San Diego County has been obstructing the will of the people on the issue of medical marijuana since Prop. 215 was passed in California in 1996. Now the County has been shot down at the United States Supreme Court. Do I think that they will suddenly have a change of heart and start implementing the program and start issuing i.d. cards like in other California counties? Unfortunately, not likely.
Bill Horn, Pam Slater and Diane Jacob have had a personal vendetta against medical marijuana during their tenure in office. The District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis has done everything in her power to deny the will of the people and to keep legitimate patients from obtaining pain relief with marijuana. She is on record as saying that the true intent of Proposition 215 was to quasi legalize the drug. Even if her views are correct, they are untenable and disrespectful to the people of California.
The District Attorney has conducted two series of raids on marijuana dispensaries, the latest busts occurring a few months ago. This after the federal government and the Attorney General Eric Holder has publicly stated that the federal government will respect state's laws in regards to medical marijuana.
Steve Walter, directs the narcotics unit for the Republican Dumanis and said storefront dispensaries are not allowed. Walter said this week that the crash and burn of the county's lawsuit against the State of California will not change much as far as he can see.
“I have yet to see (a dispensary or collective) that does comply with the attorney general's guidelines,” Walter said. “I have yet to see one that doesn't make a profit.” State guidelines say that dispensaries can recover their costs.
Storefronts continue to get raided, gardens uprooted, and the implementation of the law insufferably stalled. Rather than working out a sane and reasonable program with caregivers and dispensaries, Dumanis is signaling that she will continue to be adversarial, denying people their pain relief and ruining people's lives. Unfortunately, this tactic will only lead to more crime as people will be forced to purchase mexican marijuana and send more money to the criminal cartels.
Is it too much to ask lawmakers and those responsible for enforcing and implementing the laws to start respecting and obeying them themselves? Is it not time for San Diego County to stop it's draconian need to punish the infirm and stop playing doctor? To start working with the dispensaries to provide an avenue for pain relief for chronic pain sufferers.
There has been much local testimony from extreme pain sufferers of all ages lately who have been needlessly punished by the County's attitude towards Proposition 215. I myself know several women in their seventies and eighties with MS and Lupus who depend on the drug for relief. They are forced to obtain it covertly and illegally to evade arrest and incarceration. Go after crack and heroin, leave these poor people alone!
Once again I ask that San Diego voters remember her track record of evasion and deceit if she ever runs for office again in this county. I respect Ms. Dumanis wish and hopeful right one day to marry any person of her choosing. As a cancer patient who was first diagnosed in 1985, I ask that she respect my rights as well.
"When [District Attorney] Bonnie Dumanis goes on television and says that they don't want to go after legitimate medical marijuana patients, but that all dispensaries are illegal, well I would really like her to explain how medical marijuana patients are supposed to get their medicine,"
Margaret Dooley
Drug Policy Alliance
"I think it is a problem because I think Prop 215 was meant to legalize marijuana, not to provide for medicinal marijuana, and that's why it was written so loosely."
Bonnie Dumanis
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