Liquor regulators may help oversee D.C. medical marijuana program

[WhiteTara]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/06/AR2010080606308.html

District liquor regulators will play a lead role in the city's new medical marijuana program when it debuts Jan. 1, according to draft rules issued Friday by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D).

Under the regulations, the city health department would be responsible for registering legal marijuana users. But the licensing and oversight of the facilities that will grow and distribute medical cannabis would be handled by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board and its enforcement arm, the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration. The prospect of having the same regulators overseeing medical marijuana and liquor stores concerns advocates who have fought to have cannabis recognized as a medical treatment, not just as a drug for recreational use.

Last year, Congress removed a longstanding budget restriction that prevented city officials from implementing a medical-marijuana initiative that voters passed in 1998. City policymakers since have moved to create a tightly regulated system that would forestall future congressional interference.
snip
The program could be a major revenue generator for an ailing city budget. As many as five dispensaries would pay $10,000 per year to register; up to 10 "cultivation centers," allowed to grow 95 plants at a time, would pay $5,000 per year. In addition, certain corporate officials would be required to pay a $200 annual registration fee. Managers would pay $150 and employees $75.

Yearly registration as a medical marijuana user or caregiver would cost $100; those earning less than twice the federal poverty level, or about $22,000, would pay $25 and would be eligible for subsidized marijuana on a sliding scale. Cultivators and dispensaries would be required to devote 2 percent of their revenue to those subsidies.

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[Warpy]

1. That's exactly who should oversee any recreational drug sales program

Require ID and keep it behind a counter so you can slow the kids down.

Remember, the black market pipeline is wide open to kids. The best thing you can do is shut down a black market and make it more difficult for kids to get. You won't ever stop it completely, but you can slow it down considerably when the black market is gone.

[tridim]

2. So they'll sell poison and medicine at the same store?

I think this is a rotten idea, meant to equate non-toxic cannabis with alcohol.

[Warpy]

3. It's all targeted poison, and none of it is 100% benign

Most people who drink alcohol use it to relax before dinner or just a few times a year at parties, to relax and get that glow.

Some people who try pot get a racing heart and raving paranoia.

You choose your poison according to your brain chemistry but to pretend it's not poison is naive, to say the least.

[tridim]

4. Cannabis is non-toxic, AKA not poisonous.

While one bottle of vodka is capable of killing a human. Racing heart and paranoia is just slightly different than death.

Pretending cannabis IS poison is the naive position, because it's not true.

Honestly, I thought this was common knowledge, especially on DU.

[BakedAtAMileHigh]

5. cannabis is NOT poison

Strong exercise can cause a rapid heart rate and even death by heart attack: does that make it poison as well?

You have no clue what you are talking about. Please educate yourself before you open your screech-hole.

[blogslut]

7. There's poison and then there's poison

The ATF is responsible for keeping truly poisonous concoctions out of the hands of consumers and their enforcement arm does its best to keep idiot moonshiners from blowing themselves up.

[slampoet]

6. See the documentary "Beer Wars" about our byzantine, corrupt alcohol distributor system....

...and you'll understand why these people might not be the ones for the job.


Also, if you are not preparing for general legalization and only addressing Medical needs patients, then why are they going to use the LIQUOR industry for Medical patients?