The California Senate will vote soon on a bill that will make it much more difficult to establish a legal medical cannabis patients’ cooperative or collective. Senator Lou Correa’s (D-Santa Ana) SB 847 will require that all cooperatives and collectives be located at least 600 feet from residential zones or use — effectively excluding vast portions of most California cities. This would be on top of the existing requirement that facilities be located 600 feet from schools.
Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is calling on medical cannabis patients and supporters to oppose SB 847 today. ASA’s Online Action Center makes it easy to find your Senator and send a message right now.
SB 847 is burdensome. It is already hard enough for patients to organize and operate legal cooperatives and collectives. This new rule may make it almost impossible in some cities. Most medical cannabis patients rely on cooperatives and collectives for access to medicine, so onerous restrictions like this serve to choke off safe access. That is not what voters intended when they approved Proposition 215 calling on lawmakers “to implement a plan to provide for the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana to all patients in medical need of marijuana.”
SB 847 is unnecessary. Research conducted by ASA and more than fifteen years of experience with medical cannabis in California have taught us that sensible local regulations reduce crime and complaints. We do not need to usurp local control on medical cannabis. Instead, legislators should be cooperating with local government and other stake holders to adopt state laws that facilitate safe, reliable, and legal access to medicine.
Email your California Senator today and ask him or her to vote no on SB 847.
Don Duncan
California Director
ASA
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