Thursday, February 1, 2018

Medical marijuana in Palm Beach County: The little City of Lake Worth is one city leading the way!


From Post reporter Kristina Webb is more recent news, the headline reads “Wellington OKs rules to allow medical marijuana dispensaries”.

     Exceptions would be made for pharmacies or dispensaries, either freestanding or in shopping centers, with frontage along State Road 7. Compounding pharmacies and wholesale distributors who do not directly work with the public also are exempt.
     Medical marijuana dispensaries now are allowed in Wellington, Boynton Beach, Lake Worth and unincorporated parts of Palm Beach County. [emphasis added]

So. . . Give it up all you critics
and malcontents!

And advice for elected officials: Take Heed.
The public hath spoken.

Ignore the critics and malcontents still out there feverishly rushing with “buckets of water to yesterday’s fire.” Think instead about offering them some helpful advice, e.g., “Have you considered medical marijuana for your condition?”

In the Sunday, January 7th Sunday print edition of The Palm Beach Post another silly “POINT OF VIEW” was published and headlined, “Recreational use of pot is bad for kids”. The last time I checked, medical marijuana dispensaries are not permitted to sell marijuana to ‘kids’.

Anyhow, the use of the word ‘majority’ in that piece of work published on a Sunday last month vis-à-vis medical marijuana and Amendment 2 in 2016 is very inaccurate. Amendment 2 did not pass by a majority defined as 50% + 1; it passed by what’s called a “Supermajority”, a much higher standard:
“[A] specified level or type of support which exceeds a simple majority in order to have effect.”
According to the Post’s business reporter Jeff Ostrowski in an article last year (link to article and excerpts below), “Nearly 75 percent of Palm Beach County voters said yes to Amendment 2.”

So if you happen to be running for elected office this year in Palm Beach County, saw this piece in the Post and thought, “Hmmm. Maybe I should think about reconsidering my position on medical marijuana?”

Well. Don’t.

Because the public hath already spoken and
they hath spoken very loudly.

From Jeff Ostrowki is this article datelined October 2017 titled, “Which Palm Beach County cities like weed? Which don’t?”:

Nearly 75 percent of Palm Beach County voters said yes to Amendment 2 [in November 2016]. Among the county’s more than three dozen municipalities, voters in little Mangonia Park proved the most pro-pot. . . . The Village of Golf was the least favorable to ganja, but even there Amendment 2 grabbed more than half the vote.

Now feast your eyes on these numbers
provided by Ostrowski:

  • Town of Mangonia Park, 81.77%
  • Town of Glen Ridge, 79.05%
  • City of Lake Worth, 79.02%
  • City of Delray Beach, 77.72%
  • Town of Hypoluxo, 77.11%
  • Town of Lantana, 76.88%
  • City of Boynton Beach, 76.86%
  • City of West Palm Beach, 76.65%
  • City of Riviera Beach, 76.38%
  • City of Boca Raton, 75.59%
  • Town of Lake Park, 75.2%
  • Town of Highland Beach, 75.2%
  • Unincorporated Palm Beach County, 75.18%

And believe it or not, the number from the Town of Palm Beach? 68.21%! What was the number in Wellington? 72.45%.

So therefore, if you are an elected official and you support medical marijuana you have nothing to worry about from the critics and malcontents. Now they’ll be looking for something else to complain about. Like Brightline.

Frankly, if ‘kids’ and ‘smoke’ are your big concern then you should be looking around in your community for any crematoriums in operation that are emitting,

“[T]hick black smoke. . . . It curled into the sky, swallowing the tops of palm trees and tumbling down like a shroud over the downtown streets”!

Smoke from a crematorium?
What about the ‘kids’!