Twenty-four California state lawmakers urged President Clinton in a letter last week to “call an immediate halt” to federal efforts to shut down six of the state’s operating medical marijuana dispensaries.
“We urge you to honor the will of the people of California … and to join deliberations with our state on safe, affordable, responsible methods to distribute medicinal marijuana to needy Californians,” the legislators declared.
Previous requests to federal officials by state lawmakers to support the state’s medical marijuana distribution efforts have gone unanswered.
The letter stated that the private dispensaries fill a void created by the passage of Proposition 215: a law approved by 56 percent of California voters legalizing the possession of medical marijuana, but failing to establish a distribution system for the drug. The clubs “provide essential service to otherwise law abiding citizens whose only other option is to purchase marijuana from street dealers,” the lawmakers stated.
“Mr. President, we can’t ignore this issue; it won’t go away — so long as human beings believe they have the right to attend to their own illness, as their doctor recommends, rather than as government dictates,” the letter concluded.
For more information, please contact either Dale Gieringer of California NORML @ (415) 563-5858 or Allen St. Pierre of The NORML Foundation @ (202) 483-8751.
