Berkeley California is arguably one of the most progressive cities in the country. With that in mind, it’s not shocking at all that the city now requires medical marijuana dispensaries to donate up to two percent of their products to low-income patients in the city. The plan goes into effect in August 2015.
Of course, mainstream media like Fox News have picked up on this and are running with it, implying that the city is just handing out weed.
That’s not the case at all. Recipients have to be registered medical marijuana patients and the city isn’t handing out anything – dispensaries are. As Mason Tvert, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project says:
“So it’s a matter of the democratic process, people following the state’s laws, and this law appears to accommodate both of those,” he told Fox News this week.
But anti-pot folks clearly are trying to distort the message. Take John Lovell, a lobbyist for California drug cops, who would much rather see California deport the sick and poor as opposed to giving them some assistance.
“Instead of taking steps to help the most economically vulnerable residents get out of that state, the city has said, ‘Let’s just get everybody high,'” Lovell said in The New York Times this week.
Berkeley’s program isn’t actually anything new. Dispensaries in California, Colorado and other states often have programs for low-income patients. It’s called compassion, something some of these pundits against medical cannabis should learn.
Check out a video of Tvert on Fox News arguing it out with Bishop Ron Allen, a former drug addict and current moron talking head for the failing War on Drugs: