A second wind has hit the sails of those working to get free medical marijuana to California\u2019s sick and needy, largely driven by a wave of optimistic feeling towards in newly elected Gov. Gavin Newsom.<\/p>\n
In recent weeks, California\u2019s state legislators have gotten the ball rolling on their second attempt at creating regulations to support California\u2019s compassionate care programs, which provide free medicinal marijuana or marijuana products to the seriously ill, by introducing\u00a0Senate Bill 34<\/a>\u00a0in early December.<\/p>\n The new bill is modeled after SB 829, which last year made it all the way to the governor\u2019s desk \u2014\u00a0only to be vetoed<\/a>\u00a0by the outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown. SB 34 would enable licensed providers to donate free medicinal marijuana to patients in need, and exempt them from use taxes on the donated marijuana products.<\/p>\n The bill\u2019s proponents say it is needed desperately by both the patients themselves and the providers who face the current tax burden accrued while supplying patients with free medicine.<\/p>\n While former Gov. Brown wasn\u2019t necessarily anti-pot, Gov. Newsom brings pot advocacy bonafides to the governor\u2019s mansion. Newsom was appointed to San Francisco\u2019s Board of Supervisors in the same election that saw medical cannabis legalized in California in 1996. From there, he went on to become the city\u2019s mayor. And when he served as California\u2019s lieutenant governor, he was a vocal advocate for cannabis legalization, endorsing legislature that dropped many marijuana-related charges from felonies to misdemeanors and supporting Prop 64.<\/p>\n While the state waited for Newsom to come into power, the new push for compassion kicked off in the city where he rose to prominence. Stakeholders, hoping to provide for the folks in the medical cannabis community who need the most support, convened at\u00a0San Francisco\u2019s SPARC<\/a>\u00a0in late November. SPARC is a dispensary known for providing these kinds of support programs since its inception in 2001, when different San Francisco cultivation collectives converged to form what would eventually become one of the nation\u2019s premier dispensary storefronts.<\/p>\n At SPARC, state senator Scott Wiener\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0his intention to reintroduce the bill that would eventually become SB 34. \u201cThis is about ensuring low-income\u00a0people can access their medicine,\u201d he told onlookers. \u201cCompassionate care programs save lives, and we should help them thrive instead of forcing them to pay taxes intended for businesses \u2014 taxes that are shutting these programs down. We need to correct this oversight in Prop 64 and help people living with serious conditions like HIV and cancer obtain the medical cannabis they need.\u201d<\/p>\n Compassionate care programs are standard fare when you\u2019re talking about the nation\u2019s oldest operators, and storefronts like\u00a0Berkeley Patients Group<\/a>\u00a0have continued their programs, despite the fact that they now have to incur massive new costs to do so.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were founded on compassionate giving to those in need and we have to arrive at a place where we can continue to give to those most in need,\u201d BPG Vice-President Etienne Fontan told Cannabis Now. \u201cWe hope Gov. Newsom\u2019s bill arrives there, so we can continue to do what we do best, serve the underserved and the most deserving in their most difficult times.\u201d<\/p>\n Longtime activist\u00a0Lynette Shaw<\/a>, who first opened the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana in 1996, said she believes Newsom\u2019s roots could make the difference this time around.<\/p>\n \u201cOur new governor Gavin Newsom is from Marin County, and I know he understands how [critically ill] patients must have safe access to medical cannabis without the staggering taxes that have been foolishly enacted in California,\u201d Shaw told Cannabis Now.<\/p>\n She pointed to the sad irony that although most Californians can now grow great pot in their own backyards, the state\u2019s most vulnerable individuals are now less able to access their meds affordably than in the past.<\/p>\n \u201cThe patients are suffering, and the black market is booming 100 times stronger than even a year ago,\u201d said Shaw. She also offered a nomenclature suggestion: \u201cHaving a bill to firmly reinstate compassionate access should be named \u2018The Dennis Peron Compassion Act.\u2019 I hope and pray they come to their senses in Sacramento, and that Gov. Newsom handles this as well as I think he will.\u201d<\/p>\n And critically ill individuals, like people receiving end of life care, aren\u2019t the only patients who stand to benefit from SB 34. Ryan Miller, a Marine Corps veteran and founder of an organization that educates his fellow vets on the benefits of cannabis,\u00a0Operation EVAC<\/a>, weighed in positively on the new bill.<\/p>\n \u201cWe salute Senators Scott Wiener and Nancy Skinner for co-authoring this bill and pray that Gov. Newsom doesn\u2019t leave us behind,\u201d Miller told Cannabis Now. \u201cThe culture of compassion in California was curated by Brownie Mary Rathbun and Vietnam veteran Dennis Peron in San Francisco\u2019s Castro and their torches will be carried by any means necessary. The philanthropic exchange of plant-medicine is a sacred act and its continuity is non-negotiable.\u201d<\/p>\n But still others argue the bill might not be necessary, as there is already a mechanism for nonprofit licensing that could be faster than passing and implementing new legislation. Lawyer Anthony Rangel has petitioned California\u2019s Office of Administrative Law to look into the licensing that could already be created within the structure of the existing law.<\/p>\n \u201cThis would affirm [Section] 26070.5 of Prop 64 for the feasibility study,\u201d Rangel told Cannabis Now, in reference to the part of California\u2019s regulations that allow the state to study whether or not it should create a system for cannabis nonprofits.<\/p>\n But the mechanics on how a dispensary could support an effort solely meant to grow marijuana that will be free of charge is a little blurry. \u201cWe are unsure if they would allow retail facilities to fund work of the nonprofit while providing free cannabis to patients, or if it would have to be 100 percent donation through the chain,\u201d Rangel said.<\/p>\n But whatever the route may be, one can only hope that those who provide compassionate care in the form of free medicinal marijuana are recognized for their efforts, and that those who receive free medicinal marijuana continue to benefit from both the plant itself and the generosity of others.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/b>, do you think compassionate care providers should receive tax breaks?<\/p>\n The post A New Hope: Gavin Newsom & California\u2019s Compassionate Care Programs<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A second wind has hit the sails of those working to get free medical marijuana to California\u2019s sick and needy, largely driven by a wave of optimistic feeling towards in newly elected Gov. Gavin Newsom. In recent weeks, California\u2019s state legislators have gotten the ball rolling on their second attemptContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1840,148,50,3789,5042,886,2656,139,81,7150],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32182"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32183,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32182\/revisions\/32183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Legislating Compassion: Second Time\u2019s the Charm?<\/h4>\n
Activists Voice Support<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: A New Hope: Gavin Newsom & California\u2019s Compassionate Care Programs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"