[420 Girl]

Dispensaries are where a lot of medical marijuana patients in California and a few other states with medical marijuana obtain their medicine. However, the trend of moratoriums across California is continuing, showing either a high demand more medical cannabis or overly-sensitive local officials.

Just this week San Diego and San Bernardino continue their entangled battle to keep marijuana out of the hands of the state’s sick and dying. Even while the United States Supreme Court told the two counties they must respect the rights of the citizens who voted in Proposition 215, allowing those with debilitating illnesses to possess, use, and grow marijuana.

Now Nevada County andLong Beach sought this week to join the growing list of counties, towns, and cities with moratoriums or out-right bans on medical marijuana dispensaries.

So what’s the big deal with all the banning of dispensaries? Are there really that many dispensaries, or is this just another attempt to demonize the drug that is helping thousands of people?

According to Americans for Safe Access, crime can actually be reduced in neighborhoods where dispensaries exists. The ASA spoke to a resident in a San Francisco neighborhood who said the neighborhood has actually improved since the dispensaries moved in. The man stated, “I have lived in the same apartment along the Divisadero corridor in San Francisco for the past five years. Each store that has opened in my neighborhood has been nicer, with many new restaurants quickly becoming some of the city's hottest spots. My neighborhood's crime and vandalism seems to be going down year after year. It strikes me that the dispensaries have been a vital part of the improvement that is going on in my neighborhood.”

With all these bans on safe, legal places to obtain medicine it seems counter-intuitive to say dispensaries increase crime. While it is true dispensaries have been targeted for robberies just like any place with something highly desired inside. Banks have a lot of money, liquor and convenience stores have long been targets for petty theft and robbery. Adding a medical marijuana dispensary to a neighborhood is no different than adding a bank, liquor store, or any business that deals with cash.

When you take these safe places away from people who normally have no contact with the criminal element, they will be forced into the arms of drug dealers to obtain their medicine. This will only promote more illegal drug activity, and certainly won’t make anyone safer. That is not a solution to the problem, and banning dispensaries just shows these counties, cities, and towns are not capable of coming up with any reasonable solutions anytime soon. Who do these people think they are protecting anyway? Kind of makes one wonder who really has a hand in the illegal drug market.

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