got the blinders on, so of course it’s all the LA City Council’s fault. This is more fallout from taking care of the needs of “patients” above everyone’s needs.

The fact that cities and counties can vote MMJ out anytime, for no particular reason, is one more glaring reason that medical marijuana is cannabis commerce’s ball and chain.

{Update 3/9/2013: I overlooked another important point: when your city, county, or entire state [Michigan last month] opts out of MMJ, not only are you forbidden from buying what you want and/or need, but you forfeit the money you paid to a doctor and the state to get a license. I hear tell some of you have had to pay up to $250 to get a doctor’s recommendation and a state license in The Wolverine State. Needless to say, none of this money will be refunded. You will be entirely SOL.}