Madera County bans pot dispensaries

Adam,
I don't know if you are in America or not, but what I said about making the dispensaries legit regards how the laws here in the US are actually playing out. Wanting to make grass legal to remove it from the criminal element is definitely a better idea, but it is too IDEAListic. It sounds nice, but has nothing to do with the current legal situation that California (and other states) has on its hands. In a perfect world we wouldn't be debating it because the shit would already be legal. But in actuality the federal government is giving state governments a brief opportunity to 'do the right thing' before it all blows up in everyones faces. They basically have to set a good example in HOPES that it will be legalized and then it may be able to operate further from organize crime. I think we are agreeing on some points but you are missing some of the legal details here. Legalization is best, but for the time being, they are being given an opportunity to show that its not all bad. I know it sounds circular, but that's an unfortunate product of the US legal system and not my own logic. Read up on some of the more reputable dispensaries are saying about the situation- they realize the onus is on them.

Mike, cannabis must be legalized to prove it can be separated from the criminal element, not the other way around. And as for the recreational users visiting doctors, that is due to prohibition, not prescriptions. I don't know if you meant to insinuate they are criminals but that would be as illogical as the mental health correlation. I don't think dispensaries would attract mafia-like owners if the law was 100% on their side. You don't have to pay the police protection fees. You either get it or you don't. Right now they're not. So here's the mob.

And my neighbourhood was technically safer when the Hells Angels clubhouse was a few blocks away, doing whatever they wanted. Back then if random criminals did anything the Hell's Angels wouldn't do, they had to do it somewhere else. It's gone now though and crime is much less predictable, trust me - I've noticed. By the time a criminal becomes a person the rest of us really should worry about (running into,) they learn to be more afraid of people like the mob and their gangs, much more than they are afraid of police.

Also to touch on your mention of taxes, it is the government taxes (something like 50% on Cigarettes here in eastern Canada) which create illegal markets for legal products. I am seeing hilarious commericals on T.V. which urge smokers to narc on their aboriginal cigarette dealers, who do not collect tax. They forgot to lie and blatantly urged the viewer to help force other people like them to pay more taxes. X'D
In the end that commerical was a waste of taxes, and taxing marijuana is just going to increase the amount of illegal marijuana.

Are we disputing that the dispensaries are a magnet for crime? Who are we to know? I think it is altogether possible for dispensaries to become crime hubs depending on who runs them and how they are run. This is true of most businesses, and the county is not in the wrong for shutting them down if they think they are creating an unsafe or unwholesome environment. I think cannabis is a wonderful medicine, but how the dispensaries operate is not related to that whatsoever. The way things are right now in Cali, prescriptions are essentially being given out to people to use cannabis as a recreational drug. There are organized crime groups trying to get involved in a quasi-legal business venture (which is nothing new). Grass is great and I wouldn't mind a prescription but I wouldnt want a crime hub operating around my corner here.

We are focusing on the wrong element of this article. If cannabis is ever to be legalized, it must be demonstrated that it can be separated from the criminal element, otherwise it will never be viewed as anything besides that. There are people opening some of these shops that could give two sh!ts about the welfare of the sick OR the legal status of cannabis- they are in it for MONEY. This doesn't go for everyone, but lets be honest here.

The element of this article that bothered me was the fact that the dispensaries in question are operating without a permit, and will be shut down under a law that bans them completely. Couldn't they just create a system of obtaining a permit so that shops adhere to a certain standard? I guess that would require more work than simply banning something outright. They could actually make some money off taxes AND set a standard for the dispensaries to remove some of the criminal element but as Adam said below: "Guess what you're going to get now, Madera?"

Oh please, the "crime" and the "illicit drug dealing" are their ways of describing the normal operation of the dispensary. They are blatant negative euphemisms for what is a sanctioned legal activity. And before the dispensaries existed, people were supposed to buy it from street dealers. Guess what you're going to get now, Madera?

I wonder if they have hard evidence to back up the claim that dispensaries are "magnets for crime", or if they're just spouting drug war propaganda. (I wasn't able to load the video, so apologies if this has been addressed.)

"the dispensaries become magnets for crime, such as robbery, loitering and illicit drug dealing." Sounds a lot like our neighborhood liquor store.