Medical Marijuana Collective Still in the Limelight

While the City officials of Lodi are preparing to join Tracy and Modesto in banning all sales of medical marijuana, Calaveras County is putting the finishing touches on their medical marijuana plan. “Working out the details with planning (dept) and legal staff” says former District 5 Supervisor Russ Thomas “to keep them (collectives) permitted and in professional commercial zoning.”

The only currently operating Collective in Calaveras County is Forgotten Knowledge Collective in Valley Springs, a non-profit medical marijuana collective, owned and operated by Developer Guy Myers since July 2010.

“The word ‘Collective’ is not well defined in the California Health & Safety Code 11362.775, outlining a single brief provision giving qualified patients and primary caregivers- who associate "collectively or cooperatively" in not-for-profit operations - the right to cultivate medical marijuana to meet their collective medicinal needs,” Said Private Investigator John Blackburn.    (Collectives and cooperatives are the only recognized groups under the law [H/S/ §11362.77]).)

In order to benefit from the existence of a cooperative or a collective one must possess an ID card. All counties in California are required to participate in the identification card program by providing applications to those wishing to participate; processing completed applications; following implementation protocols; and issuing DPH identification cards to approved applicants and designated primary caregivers (H/S §11362.71(b)).

However, a medical marijuana ID card, issued by the Health Department with a prescription from a licensed care provider, is not necessarily a ‘get out of jail free’ card. The Supreme Court has in the past determined the Medical Marijuana Program Act does not afford qualified medical marijuana patients complete immunity from arrest because of their status as patients.

Guy Myers was not available for comment but has been quoted as saying he followed “the guidelines issued by the State Attorney General” when laying the ground work to open his doors in July 2010. The County code, adopted in 2005, does not distinguish between dispensaries and collectives, which have different meanings and different guidelines, and puts the planning commissioner in charge of enforcement of the code.