Marijuana Fight Envelops Fisherman's Wharf (San Fran)

The New York Times from Drudge ^ | July 3, 2006 | JESSE McKINLEY

[A CA Guy]

SAN FRANCISCO, July 3 — The newest attraction planned for Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco's most popular tourist destination, has no sign, no advertisements and not even a scrap of sourdough. Yet everyone seems to think that the new business, the Green Cross, will be a hit, drawing customers from all over the region to sample its aromatic wares.

For some, that is exactly the problem.

"The city is saturated with pot clubs," said T. Wade Randlett, the president of SF SOS, a quality-of-life group that opposes the planned club. "Fisherman's Wharf is a tourism attraction, and this is not the kind of tourism we're trying to attract."

Emboldened by a series of regulations passed last fall by the city's Board of Supervisors, some neighborhoods are resisting new marijuana dispensaries, which they say attract crime and dealers bent on reselling the drugs. In the debate over the new rules last year, several neighborhoods successfully lobbied to be exempted from having new clubs.

Other neighborhoods managed to get clubs shuttered, including a previous version of the Green Cross, which was forced out of a storefront in the city's Mission District after neighbors said they had seen a rise in drug dealing, traffic problems and petty crime, a charge the Green Cross denies.

And while the law was passed with seriously ill patients in mind, like those with AIDS and cancer, some critics say that now even people with commonplace aches and pains can get a doctor's recommendation.

[RobRoy]

>>Alcohol is illegal under many circumstances. Now pot has limited legal use and is illegal under many circumstances, so you have your wish.<<

No, I don't. When A person can go into any safeway and legally buy Marijuana after showing ID proving they are over 21 and paying money, then I will "have my wish".

[microgood]

You can drink slowly and eat food and never get high.

I suppose it is possibly but why expose your liver to alcohol if you are not going to get anything out of it? The whole point of drinking alcohol is to get a buzz, as the whole point of drinking caffeine is to get a buzz. I guess we could deny it but we would be lying to ourselves.

[A CA Guy]

My body, on the other hand, is not public property. I should be able to decide what the rules are for my own body. Not you.

You live in area with the public where the public have written the laws we are to all live by (called a civilization).

I think you have the perfect attitude for someone who wishes to live in a private island, but if you want to live in a populated area, you are going to be more so limited by the laws governing the populated areas.

Seems I see druggies all the time accessing shared resources because of their behavior that they can't pay for, like rehab centers, hospitals and public burials.

[RobRoy]

So?

I have the God given right to grow and use Marijuana. Imagine if people could get high just as easily off dandylions. Boy oh boy would the nanny state have it's hands full.

BTW, I must re-iterate that I haven't touched the stuff since 1977 and was shocked to find my friend (a manager at Microsoft in his late 40's) sharing a bong with friends in his backyard at a party LITERALLY trying to hide it from my observation.

I think the stuff is really stupid, outside real medical applications. But from my perspective it is a rights issue.

[RobRoy]

Murder involves more than one person.

[A CA Guy]

I believe robertpaulsen is robertpaulsen.

[A CA Guy]

Just the citizens reporting the facts in the story we are discussing and the crimes like actual robberies referred to in the same article.

I'm sure you can investigate and find a bunch more, go for it.

[RobRoy]

>>Why would you let someone else, at the point of a gun, tell you which streetlights you must stop or drive through?<<

I don't. I live in Washington state, where there is no rule of law since the last election. I stop at red lights when it would be dangerous to go through, or when there are cops around. Otherwise...so far, so good.

I treat ALL red lights as "flashing red", unless there is a cop around. It is all a game. If I get a ticket it is like landing on someone elses property in a game of monopoly. I just want to avoid Boardwalk with a hotel! ;)

[xpertskir]

"Is that you robertpaulsen?"

LMAO--IT HAS TO BE

[A CA Guy]

No, I don't. When A person can go into any safeway and legally buy Marijuana after showing ID proving they are over 21 and paying money, then I will "have my wish".

You want full out recreational drug use, no thanks!

[RobRoy]

>>Is that you robertpaulsen?<<

I was wondering that, but they use different tactics. RP is really young, I suspect.

