To understand “The Purpose” for We The People for Common Sense in Lake Elsinore and it’s Voter Initiative, one must understand “The Problem”.
The problem exists across the state of California and abroad but we are focusing on its local application to the residents of Lake Elsinore, California. The problem affects 2 general parties; the cannabis patient community members, and the non-cannabis patient community members. Both live and breathe right here in our very community and deserve equal respect and consideration. Both have reasonable arguments to why dispensing cooperatives and collectives should or should not exist in the city limits of Lake Elsinore. The city of Lake Elsinore and County of Riverside areas have become increasingly inundated with dispensing collectives, cooperatives and delivery services in the last several years. Many have been compassionate and professional patient-focused organizations who follow the letter and the spirit of the law with their patient’s best interest at heart. Others have set a less professional tone to their presence in our community. While likely operating in compliance with state law; they stand out with neon signs, brightly painted buildings, and marijuana leaf symbols within plain view of major traffic areas, shopping centers, schools and churches. As much as patients have the right to safe access, non-patients have the right to undisrupted communities.
What rights do patients have to safe access? Check out more on Prop 215 otherwise known as Compassionate Use Act of 1996 and Senate Bill 420 for more information. The patchwork of laws and guidelines surrounding these activities can be difficult to navigate in some ways. What is clear to discern is the need for safe access to qualified individuals. California voters spoke volumes when they became the first state to allow legal medical use. Since then 13 additional states and the nation’s capital have instated similar compassion-based allowances. In all of these areas, laws allowing medical use do not provide legal means for obtaining these medicines instead pushing patients to grow their own. The plant is considered a “weed” and grows even in difficult conditions, but producing the cannabinoids or medicinal compounds requires a fairly technical expertise. Many first time growers face costly under-performing or failed crops before having success. Often time’s patients either do not have the space or the skill to cultivate their own cannabis, while still others have disabilities that prevent them from mobility in a garden environment. These patients should still be able to have safe access to safe medicines. This is the intended purpose of the collective as it is defined in Brown’s AG Guidelines meant to define and to direct dispensing and security procedures for a properly functioning state compliant dispensing collective or cooperative.
The Purpose of We the People for Common Sense in Lake Elsinore and its Voter Initiative is a peaceable attempt at compromise. In 2009, We the People did an informal petition of Lake Elsinore residents. Among those petitioned for signatures, many residents provided their input on what regulations they believed a patient center in our community should be held to. The main interests of those surveyed requested that the number of licensed facilities be limited to a number reasonable to our population; that they are limited to responsible adult medical use in compliance with state law, and that they pay local taxes. By introducing this legislation, we hope to suggest a model that would balance the needs of all community members. Dispensing cooperatives and collectives licenses would be limited. All directors and administrators of these facilities would undergo criminal background checks prior to approval. Only participants 21 or older would be able go to these patient centers. Qualified patients under 21 would require the participation of a parent, legal guardian or caregiver over the age of 21 to enter on their behalf. It would require cooperatives and collectives to keep signage simple and discreet. Filing and application fees would be provided to the city. Tax revenue would also be collected from these patient-centers. Tax revenue not to fix roads or street signs, but divided equally among three major community programs that are focused on the needs of our people in these tough economic times. The tax revenues collected would go to benefit our local libraries and literacy programs, feeding our homeless, and providing toys for less fortunate children at the holidays. These are only a part of the featured components to this ordinance. Find out more at Local Ordinance.
