Berkeley Requires Free Marijuana For The Indigent

ravdin

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ravdin
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Oct 16, 2005
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From Berkeley, the only city in America with its own foreign policy:

The city of Berkeley will require medical marijuana dispensaries to give away two percent of the amount of cannabis they sell each year free to low-income patients.

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.
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Because that's what the homeless in Berkeley need, free pot! Berkeley pols have to get their grubby little paws all over everything.

Next week from the Berkeley city council: all streetwalkers will be required to provide 2% of their services for free to the homeless and indigent.

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/20...ients-marijuana-pot-collectives-dispensaries/
 
You really can't tell the difference between offering free, legal medication to the poor and encouraging prostitution?
 
Babbylonian said:
You really can't tell the difference between offering free, legal medication to the poor and encouraging prostitution?
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1)Its not being used as medication by the majority of those taking it
2)the evidence for its effectiveness for anything is limited

If you don't like the prostitution comparison how about ethanol or caffine?

I mean personaly I'm not massively concerned. At the end of the day if a democractly elected goverment that I don't live under wants to add another tax its not really my concern. On the other hand the only possible benifit I can see is cheap THC/cannabinoid mixes dissplacing other more harmful drug use (ethanol mostly).
 
1) It's legal.
2) It's being prescribed by physicians.

Done.

And I have no problem with handing out some free Irish coffee, either, though in the absence of such being prescribed by an MD I won't support government requiring businesses to provide it.

Also, your opinion regarding the efficacy of medical marijuana means little in comparison to the laws permitting its use and the medical doctors choosing to add it to their patients' treatment regimen.
 
Babbylonian said:
1) It's legal.
2) It's being prescribed by physicians.

Done.

And I have no problem with handing out some free Irish coffee, either, though in the absence of such being prescribed by an MD I won't support government requiring businesses to provide it.
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Given how the prescription system is being used in case of marijuana I'm pretty sure that people could get prescriptions for Irish coffee if there was some benifit for doing so.


Also, your opinion regarding the efficacy of medical marijuana means little in comparison to the laws permitting its use and the medical doctors choosing to add it to their patients' treatment regimen.
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Homeopathy meets those standards.
 
Berkeley isn't offering anything. They're forcing businesses to give away their products, for nothing. How generous!

Some of the businesses are already volunteering their services to the indigent, which is a fine thing. Others may have different priorities for their altruism than what the Berkeley city council believes they should have. That's a fine thing as well. Berkeley politicians however are incapable of seeing something that works for people without getting their grubby paws all over it.

I'm not fond of calling marijuana "medicine". It can alleviate symptoms but there are a lot of wild claims of what it can cure that are bunk. Just legalize it already.
 
Oddly enough, I can't seem to find anything about real pharmacies in Berkeley being required to give 2% of their stock of any medicines away to low-income/homeless patients for free. I guess marijuana is special medicine.
 
Berkeley is hilarious. They even refer to Columbus Day as "Indigenous Peoples Day". Now they're offering free pretend medicine to the "less fortunate". Wowza!

And 2%. That is a tough hit for businesses!
 
Checkmite said:
Oddly enough, I can't seem to find anything about real pharmacies in Berkeley being required to give 2% of their stock of any medicines away to low-income/homeless patients for free. I guess marijuana is special medicine.
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Maybe, just maybe, the reason is that insurance won't cover medical marijuana, including Medicaid and the like.

Listen, I don't know if Berkeley's plan is a good one but that seems like the kind of judgment that should be in the hands of the people who live there and their representatives. What I will say is that it's not ridiculous on its face.
 
Takes the edge off of being that poor, getting a good buzz now and again. I see no harm here, so long as the businesses are on board with the program.
 
Next week from the Berkeley city council: all streetwalkers will be required to provide 2% of their services for free to the homeless and indigent.
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I would approve of this and have been advocating a "handjobs for the homeless" program for years.
 
Monketey Ghost said:
Who could it possibly cost? It grows for free. Why is this a bad thing?
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Aren't medications tested, carefully measured for potency, and regulated? Is medical marijuana really just normal, unrefined, pot? If so, that's pretty messed up in and of itself. Even if it is, it still has labor and other costs. Security if nothing else.
 
Babbylonian said:
Maybe, just maybe, the reason is that insurance won't cover medical marijuana, including Medicaid and the like.
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Maybe that's because it hasn't been approved by the FDA.
http://www.fda.gov/drugs/developmentapprovalprocess/ucm401879.htm

The FDA has not approved marijuana as a safe and effective drug for any indication. The agency has, however, approved one drug containing a synthetic version of a substance that is present in the marijuana plant and one other drug containing a synthetic substance that acts similarly to compounds from marijuana but is not present in marijuana
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Those drugs containing synthetic compounds similar to marijuana probably are covered if prescribed by a doctor for an indicated condition.



This Berkeley thing, it seems pretty random to me. Might not be constitutional if challenged. But since it's only 2% I suspect the dispensaries will just go along with it as a cost of doing business. Hiring lawyers to challenge it would probably be more expensive and might also have other negative consequences for them.
 
Babbylonian said:
Maybe, just maybe, the reason is that insurance won't cover medical marijuana, including Medicaid and the like.
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Low income and homeless individuals likely don't have insurance at all, meaning it can't cover their other medicines either. People below a certain income level are exempt from the ACA requirement.

Of course, insurance would cover other medicines that do what medical marijuana is alleged to do.
 
Checkmite said:
I don't expect it to be approved anytime soon, either. Chemical compounds aside, inhaling concentrated smoke/ash is simply not good for the airways.
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Which is why so many users, especially medicinal users, choose vaping or ingestion.
 
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