Today I found out that my local dispensary for medical marijuana will be closing in two weeks.
The dispensary in question is the Vapor Room Cooperative in San Francisco.
President Obama recently justified the MJ crackdown as only targeting profit-driven dispensaries that flout the law. He lied.
The Vapor Room is the most above board dispensary I have ever seen. If VR is not above board then no dispensary is, and that is precisely the point. This is not about the quality or legitimacy of specific dispensaries. If they are going after VR, they are not satisfied with anything less than the practical end of MMJ in CA.
I use MJ for the treatment of debilitating anxiety that had me on disability for half of 2011.
The alternative to MJ is either Xanax or some benzo-diazepam (lorzepam or such). These drugs are extremely addictive and have other nasty side effects. They also make me so woozy and wooly headed that I can't work.
I buy my medication legally from Vapor Room, with a doctor's card and a state license.
To give you some perspective, if the legitimacy of a pharmacy was graded on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is the Medellin Cartel and 9 is Walgreens, Vapor Room is a 10. It is more legitimate than Walgreens and almost certainly checks ID, checks age and checks prescriptions much more vigorously than Walgreens
The facts:
- President Obama says he is only going after those who flout the law and abuse it for profit
- The most above-board, long running and professionaly managed dispensary in San Francisco is being kicked out after their landlord was threatened with asset forfeiture if they did not evict.
Those two facts cannot be reconciled.
If you consider the Vapor Room to be an illegitimate implementation of CA Proposition 215 (the MMJ law), then THERE IS NO LEGITIMATE implementation possible.
If VR is not above-board enough, then there is no context in which CA patients can get legal and safe access to MMJ.
VR is the poster-child for a well run, patient-serving, secure and above board facility.
They are closing VR, they will not be satisfied with anything less than the abolition of Prop 215 through intimidation and undemocratic means.
In two weeks I will no longer have a legal way of getting my medicine without driving to Oakland or further. With the current rate of raids, I doubt I will have any access soon. I am literally being pushed step by step to the black market. On a scale of 1-10, VR is a 10, and as Obama's DoJ shuts it down, I will get my MMJ from a less reputable dispensary, then an even less reputable one, then a dodgy and far away one, then a dealer.
President Obama: You are being lied to by the DOJ. I will not hold you responsible for the price of gas or saving the Syrian people or any of the other things you have no control over. But you have absolute and sole control over the DOJ. You are responsible for denying me safe and legal access to the medicine I need to function. For that, you will lose my vote.