About Medical Marijuana

Sacramento moves to regulate collectives

The City of Sacramento is the latest in California to see a proliferation of new storefronts maintained by legal medical cannabis collectives and cooperatives. More than twenty are reportedly operating there now – most of which opened within the last six months. The expansion of safe access is good news for patients suffering from HIV/AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, and other serious conditions. But advocates and elected officials there worry that the rapid expansion in safe access may lead to public ambivalence, possibly even a backlash, in a city where medical cannabis collectives have thus far operated without much controversy.

I sent an email to the Sacramento Mayor and City Council Members in April urging them to move quickly in adopting sensible regulations for collectives and cooperatives. Americans for Safe Access (ASA) Sacramento Coordinator Lanette Davies and other advocates have been talking with their representatives about sensible regulations, and the city’s Law and Legislation Commission is now considering language for an ordinance that will enact a temporary moratorium on new medical cannabis storefronts. Adoption of this ordinance is likely immanent. This will give the city an opportunity to write permanent regulations to regulate storefront collectives and cooperatives.

In my email, I explain that ASA research shows the benefits of local regulation:

“Some reports have suggested that storefront patients’ associations are magnets for criminal activity or other behavior that is a problem for the community, but the experience of those cities with regulations says otherwise. Crime statistics and the accounts of local officials surveyed by Americans for Safe Access indicate that crime is actually reduced by the presence of a collective; and complaints from citizens and surrounding businesses are either negligible or are significantly reduced with the implementation of local regulations. In Oakland, where collectives have been licensed since 2004, City Administrator Barbara Killey, notes that ‘The areas around the dispensaries may be some of the  safest areas of Oakland now because of the level of security, surveillance, etc…since the ordinance passed.’”

The City of Sacramento is wise to pursue regulation, and local advocates will keep working with their elected officials to be sure the city’s final ordinance is one that facilitates safe access while protecting patients and the community at large. Advocates, including the city’s new collective operators, who wish to participate in this process can attend monthly ASA meetings on the first and third Tuesday of every month at 7:00 p.m. at Crusaders Hall located at 320 Harris Avenue, Suite H, in Sacramento. Email cannacare@earthlink.net for more information.

Tags: city of sacramento, collectives, cooperatives, moratorium, proliferation, storefronts