Know when to hold ‘em- Know when to fold ‘em….Posted by Mickey Martin on December 17th, 2011

We have come to a crossroads in cannabis reform and as a movement we must decide if we have the juice to push this thing over the edge to real cannabis freedom, or if we want to double down on the “all use is medical and every stoner is a patient” bullshit. I for one have had it. I am a firm believer that cannabis is a powerful and sacred medicine that helps many people find relief from their medical condition. I will never discount the medical value of cannabis, as I know firsthand what a benefit this plant is as a medicine in my own daily walk.

But I can also not sit back and watch as our movement self destructs in an effort to cling to the medical only aspects of cannabis, and tries to convince everyone that we are not full of shit and that everyone using cannabis in CA and beyond is a bona fide medical patient. Meanwhile the rest of our community calls bullshit on us. The time has come for this movement to recognize the clear difference between legitimate medical use of cannabis and the many enjoyable and practical uses of cannabis that are more indicative of what we see happening across the board in the “medical cannabis” movement. Is cannabis a medicine? Beyond a shadow of a doubt. Is smoking 6-foot bong rips until the sack is gone to enhance the enjoyment of whatever activity one might be doing at the time a valid medical application of cannabis?…normally not.

But do not try to tell this to a select group of activists and reform groups that want to double-down on strategies of yesterday by putting forth a voter initiative to regulate, tax and control dispensaries…..Where have I heard that “regulate, tax and control” before? Hmmm…let me think. Oh yeah…Prop. 19. How did that turn out? So not only are we doubling down on bad strategy, but we are using the exact terms from our last losing battle to do it. Super.

So Americans for Safe Access and CA Director Don Duncan (whom I normally agree with) has teamed up with UFCW and Ron Lind to put forth the “Medical Marijuana Regulation, Control and Taxation Act”; an effort to bring to the voters an initiative to allow for a tightly regulated system of limited dispensaries operate in CA, very similar to the program in Colorado. Recall that the regulations in Colorado forced many small mom and pop growers out of business, as they could not afford the upstart costs of commercial facilities, expensive State monitored surveillance systems, and heavy licensing fees. The program there took hold July 1st, and has been wrought with issues and compliance problems. But hey…let us throw a million bucks at an initiative that will bring that kind of success to California. Yay! (Eyes roll).

The real truth (if anyone grew a sack of nuts and took a minute to be honest with themselves) is that this backlash in the community and with public officials is not a product of people thinking that dispensaries and growers are not “regulated, controlled, and taxed” enough. It is a product of people looking at the industry and believing that a large portion of our existence has NOTHING to do with medicine, and that many of the “patients” are just full-of-shit liars who are gaming the system to smoke their weed. Most do not even give a shit that people smoke their weed at all…..They give a shit that the system is being gamed so heavily and that they feel they have been lied to. Outside of the magic bubble that is the cannabis reform industry, the vast majority of folks in our society do not agree that “all use of cannabis is medical” by definition. They see this as a cop-out bullshit justification that attempts to bamboozle the masses with some proclamation about this miracle medicine that cures everything and prevents any disease. They think the doctors are full of shit and the patients who choose to lie to them to avoid going to jail for a plant are also full of shit. If we were honest….if we really looked deep inside and looked around us once in a while…we too would understand that we might be full of shit, at least a little bit.

I go to dozens of City Council or County BoS meetings every year. I work to convince people that we are not full of shit on a daily basis. I have beat the drum so loud for medical cannabis for so long, that even I drank the kool-aid for a minute and believed we could justify all use as medical. But then I began discussing cannabis more widely with people who do not use cannabis. I began having long and drawn out conversations with the soccer moms, the local business owner, the parents on my kids’ little league teams, parents at their schools, and other generally supportive and nice people who understand the need for medical cannabis, but do not believe the current system is based in real medical practice whatsoever. They see the ads with half-naked girls. They see the questionable “patients” in their community who are “medicating” with the homies on the corner. They see the $40 everyone gets approved promotions from the doctors. They know people with medical cannabis cards who they know are not in need of medicine. They live in the community and see the not-so-medical applications of cannabis everyday. They see the abuses in the system, and think that because we do not admit to them, but instead try to justify the “phat blunt mentality” as some sort of medical procedure, that we too are clearly full of shit.

