San Jose's Cannabis Gold Rush: Throwing L.A.'s Cautionary Tale to the Wind

If nothing else, Los Angeles' protracted struggle with cannabis clinic regulation should serve as a warning to other cities in which medicinal marijuana dispensaries wish to operate -- Better to lay down some strict rules and regulations, even if they can be a bit onerous (like in San Francisco), even if it means limiting the amount of clinics allowed within city limits to, say, five (like in Oakland).

Pic via LAWeekly

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The alternative is at best messy: politicians will take years figuring out what to do, and meanwhile something like 1,000 "clinics" will spring up, spooking neighbors, irking law enforcement , and hurting the movement (like in Los Angeles).

Hell hath no fury like a cautionary tale ignored, as officials in San Jose are discovering. Pot clubs were nonexistent in northern California's largest city a year ago, forcing patients to trek north to Oakland or SF or south to Santa Cruz. Those bad old days are over, and a Los Angeles-style cannabis gold rush has set in: anywhere from 30 to 45 clinics and delivery services are operating in San Jose, nobody seems to know exactly how many, and few folks -- save the patients who no longer have to drive an hour or more for their medicine, and maybe some unsavory characters happy to unload a few pounds -- are thrilled with the situation.