SR 05:128 - Laserfiche WebLink

PRESCRIPTION FOR CHANGE / With 43 medical marijuana dispensaries in San Franci... Page 7 of8 said. Often, they walk down the block and smoke or sell their marijuana, said one man named Doug, who declined to give his last name. Doug said he does not object to medical marijuana -- he has advanced HIV and is a patient himself, though he grows his own. On Ocean A venue, the local merchant association has complained. Merchants worry about violence associated with the clubs -- Lundling was robbed at gunpoint in January -- and they don't like that the two dispensaries in the neighborhood are within a few blocks of one another. Not all merchants mind. "I know some people don't like it around here, but I don't care," said Ed Soss, an optometrist whose office, The Contact Lens Place, has been on Ocean Avenue for 35 years and is two doors away from a club. "Occasionally I smell marijuana. But if people have to have it, let them have it. As far as I'm concerned, they shouldn't outlaw it anyway. It should be legal," he said. Talleyrand believes medical marijuana is challenging popular myths about medicine -- such as the most basic question: What is medicine? -- and he prefers to think about issues in terms of health. "In medicine, my job is to assess your health and get you back into a healthy state. Things that help that, I'm an advocate of. ... What is medicine? Good nutrition is good medicine, I think. Good exercise is good medicine. Taking a pill chronically can be bad medicine. It's the same thing with medical marijuana. The goal is to get off the marijuana and get healthy. " Some city officials say bluntly that regulation of medical marijuana is one major step toward a bigger goal. "Ultimately speaking, if we're able to demonstrate a sound and reasonable system for medical cannabis clubs," said Mirkarimi, one supervisor leading the effort for regulations, "we can make an even more credible case for decriminalizing marijuana altogether." Regulating pot clubs San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom last week proposed a number of regulations he would like the Board of Supervisors to impose on medical marijuana clubs in the city, which now number 43. The recommendations, many of which are modeled after state provisions regulating medical cannabis, include: __ Forbidding the clubs to operate within 1,000 feet of places where young people congregate, such as playgrounds, parks, schools or youth centers, or within 500 feet of another dispensary. __ Prohibiting the drinking of alcohol on the premises. __ Making club records available to city inspectors to verify they are meeting state requirements to operate as a not-for-profit cooperative or collective. http://sfgate.comlcgi-binlarticle.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/04/24IMNGDTCEA9H I.DTL&type=pr... 4/29/2005