County continues marijuana fight

Any Barstow residents hoping to have local options for their legally obtained medical marijuana prescriptions filled are no doubt disappointed by City Council’s decision Tuesday to extend a moratorium on dispensaries for 10 more months.

City Council is taking its lead from San Bernardino County and other nearby cities, who have also instituted moratoriums. No doubt Barstow wouldn’t want to be the only place in the county that allowed the dispensaries. While we support the right to medical marijuana (or really, the right to any sort of voluntary medical treatment), we acknowledge the potential impact of Barstow becoming the county “home” for marijuana dispensaries.

The real villain here is our county leadership, which has shown nothing but contempt for state voters’ decision in 1996 to allow patients to possess marijuana for medical use (though to be fair, San Bernardino County voters rejected the proposition). The county has resisted implementing patient registration programs, despite having the courts rejecting their explanations for refusing to follow the law several times, culminating in the Supreme Court declining to hear their arguments. Now that they have to actually respect residents’ rights to control their own medical treatment, they’re pursuing an alternative path of trying to block the marijuana dispensaries themselves.

Why the citizenry allows a bunch of bureaucrats and public officials to dictate their medical treatment is a mystery. What does Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt know that doctors do not? Not a thing. Nevertheless, he has said he will not approve any dispensaries to be built in unincorporated parts of the High Desert.

Mitzelfelt’s position is not motivated by respect for individual rights, but likely by efforts to court certain voter demographics and to draw endorsements from various law enforcement groups, all of whom have a financial stake in keeping the drug war intact. According to FBI crime report data, marijuana was responsible for half of all drug arrests in 2008. There were more arrests for marijuana trafficking and possession than for all violent crimes combined. What would happen to law enforcement budgets if marijuana laws changed?

But given what we know motivates our public officials, there’s an easy way to get them on board for medical marijuana: We just need a bunch of private land developers to support it.