Medical marijuana has been legal in California since 1996. But that’s not enough for the city fathers of Berkeley. In addition to being able to openly get high on pot, if they can’t afford it, the city will provide it for them at no cost.
On Tuesday, the Berkeley city council unanimously approved a measure that will require dispensaries to give away two percent of its product to the poor and homeless, according to CBS San Francisco affiliate KPIX.
“Basically, the city council wants to make sure that low-income, homeless, indigent folks have access to their medical marijuana, their medicine,” said Berkeley City Council member Darryl Moore, according to KPIX.
And dude, they get the good stuff — no stems or seeds for the needy! KPIX reported:
Under the proposal, at least two percent of all medical weed dispensed at a club would have to be provided at no cost to very low-income members — and it must be the same quality that’s dispensed to regular paying customers.
“We think this is the responsible thing to do for those less fortunate in our community,” said Moore.
Admittedly, marijuana has been proven effective in treating glaucoma patients and relieving the extreme nausea experienced by cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. But California’s list of ailments permitting marijuana therapy is more-encompassing.
It includes AIDS, anorexia, arthritis, cachexia, cancer, chronic pain, glaucoma, migraine, persistent muscle spasms, including spasms associated with multiple sclerosis, seizures, including seizures associated with epilepsy, severe nausea and other chronic or persistent medical symptoms, according to ProCon.org.
Not only is the list of ailments longer, but some are more slippery. Who’s to say whether a patient suffers from “chronic pain” or “chronic or persistent medical conditions” but the patient himself? It can’t be independently verified by a physician.
So who’s going to pay for this largess? Apparently the medical marijuana dispensaries, which means the other patients would ultimately pick up the tab by paying slightly more to cover the cannabis given away. At least one local dispensary — the Berkeley Patients Group — already does this.
“We’ve found out over the years that one of the cruel realities is that when you do get sick and you have a serious illness is that it’s often hard to keep a job, can be hard to keep your income up, so those people really need the help the most,” said Sean Luse of Berkeley Patients Group.
The Berkeley City Council is scheduled to make its final approval of the measure at next week’s meeting.
It happens with greater frequency lately. The moment the government announces its citizens are entitled to something, someone else opines that the people should be entitled to have it provided to them free of charge.
We saw this Monday after the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision in the Hobby Lobby case. Although the court made a very narrow ruling that will affect a small percentage of employees in an insignificant manner, the left acted as though the sky was falling.
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness have been replaced by “free stuff” as the new fundamental right.
