“City IDs possible areas for pot collectives: Industrial areas could be home to medical marijuana gardens.” There it was — the headline of The Columbian on Oct. 18. The headline isn’t disingenuous, but if one closely reads the story, is this the city’s intent? Industrial zoning, closed between the hours of … no signs or symbols.
Now wait a minute. I was under the impression the purpose of the recently enacted law allowing individuals holding a medical professional’s recommendation for the use of cannabis was nothing more than a mechanism whereby “patients” could legally support one another. You know, those individuals for whom cannabis is a last-resort treatment for their malady; folks for whom standard procedures didn’t prove effective, the sick, lame, and possibly dying.
And the city would turn that communal effort into a business? And further, a business that couldn’t possibly exist under the proposed unattainable zoning requirements. Why would my city government purposely deprive a particularly vulnerable subset of our community the means to provide a treatment for themselves? I’m at a loss. Perhaps someone could ask our city officials? I can’t seem to be able to get a reasonable answer.
–Jim Kennedy, Vancouver
