Medical marijuana in San Diego

By Dave Schwab

A battle over placement of medical marijuana dispensaries throughout San Diego continues to rage with the outcome in doubt.

Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, made marijuana legal for medical purposes in California. Nearly two decades later, having passed an ordinance this February, San Diego legislators have finally opened the door to legalizing marijuana dispensaries.

But they’ve done so grudgingly. The new ordinance allows no more than four dispensaries in any of the nine city council districts. And those sanctioned will be largely relegated to industrial zones far removed from schools, churches, parks, youth-serving facilities and one another.

“Some [council] districts won’t even have one [dispensary],” said Downtown San Diego Attorney Michael Cindrich, of San Diego’s National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). “My guess is, when all is said and done, you might have 15 dispensaries out there that are few, far between and all spread out. That’s unfortunate, because a lot of times, very sick people are going to have to drive far distances to get their medicine.”Eugene Davidovich, spokesman for the Alliance for Responsible Medicinal Access (ARMA), defended dispensaries — countering arguments that the drug is dangerous, and that the medical marijuana industry promoting it is a sham.

“The notion that medical marijuana patients are drug addicts is ignorant, insulting and flies in the face of much evidence to the contrary,” Davidovich said. “There are many medical conditions — Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s, cancer, PTSD and chronic pain, just to name a few — that benefit from cannabis use. At the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at UCSD, researchers have found that no other medicine currently available on the market helps patients deal with muscle spasticity [a symptom of MS] than smoked or vaporized medical cannabis.”

Davidovich said ARMA’s mission is “to permanently secure safe, legal access to medicinal cannabis for patients by ensuring there are clear, reasonable local laws and by helping collectives and cooperatives operate in compliance with the law.”

“Along with advocating for appropriate regulations, we plan to act as a liaison between the medical marijuana community and neighborhood leaders, government leaders and law enforcement,” he said.

Davidovich called the current status quo in San Diego “a vicious cycle” with unlicensed dispensaries setting up shop in areas that have outright bans or no zoning, with no standards for them to adhere to.

“That means people are basing their judgments about dispensaries on the unlicensed, unregulated shops, and they’re forming a negative perception that makes our elected leaders not want to take up the issue and create zoning,” he said. “We hope that once we have licensed dispensaries in the city of San Diego, people will see their fears about these operations are completely unfounded and that providing safe, legal access is the best path.”

“Our county and city politicians have not felt the consequences of having failed the cannabis community with two restrictive ordinances that have patients traveling to far-flung industrial areas to obtain their medicine,” said Terrie Best, chair of the San Diego chapter of Americans for Safe Access – a member-based organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research.

“Still, it is a place to start,” said Best, referring to the city’s new ordinance. “I am more optimistic than I was a year ago. We have now achieved the first step to securing a safe place for medical cannabis patients to go to obtain medicine. Barring federal interference, we now have city-approved zones for cooperatives to open. That is an extra layer of protection for patients. And a great start.”

But for each step forward, pro-medical marijuana advocates seemingly take one step back, strategically retreating in the face of entrenched opposition whose goal is to stamp out marijuana use altogether.

“Until our advocacy wins and loses elections in San Diego, we will continue to see very small and incremental steps in the wake of the tough-on-crime rhetoric that has been central to the political conversation since the 1980s ‘war on drugs’ heyday,” Best said.

Best labeled efforts to deny medical cannabis users an improved quality of life as “inhumane,” noting she becomes defensive when prohibitionists warn, “today marijuana, tomorrow heroin.”

“I advocate for who I feel are the most vulnerable victims of the drug war, and that to me is the sick and dying medical cannabis patient,” she said. “I advocate for victims of the drug war — not substances.”

Both locally and nationally, the tide of support for the prohibition against marijuana use, both medicinal and recreational, may finally have turned.

In 1996, California became the first state in the nation to allow for the medical use of marijuana. Since then, 19 more states and the District of Columbia have followed suit.

In two states, Colorado and Washington, the sale and possession of marijuana is now legal for both medical and recreational use. Other states are following close behind. Full legalization measures are on state ballots this fall in Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia.

But other high hurdles facing the legalization of medical and recreational marijuana use remain.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the federal government has a right to regulate and criminalize cannabis.

At the federal level, marijuana remains classified as a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act. Schedule I substances are considered to have a high potential for dependency and no accepted medical use, making distribution of marijuana a federal offense.

Still, Davidovich noted the pro-medical marijuana campaign continues to move forward.

“Great strides have been made over the last few years with regard to medical marijuana throughout the state,” he said. “We now have more clarity regarding the legal sales of marijuana and the operation of patient collectives/cooperatives. In San Diego, in just a few years, we went from the majority of city council not supporting medical marijuana to very robust support.”

Davidovich said the objective of the pro-medical marijuana camp is a time when patients are not harassed or inconvenienced when merely trying to procure medical marijuana as their primary medication.

“Medical cannabis deserves full acceptance by the public, but there’s still a stigma attached to it as a ‘party drug,’” he said. “Ultimately, we’d like medical cannabis to have the same regard that pharmaceutical drugs have, because most people who use cannabis to medicate are doing so because they find it either more effective … or that cannabis has fewer side effects. It’s a plant with medicinal properties, and we’d like it to be recognized as such.”

Cindrich ultimately sees NORML’s side prevailing.

“The fight is going very well,” he said. “A lot has happened over the course of the last five years, and a lot is going to happen in the next five. By that point, more than half the states — maybe even two-thirds — may have medical marijuana, or even decriminalization bills. It may be very difficult to turn things back.”

—Dave Schwab came to San Diego 30 years ago with a journalism degree from Michigan State University and has both worked and freelanced for numerous dailies, weeklies and other regional publications. He can be reached at [email protected].