Friday, April 30, 2010
Lack of Weed an 'Emergency' in Oakland
Regulation & Legislation David Downs — Fri, Apr 30, 2010 at 7:01 AM
It's a routine declaration of the Oakland City Council, but yeah, it's kind of funny too. The City of Oakland is set to renew its declaration of a “local public health emergency” stemming from a local lack of medicinal cannabis.
Oakland official Barbara Parker says the proclamation was originally issued in 1998. It effectively means nothing, but it does buttress Oakland city policies like permitting medical cannabis dispensaries, and ordering Oakland Police to effectively ignore pot offenses.
Parker said the city originally issued the declaration because federal and state law enforcers were busting local growers and cancer patients. That threat of imprisonment persists to this day. The declaration says people could die due to lack of cannabis, so it's cause for Oakland to continue the declaration.
The fine print of the declaration basically states that the people of California and the City of Oakland have voted for legal medicinal cannabis, because it helps the sick, hurting and dying. The sick and dying have such a need that the city of Oakland itself has tried help them get the plant. But the United States has blocked Oakland's efforts, sent the sick into the streets to get their medicine and perpetuated their suffering.
As long the DEA can ruin a person's life for providing or taking a medicine, Oakland has a public health emergency on its hands. The declaration finds that people could die due to federal policy, and federal authorities should stop obstructing and harassing the city.
The Oakland City Council is expected to quickly pass the declaration at their scheduled meeting next week.
Download a copy of the 'Resolution Renewing the City Council's Declaration of a Local Public Health Emergency With Respect To Safe, Affordable Access to Medical Cannabis In the City of Oakland'.
Comments (5)
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I think it is great of Oakland to pass this declaration of a “local public health emergency” again. It draws more attention to the feds ridiculous laws pertaining to marijuana. It should also help keep the shelves stocked at the local dispensaries, so that patients have more to choose from. This kind of attention paid by the City Council helps raise awareness regarding the medicinal purposes of the plant, and might even help to get the ballot initiative coming up in November passed. Sure, growers for the clubs will get less for their crops, but pot will get cheaper for everyone. And, that should reduce the flow from Mexico too. Our home grown is much better anyway!
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@mzi
Since when is anyone "privileged enough" to have a recommendation (not prescription) for marijuana. Anyone who wants marijuana can get it, recommendation or not. People who have recommendations have real, legitimate medical conditions. Marijuana has been proven to be an effective treatment for many different ailments.
Also whens the last time a medical marijuana user has caused you any problems? Medical marijuana dispensaries have very low rates of crime. Police are called to bars on almost a daily basis.
The other causes of death in Oakland that you are referring to are irrelevant to this discussion.
There's no lack of weeds in Oakland. Morning glory drapes itself all over fences and trees, ivy strangles everything, blackberry forms huge, untamed brambles...
Oh, not those kinds of weeds. Given how carefully the stuff is cultivated these days, perhaps that nickname is a bit outdated, though does fit well in headlines.
mzi, you clearly are extremely uneducated on the topic. marijuana is the most medicinal natural plant in the world.. new studies from spain suggest that it can even kill cancer cells.. get a clue before spewing your trash on here as gospel smart ass
"...people could die due to lack of cannabis"? People in Oakland are dying for a lot of terrible reasons, but hey, maybe if those of us who are privileged enough to have prescriptions for weed get high enough, we'll just forget about all of that.
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