I don’t care if people smoke marijuana. Back in the day I consumed mass quantities myself. But this medical marijuana thing is  a charade. Anyone can get a prescription. And if you think there aren’t nasty people with guns way back in the growing and distribution chain, think again. Besides, the prices the stores charge is absurdly expensive, especially considering it’s quasi-legal.
I say, just legalize it. I mean, in San Jose and San Francisco, it already is de facto legal. People walk down the street smoking it.
Here in Cascadia, people won’t even blink if you’re walking down the street and light up a puff (which I do frequently, without a “card”), but light up a stick of tobacco and even the tobacco consumers (such as I) will kick your ass. [from the “cultural commons” chapter of my book]
I agree one hundred percent: for the most part it’s a scam. On the other hand, some places in CA it has replaced Timber as the community industry. A lot of old Loggers who “back in the day” would have kicked my ass for smoking weed are now growing it because there’s no other revenue source available. Kinda’ like moonshine.
As a measure of its evolution, though, at least here in Oregon the cops have pretty well figured out who is the innocuous user – the guy with five to ten plants (five mature and five juvenile) growing out in the chicken shed – and who is the scammer – the guy neglecting to use his turn signal while changing lanes with fifty pounds of chronic in the trunk. I, without a card, have had cops not even blink at my little patch.
It is medicine.
Is your book published yet? Feel free to post teaser excerpts here and to tell us more about it.
Hawaii is the same. The general rule is no one much cares if you have a few discreet plants in the back yard. However, someone who lives on The Big Island tells me only haoles get busted for commercial cultivation, locals just don’t seen to get arrested. Imagine.
If anything, legalizing it fully would spawn a new industry to which jobs would be created.