Buy Your Rights in California
...take advantage of this medicating opportunity? A prescription of the finest marijuana in California, of course. The store inside of the Cannabis Club is nothing like any pharmacy. Basically, anything that is or contains marijuana can be purchased here. Marijuana candy, cookies, banana bread, brownies, butter and peanut butter are just a few of the marijuana derivatives offered. For those who have a green thumb, the store propagates and sells a variety of marijuana plants. Assorted by their species, or strain, the plants sold here are clones. These clones are clippings taken from parent plants, and therefore express the same features. An experienced marijuana cultivator can capture the traits expressed in two plants to produce a hybrid by crossbreeding two different strains. If a hybrid is desirable enough, the Cannabis Clubs may even consider buying it from the cultivator. Employees working at the store are not only licensed users themselves, but are also well medicated. In fact, it is no surprise to find an employee sharing a joint, or marijuana cigarette, with other patients. The patients who go to the Cannabis Clubs come from all walks of life, yet they all seem to share a common interest here. A hard thing it is to go to the Cannabis Club and not be invited to smoke with a fellow patient. On her returning visit to the Cannabis Club, if a patient were to see an old smoking partner, proper smoking etiquette would entail that she invite that patient to participate in the next smoking session. It is because of habitual encounters of this kind that a close community has developed amongst marijuana patients; however this is not the only community within which marijuana patients are involved. One Cannabis Club in San Leandro, the Local Patients’ Cooperative (LPC), has made an effective attempt to incorporate their patients with the surrounding San Leandro community. Much acclaim has come from local hospitals, high schools, and charities, all to which the LPC has made generous donations. As a monthly tradition, money is raised through the raffling of marijuana gift baskets. Such a charitable effort is brilliant because the community not only recognizes the LPC, but also the patients as contributors to its charities. Furthermore, to express their appreciation, these charities write letters of thanks, which can be found framed and mounted in the lounge for the patients to admire. What the LPC also does to reach out to the community is provide discounts to marijuana patients who have served it, the veterans, who receive a 10% discount on all medical goods. The relationship between the LPC community and the surrounding San Leandro community is what attracts most patients to the club; yet other clubs attempt to gain the interest of marijuana patients by explicitly meeting their needs. The Cannabis Clubs spoil their patients like guests, yet there are no guests allowed; members only. The lush environment that the Cannabis Clubs provide for their customers is genuinely unique and no other institution could possibly offer so much. At a Cannabis Club, a member is entitled to make use of the lounge without being forced to purchase. In addition, most clubs provide their patients with free massage therapy, marijuana cultivation classes, free food on Fridays and discounts on medicine. However, these aren’t the only benefits of being a marijuana patient, these are just examples of those that the Cannabis Clubs provide. The beauty of being a medical user is in the continuum of privileges associated with it. Not only does the state of California protect a patient from the charge of possession, it also protects her from being denied employment because of positive drug tests. Furthermore, California permits licensed marijuana patients to grow up to at least seven plants, and that it is to each county’s discretion to permit more. To exemplify the highest toleration of marijuana cultivation in California, the City of Oakland (of Alameda County) observes the act of cultivating marijuana as being legal as long as there are “no more than 96 plants if the plants are indoors and less than 48 are flowering” (Bobb 1). Most counties do not permit their patients to grow as many plants as does Alameda; for a patient to argue that such a large harvest would be for personal use is incredible. With so many advantages, a medical license certainly makes it more practical to be a Cannabis Club member than to belong to a Country Club. In fact, because of increasing demand for medical use amongst Californians, the federal government has begun to question the credibility of the medicinal marijuana system. Since the ratification of the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, there has been endless debate over whether or not medical patients should be exempt from charges against possession of marijuana under federal law. Unfortunately, the California state and federal governments’ views on medical marijuana are explicitly inconsistent. Previous Federal Government orders to the Drug Enforcement Agency have even led the arrest and prosecution of marijuana patients for possession. What patients argue is that they are exempt from such charges because the 10th Amendment of the United States Constitution, known as the States' Rights Amendment, states that “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” The States’ Rights ...