(Sacramento Bee) The co-founder of one of Sacramento’s original medical marijuana dispensaries isn’t high on the notion of legalizing marijuana for recreational use in California.
With her husband, Bryan Davies, Lanette Davies founded the Canna Care dispensary, a medical cannabis outlet with a Christian theme.
That makes sense. I forget whether it is the Book of Matthew or Luke where Jesus calls for the sick to come unto Him and be healed… but if any healthy people came unto Him, He called for the Roman Centurions to take them away for imprisonment.
Davies now heads an advocacy group for medical marijuana patients called Crusaders for Patients’ Rights.
Under the group’s name, she is writing voter pamphlets, urging “no” votes on the November initiative to legalize marijuana beyond medical use and allow local governments to tax and regulate pot sales.
Being good Christians, I’m certain that their opposition can’t be rooted in an “I gots mine!” selfish concern for their own business. It can’t be that they are worried that they’ll have trouble selling their ounces of medicine for $300 each when any adult is allowed to grow their own for about $12.50 an ounce. There must be a better reason, one that Jesus would approve of…
Davies takes issue with proponents’ arguments that marijuana should be taxed and regulated like alcohol.
“Doctors do not write recommendations because they know cannabis is safer than booze as suggested by the TaxCannabis 2010 office,” she writes. “Doctors write recommendations for Cannabis because they care that people are suffering from illness and disease, they know cannabis is safer than conventional synthetic pharmaceuticals.
“Help us stop the bigotry and prejudice against patients. Medicine is not a vice.”
Um, doctors recommend cannabis because it is safer than synthetic pharmaceuticals, but you feel it is bigotry to also point out it is safer than alcohol?
I’ve seen this “I’m a patient, not a criminal” attitude just one too many times. The only reason there is any prejudice against cannabis patients is because we define cannabis use as a crime in the first place! Here we present the first viable chance California has to erase that distinction, to remove the stigma of cannabis use for everyone, and Ms. Davies wants to keep the stigma in place. If none of us are “criminals”, there is no vice with which to smear “patients”.
No, medicine is not a vice, and neither is the responsible use of cannabis by adults for personal reasons. But the allegedly Christian Ms. Davies seems to think Jesus would approve of continuing to punish healthy people who use cannabis. She seems to need the concept of the “dirty sinful dope smoking criminal” to persist so she can feel like the “righteous patient” by comparison.
She also argues that the initiative does nothing to reform practices of cities and counties that aggressively exclude medical marijuana establishments.
She questions: “Do honestly think that cities and counties that will not allow a patient to obtain cannabis are going to open the door to recreational use when this measure expressly states they DON’T have to?”
I’m sorry, you thought a measure to legalize marijuana so no adult need fear arrest and life disruption for possessing a little cannabis and growing a few plants was supposed to make it easier for you to open a few more $300/ounce dispensaries?
You can vote for legalization or you can vote for prohibition. It's that simple.
Let me get this straight, you’re upset that cities and counties that harass medical users and arrest personal users now will continue to be unfriendly to cannabis users after this initiative passes… that the cities and counties that don’t allow medical or personal sales now will not allow those sales after the initiative passes… but in the meantime, they can’t continue arresting personal users… So, really, you are upset that healthy marijuana smokers won’t be arrested anymore? WWJD?
[...] Since the Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Initiative was mercifully truncated to a headline-friendly “Prop 19″ by virtue of making it on the California ballot, I have been tracking on our NORML Stash Blog the stories of dispensary owners who are publicly opposing the legalization of the product they sell, even shelling out money they’ve made from selling marijuana to oppose its legalization! [...]
[...] Since the Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Initiative was mercifully truncated to a headline-friendly “Prop 19″ by virtue of making it on the California ballot, I have been tracking on our NORML Stash Blog the stories of dispensary owners who are publicly opposing the legalization of the product they sell, even shelling out money they’ve made from selling marijuana to oppose its legalization! [...]
[...] Since the Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Initiative was mercifully truncated to a headline-friendly “Prop 19″ by virtue of making it on the California ballot, I have been tracking on our NORML Stash Blog the stories of dispensary owners who are publicly opposing the legalization of the product they sell, even shelling out money they’ve made from selling marijuana to oppose its legalization! [...]
[...] [...]
Sounds like their real name should be “Canaanite Care;” a little Bible humor. The Canaanites were famous as merchants, very much in to trading, buying/selling, money loving, etc… Kinda have to be familiar with the OT to get it.
I agree with your assessment Russ, if they really cared about suffering they’d be working to get the innocent people out of prison!
[...] Since the Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Initiative was mercifully truncated to a headline-friendly “Prop 19″ by virtue of making it on the California ballot, I have been tracking on our NORML Stash Blog the stories of dispensary owners who are publicly opposing the legalization of the product they sell, even shelling out money they’ve made from selling marijuana to oppose its legalization! [...]
What a joke. Same old story of people trying to cash in. The people are going to take it back and its going to be FREE fucking FREE like a weed that grows on the side of the road FREE
THC is not dangerous. You are dangerous
Profiteers NEVER vote in the human interest, only their own, these people are reprehensible, advocating negating my rights, to protect their fiscal interests, and abetting state fascism. No-one owns my brain chemistry, typical hypocritical christians.
You hit the nail on the head here as usual Russ.
Dispensary owners and growers are coming out against this initiative and using “patients” as an excuse to protect their bottom line. It’s disgusting.
I feel like some California residents have become spoiled and have forgotten that in other states just miles away, people are being shot, arrested, imprisoned and even killed just for being involved with marijuana.
I don’t see why the Davies’ make this a religious complication
@itistime
That’s what the drug cartels say too. END PROHIBITION!!!
Dangerous if you are a bag of Doritos.
Cannabis should be legalized everywhere like all drugs should be legalized too. But people need to know that cannabis is a drug before it happens. THC is not a toy…THC is dangerous.
Legal cannabis will inevitably cause the cannabis side of our co-op to evolve into a gathering place for producers to meet and compare products and growing techniques. These people will need growing supplies and advice. Distribution of legal recreational weed will be a cute little sideline we let the old guy(me) continue to do because he loves to. There are those of usin this business who want to do both well AND good and there’s no wrong in that.
While there are flaws to the California legalization initiative, it is clearly a step in the right direction and I urge all Californians to vote for it. The arguments used by the Canna Care dispensary owner simply don’t make any sense. California already has a medical law and the legalization measure doesn’t change the medical law, thus it isn’t causing any “bigotry and prejudice” towards patients. Seeking to keep criminal penalties for a nontoxic substance, especially for low-income Californians who can’t afford the doctor’s recommendation. I think that there will still be plenty of business for medical marijuana dispensaries, plus more opportunities for citizens to help themselves and the state through cannabis commerce. Voting in favor of prohibition of marijuana for your own interests is very greedy and certainly not very Christian.
Translation: Legal marijuana would drive prices down and probably put me out of business therefore I am against it.