San Mateo County supervisors unanimously agreed Tuesday to propose regulations to distribute medical marijuana through government-run facilities.
The proposal, first raised by Supervisor Mike Nevin, enjoys the apparent backing of Attorney General Dan Lungren who called the approach “enlightened” and assigned a staff attorney to work on the proposal. Nevin said that the establishment of a public medical marijuana dispensary would most likely require special state legislation, and approached Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara) about introducing such language in the 1998 Legislature. Nevin stated that he expects the proposal to be ready by early next year.
“I’m trying to find a compassionate way of getting this drug, that is now legal [in California], to the sick and dying people who need it,” Nevin explained.
Local sheriff Don Horsely said he wholeheartedly supported the idea of county-run dispensaries. “I believe that [this] is the most humane approach that I can think of to help the terminally ill, and people with AIDS and glaucoma,” he said.
Supervisors also agreed to develop guidelines for issuing identity cards to qualified patients, and extended a county-wide ban on cannabis buyers’ clubs. Dr. Dennis Augustine, who heads the a buyers club in nearby Santa Clara, criticized the embargo on private clubs and called efforts to establish county-run dispensaries unnecessary.
“Why not provide our center as a pilot project?” he suggested to county officials. “We’re doing an excellent job [distributing medical marijuana to those who need it] already.”
The notion of distributing medical marijuana through government-run facilities is not entirely new nor unique to California. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, many states — including California — established pilot programs where federally grown marijuana was distributed to state-approved patients. Recent attempts in Massachusetts and Washington state to revive these programs have been delayed indefinitely while awaiting federal cooperation.
San Mateo supervisors suggested distributing marijuana that had been previously confiscated by law enforcement rather than relying on government grown strains.
For more information, please contact either Dale Gieringer of California NORML at (415) 563-5858 or Allen St Pierre of The NORML Foundation at (202) 483-8751. A report outlining the history of state-run medical marijuana research programs is available from The NORML Foundation upon request.