San Francisco News Blog

I don't appreciate the sneering tone of this article. It detracts from your position. I've known true medical marajuana patients, but I've also seen some people just become constant pot smokers who seem to be "strung out".

Also, there is credible research that pot can cause seriious problems with one's reproductive future. Messing up the DNA for your kids. I did a lot of pot in my late twenties and can vouch for the fact that it made my pre-existing bi-polar disorder bad enough to need corrective medication for the rest of my life.

I fear pot being legal, because I was so strung out on it. Hopefully there will be places where people can smoke, but not everywhere.

I hope both sides will tone down the hysteria, so that a workable solution will be crafted for the benefit of all. Those who take pot and those who don't.

I got your Federal law right here Chief.

To keep cannabis illegal while tobacco and alcohol are dispensed freely is *MURDEROUSLY STUPID*.

-Richard Steeb, San Jose California

These CA law enforcement personnel need a refresher course in the Constitution. They are CA employees, not Federal employees.

THEIR JOB IS TO ENFORCE STATE LAW, NOT FEDERAL LAW.

When it boils down to it, by the way, STATE LAWS DO TRUMP FEDERAL LAWS.

Bush can SAY 'federal law trumps state law' but that doesn't make it so; the problem is, we're so far from the American revolution and our politics have been so perverted by money and greedy supreme court justices that, sadly, the constitution IS "JUST A PIECE OF PAPER."

To Mike above -

Dispensaries in LA have not increased criminal activity aside from those crimes against prohibition iteslf, such as possession and/or distribution. Cimes without victim are, in my mind, no real crimes at all - just innocent people sacrificed in the name politics to maintain a horribly unbalanced status quo that favors corporate agenda over human rights.

The point of the story is that no one is above the law, including the police. There are process and rules in place to both uphold laws and to change laws. The people have exercised their right to ammend the law, within the legal framework provided by our government. If there are problems with the law the people can, once again, exercise their power to correct it.

In the meantime, Drug Warriors need to shut up and do their jobs as dictated by the laws of the states in which they serve.

Obama was just in Mexico,
Why don't we just make friends with Mexico and Canada about marijuana, lets end this silly war on marijuana and just make it into a commodity, with taxes?
what are they afraid of? many great sports stars smoke pot form time to time and some people use it as medicine to save their lives.
Obama should listen to the people and the presidents of Canada and Mexico
and still no one has ever died from marijuana
Darral Good

I keep hearing from people how ALL these dispensaries popping up everywhere are bringing in the crime elements, so obviously these crime elements existed before the dispensaries were there. Asides from a couple break-ins and a take-over (all which can happen to any business) what crime elements are you talking about? Where are the articles citing these? I keep hearing some arguments from the opponents of medical marijuana however where is the supporting documentation?

I think if we closed every bar and liquor store for every dispensary out there, we'd still end up with the open bars and liquor stores outnumbering the dispenaries.

do the local (state/county/town) police realize that the feds are stepping on their toes? I can't believe they will just sit back and take it..

it's not about the marijuana itself, it's about what is right and wrong.

Marijuana does not damage DNA, not at all
there are no clinical studies, nor are there any epidemiological studies that find marijuana to be mutagenic. Propspective parents should not use marijuana because it seems to make the uterine environment hostile to the fertilized egg becaue the health-giving components of cannabis discourage blood vessel growth in rapidly dividing cells, which is why it prevents cancer. The womb is loaded with cannabinoids until the fertility cycle hits. This protects against cancer. But because the fertizlized cell has some of the same needs as a rapidly growing cancer cell, the body lowers the cannabinoids during the fertility window. Marijuana prevents cancer, but it's too unreliable to use as safer birth control, too bad.