Medical marijuana must face stricter regulations

When 55.6 percent of voters approved the California Compassionate Use Act in 1996, it was heralded by supporters as a humane act to bring relief to people in pain by the tightly controlled marijuana prescriptions.

In the 15 years since, debate has continued to simmer. Most California cities have banned medical marijuana collectives. In Riverside County, Palm Springs is the only city that allows them, largely because of the concentration of AIDS patients. Up to three licensed collectives are allowed here.

The trouble in Palm Springs is that unlicensed dispensaries continue to exist — so much so that Stacy Hochanadel was forced to close CannaHelp, one of the three legal collectives, because he couldn't pay his rent and his electric bill.

This tells us either controls are too loose or enforcement is too lax. Palm Springs has shut down six unlicensed dispensaries. All desert cities and the county should remain diligent.

However, the court system is sending mixed signals. A state appellate court struck down Long Beach's law, which allows a limited number of collectives like Palm Springs, because it conflicts with federal law.

A day before that ruling, a Riverside County Superior Court ruled against Rancho Mirage's ban on medical marijuana collectives because it conflicts with California's 1996 initiative.

Meanwhile, the federal Department of Justice launched a crackdown on dozens of medical marijuana dispensaries, claiming they are using the cover of the Compassionate Use Act to act as storefront drug dealers.

This is a major turnaround for the Obama administration, which earlier said it wouldn't aggressively raid medical marijuana operations.

“Our federal agents have better things to do, like catching criminals and preventing terrorism,” the president said early in his term.

In a perfect world, medical marijuana would be treated like any other doctor-prescribed medicine — such as Vicodin or OxyContin — dispensed by pharmacists at CVS, Sav-On, Rite Aid, Walgreens and so on. But pharmacists operate under the Federal Drug Administration and as long as the federal government considers marijuana illegal, that can't happen.

Medical marijuana laws have been enacted in 16 states and the District of Columbia. Another six states are considering such laws.

It's time for Congress to consider a nationwide medical marijuana initiative. It wouldn't be unprecedented. From 1978 to 1992, the federal government ran a medical marijuana program called the IND Compassionate Access Program. Three patients grandfathered into the program still get treatment via the federal government.

The Desert Sun believes providing relief for people in pain is the right thing to do, but it shouldn't be just a way to make it easy for scofflaws to get high and for growers to pocket easy profits. States should have the right to enact these laws, but cities should have the right to ban collectives.

The programs must be tightly controlled and illegal dispensaries must be thwarted.