Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

The City Council tonight is meeting to discuss the usual array of issues, including a draft ordinance to either allow or extend the current prohibition of Medical Marijuana Dispensaries in the City of Sunnyvale.

When the voters of California approved Proposition 215, the Compassionate Care Act, it was because they believed that despite whatever restrictions the Federal Government had in place on medical marijuana, there was enough medical evidence to support the limited medical use of marijuana by groups of people who have received prescriptions from doctors.

Sunnyvale currently had a temporary moratorium in place which is set to expire in March of 2011. At issue is whether or not to make the moratorium permanent, or whether or not to allow dispensaries to be implemented - and if they are implemented, which regulations should be enforced.

I am a firm believer that Sunnyvale should uphold the will of the voters. We supposedly live in a democracy, after all. That having been said, however, special care does need to be taken as marijuana is still a Schedule I substance under Controlled Substances Act.

A number of provisions that should be considered are as follows:

1. This is a Medical Dispensary intended to provide patients with their medication. In that light, any employee operating these dispensaries should be, at a minimum, carry a certification from the California State Board of Pharmacy.

2. All product sold by these dispensaries should be tracked from point of origin/growth to point of sale. This is a pharmaceutical operation intended to provide patients with medicine, and the provenance of any goods sold by these dispensaries must be known; profits from these goods must not be going to cartels.

3. All product sold by these dispensaries will be tracked with a barcode or ID number to the individual that has purchased the item. Theoretically, if these products are then resold, it will make it easier to track the product to the place where control was lost.

4. In light of this being an issue of access to medication, locations should be restricted to within a quarter mile of major trunk routes for public transit - VTA Light Rail, Busses, and CalTrain. Downtown Sunnyvale is a perfect location for a dispensary, as a number of bus lines and CalTrain converge. Sunnyvale also has a number of spots where bus lines and VTA Light Rail converge.

In sum, that is my thinking regarding the Medical Marijuana Dispensary issue. As an issue of compliance with the law in spirit, we need to be able to exert some form of regulatory control over the dispensaries that open - if only to verify that the medicine being sold is not intercepted or otherwise used improperly.