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Volume 39, Issue 7
December 4, 2001

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Group wants states to help distribute medical marijuana
U-Wire

BERKELEY, Calif. – Tired of the haze of legal issues surrounding the distribution of medical marijuana, a medical rights advocacy group wants states to be directly involved in the distribution of medical marijuana.

Americans for Medical Rights, the organization that sponsored Proposition 215 – the medical marijuana initiative – is proposing a ballot measure to set up a state-controlled network of medical marijuana distributors.

The proposal has drawn wide support from Berkeley, Calif., marijuana users who are likewise frustrated by legal complications resulting from the federal law that bans the drug.

Although eight states have legalized medical marijuana, the cultivation, sale and use of the drug remains illegal under federal law.

"We don’t have a choice," said Gina Palencar, head of the initiative drive. "Medical marijuana patients are not going to stop using marijuana for medical purposes just because the federal government is trying to criminalize them."

Widespread support is growing in Berkeley and on the University of California-Berkeley campus for the initiative, which will likely be placed on the 2002 ballots in Oregon and Washington, two states that allow marijuana use for medical reasons.

The group’s ultimate goal is to put the initiative before California voters, but it is using the other states as testing grounds.

The Berkeley City Council last spring completed the arduous task of devising an ordinance for the use of medical marijuana to comply with Proposition 215.