Oh
yeth, groupies, we can blow ouwa brains out in a gay-pot-lounge.
Do bring a teenie weenie prescription though.
Cannabis club reopens doors for legal sales
By John Hiscock in Los Angeles
Daily Telegraph, London
VOLUNTEERS were still busily stocking the gift shop when the Cannabis Cultivators Club opened for business yesterday for the first legal sales of marijuana in the United States for more than 60 years.
Batches of brownies, jars of spaghetti sauce and bottles of rum tincture, all liberally laced with marijuana, lined the shelves along with bags of smokable pot, pipes, pro-pot T-shirts and marijuana cook books. In the San Francisco club's basement, workers cultivated plants as the first customers arrived with their doctors' notes to pick up their "prescriptions". "It's like a family reunion," said Dennis Peron, the club's founder and California's most vocal marijuana advocate. "I'm gloating. Isn't democracy great?"
He said the 12,000-member club already had at least 200 doctors' authorisations for drug prescriptions on file and was expecting many more. The drug is known to ease the pain and nausea suffered by Aids and cancer patients.
Prices for bags of pot range from £3 to £45 depending on the quality, and the spaghetti sauce sells for £7 a jar.
The club, which has been closed since a raid by state drug agents five months ago, reopened after a judge's ruling last week that it could legally provide drugs to its members under Proposition 215, the recently passed Californian voter initiative that legalised the cultivation and use of marijuana to ease the symptoms of serious illness.
Housed in a four-storey building within sight of City Hall, the club contains an alcohol-free bar area furnished with couches, easy chairs and big-screen television, sales counter, snack bar, gift shop and a performance space for musicians.
Mr Peron, 51, has been campaigning for the legalisation of marijuana for medical purposes since the death of his male lover in 1990. "We forced the issue on behalf of the sick and dying and the voters agreed with us," he said. "We're all delighted that we can legally reopen. Just give us seven days and we'll have the whole place redecorated, too."
Mr Peron and five club colleagues were charged with conspiracy and possession and sale of marijuana after the August raid and state law enforcement officials say the prosecution will still go ahead. They have also hinted that they may appeal against the ruling which allowed the shop to reopen.
"We think the case is an excellent vehicle for the state's appellate courts to provide some guidance," said Steve Telliano, spokesman for California's Attorney-General, Dan Lungren, a principal opponent of Proposition 215. Mr Telliano also said that the club would be closely monitored to ensure that every customer has a doctor's prescription. "It's not going to be like McDonald's," he said. "It's going to be very tightly controlled."
While many doctors already prescribe marijuana to their sick patients, others are wary of possible consequences and a group of doctors and patients is suing the Clinton administration to try to block any sanctions against doctors who recommend the drug.
The lawsuit asserts that the administration's announced plan to prosecute or strip prescription licences from doctors who endorse marijuana intrudes on the doctor-patient relationship and violates the constitutional rights of free speech.
It seeks an injunction protecting the doctors and asks for a statement from the Attorney-General, Janet Reno, that doctors have a right to communicate with patients about "the potential benefits and risks of the medical use of marijuana". Dr Marcus Conant, a San Francisco Aids specialist who is a plaintiff in the suit, said: "When a physician goes into the examination room with a patient and closes the door, the discussion they have should not be encumbered by some government drug tsar sitting there and threatening punitive action."
Editor- Balaam's Ass Speaks: Not much to add. Maybe this...
Revelation 9:21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