[RobRoy]

>>You want full out recreational drug use, no thanks!<<

Sorry, we already have it since prohibition was abolished. And before prohibition we had it with ALL drugs.

I do not presume to tell others what to do with their lives until it directly affects me. To use the old phrase, "your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins". Marijuana laws are unreasonable encroachment on individual rights. Oh, and the foundation upon which our constitution stands is the concept of the rights of the individual.

[L.N. Smithee]

An Oakland TV station conducted surveillance of a legal pot club in one of the city's rundown used-to-be-downtown areas, and found that there were "straw purchases" of pot by "patients" with prescriptions that were immediately resold to people waiting in parked cars.

I live in a neighborhood that used to have a pot club. It was a storefront with no sign and no indication of what was going on inside. I never knew it was there until it was robbed at gunpoint...twice. It has since moved.

[A CA Guy]

but why expose your liver to alcohol if you are not going to get anything out of it? The whole point of drinking alcohol is to get a buzz, as the whole point of drinking caffeine is to get a buzz. I guess we could deny it but we would be lying to ourselves.

Maybe for you the whole point of alcohol and some other stuff is to get a buzz, but many just have a bit of wine with dinner for their health since it is a blood thinner and has other medical purposes on the light use side.

Does caffeine give you a buzz? That is also a new one to me. How much of that do you possibly have to take to get a buzz? I know it can keep you awake at night and maybe get you more alert, but a buzz?

[Truth-The Anti Spin]

Get the federal government the hell out of my lungs and brain cells..

Interstate commerce clause my ass.

[Central Scrutiniser]

No, you made the assertion, don't ask me to prove your hokey statements.

Its your stance, you prove it.

[pageonetoo]

Unfortunately, folks like us are in the minority. The majority of americans still want drugs to be illegal. And in a democratic society, we have to bow to the will of the majority, even if the majority is wrong....

You assume facts, not in evidence. First, we are a representative gum't, and not just a democracy. We elect peole to represent our interests. You see how well that's going. Propaganda is just that.

It does not matter to me, in the long run. But, I am not convinced that the majority of Americans wish to continue criminalizing pot. I think that is why they have so vociferously linked MJ use with harder substances. It then is perceived by the sheeple as a "demon drug" among other denizen drugs.

In the meantime, the pharmaceutical companies spend zillions to wine and dine the "elected class" and we peons are left with "cake"! The trial attorneys spend big bucks to get themselves elected so they can perpetuate one of the most fruitful endeavors for struggling shysters. If they discontinued the "WOD", there would be a long line of unemployed lawyers, shiny-badged thugs, and other assorted lower-lifes (prison guards, and others employed in that industry). Add to that, the hit on the alcohol industry (You can try making your own booze, but when all you have to do is plant some seeds, fertilize, and wait) and you have some powerful voices aligned to promote your propaganda. In the end, it is all about money (as El Rushbo says).

We live in a tyrannical time. Our leaders represent their own interests and we can be damned... but still get the bill! We need some patriots to show up! We need to get rid of the whole Congress, and the Bushes. They are selling us down the river... one dictate, or law, at a time!

[A CA Guy]

I can see someone at home with a very small amount doing their thing in private and never having any trouble. If they get caught they get a ticket.

If they were getting high at home with kids, of course if they were watching the kids then Children's Services would need to remove the kids from the home as an unsafe environment.

It isn't a rights or freedom issue, it is a law enforcement issue.
The FDA already said no to solvents, glue sniffing, pot and other drugs because they pose a danger to society in general. We sure get a bill from rehab, hospitals and grave sites from these folks.

[Sir Gawain]

Only difference is where you may not get intoxicated with alcohol, you get high the first puff with pot.

This shows your lack of knowledge on full display.

[robertpaulsen]

"since the passage of Proposition 215, which legalized the use and sale of marijuana to those suffering from chronic pain"

Bzzzzzzt! Wrong!

Neither Proposition 215 nor the California laws written around it allow for the sale of marijuana. It is illegal, under state law to sell marijuana, even for medical use.