I also talk with a wide array of healthcare professionals and doctors. I have many doctors that are not affiliated with the cannabis industry in any way in my life. Between several knee and ankle surgeries and ongoing issues in my life, I have gotten to know many physicians quite well and I always have the “medical cannabis” discussion with them. I have been in more hospitals, including Stanford Cancer Center, over the past few months than any one person should ever be. When I discuss the issue with doctors who deal with very serious and true medical conditions, like at the Cancer Center, they understand cannabis is a medicine no doubt. They also believe that the current implication of the medical cannabis system is anything but truly medical, and they are hesitant to support the industry as a result. They too see the current “anything goes and everything is medical” mentality of our movement as a mockery to real medicine and therapy. It does not meet the standard for medicine, as far as they are concerned…and frankly, I agree with them.

But let us not address that issue. (Eyes roll) Let us put forth a voter initiative that whitewashes the issue, while attempting to preserve the existence of the medical system by limiting who can dispense cannabis where. The fact is that the “Medical Marijuana Regulation, Control and Taxation Act” will EXPAND PROHIBITION. There is no two ways around that. If they are limiting who can be a registered cultivator, producer, and dispenser of cannabis, then the obvious result is that the people who do not meet these standards or cannot qualify will be treated as criminals if they produce medicine for patients without a license, or whatever they want to call it. If they do succeed in limiting how physicians interact with patients, then the result would be less qualified patients, which equates to more criminal cannabis users. Why on earth would anyone support an effort to expand prohibition?

I am not saying that regulations for the medical cannabis industry are not necessary and do not make sense. I am saying that it is not our place to expand prohibition in a cowardice effort of self-preservation. We should not waste $1.5 million on gathering signatures for an effort that makes more people criminals. As a community we should support a legalization effort that increases cannabis freedom, and removes the abuses from the medical aspects of the industry, so that real patients and doctors can not be lumped in with the clearly adult enjoyable use of cannabis that we see being touted as medicine now. Lobby the State Legislature to do their fucking job and pass these regulations, and use our resources on EXPANDING CANNABIS FREEDOM. To put our own hard-earned cash up for an effort to expand prohibition is unconscionable. I am normally with ASA 100%, and I understand that their mission is strictly a medical one. I respect that. But if they truly are concerned about patient access then they should not be attempting to roll back the freedoms of the industry through strict and brutal regulation; but they should be working on an adult use measure that removes the perceived abusers from the medical system and clears the way for a more rational discussion on the medical uses of cannabis. As long as we have dispensaries on TV talking about how their staff is “too whacked out on edibles” to play a softball game, then we will never see people take this “medical” industry seriously.

The other big downfall of a Statewide medical cannabis initiative is that is sets the table for our opposition to use everyone of these bad behaviors and abuses in the system to condemn the entire medical system as a fraud. The press will eat up the California Police Chiefs Association’s long reports of massive abuses and there will be images of naked nurses and stories of high-school kids with cards, and the public will not support an effort to legitimize this behavior. Our leadership is failing to see the writing on the wall and address the real issue at hand. It is a sad day when those who promote cannabis think it is a good idea to expand prohibition and recoil our mission in an effort to appease the unappeasable.

As a community we must know when to hold ‘em, and know when to fold ‘em. For us to double down on a losing hand that is far past its life expectancy is insanity. I would seriously hope that this effort is rethought and that there is a more concerted effort to create real reform for cannabis consumers- medical or not. Anything less is just a “too little- too late” effort that will get crushed both in the movement and out of the movement. Good luck with that shit….I call for no confidence in the “Medical Marijuana Regulation, Control and Taxation Act” effort. Support the Repeal Cannabis Prohibition Act of 2012 or the California Cannabis Hemp and Health Initiative 2012 if you want to support an effort that expands cannabis freedom, while at the same time solving the real issues of the medical cannabis phenomena…..Putting medical cannabis on trial in an effort to limit the industry so that we can hopefully stop the bleeding from the Feds is a stupid gamble I do not think our industry should be taking.

Every gambler knows that the secret to surviving is knowing what to throw away and knowing what to keep because every hand’s a winner and every hand’s a loser and the best that we can hope for is to die in our sleep.