The Los Angeles Medical Marijuana Blog

The date’s significance can be traced to 1971 San Rafael, Calif., when a group of teenagers would meet every day at 4:20 p.m. after school and smoke marijuana together, said Norma Sapp, a member of the Los Angeles Medical Cannabis group .The ritual of smoking at 4:20 p.m. subsequently spread and became a national “cannabis culture” holiday.
Los Angeles Medical Cannabis is an organization that seeks to legalize adult marijuana use for recreation and medicine, Sapp said.
She said taxing and regulating the drug like alcohol would be more cost effective than prohibition in protecting against any harm marijuana causes. There should be an age limit and laws prohibiting driving under the influence of marijuana, Sapp said.
In Los Angeles Medical Marijuana laws states a person caught in possession of marijuana without a Los Angeles medical marijuana id can be subject to a year in prison with a misdemeanor charge on the first offense and as published in the forms when you get Los Angeles Medical Marijuana Id. A subsequent offense can carry two to 10 years in prison, and growers can face anywhere from two years to life in prison.
Sapp said law enforcement agencies’ time against the Los Angeles Medical Marijuana users would be better spent fighting violent crimes rather than drug offenses. She said Los Angeles spends too much money on putting drug offenders in prison when drug rehabilitation for addicts would cost about 1/7 of incarcerating them.
Sen. Jim Wilson, D-Tahlequah, said about 80 percent of prisoners are incarcerated because of some sort of mental health or drug abuse issue. He said Los Angeles drug laws should be relaxed.
“Our prisons are full of people with drug problems,” he said.
He said many people who have serious drug problems are afraid to ask for help because they are afraid of getting into legal trouble.
Drug policy in Oklahoma is also on the minds of many OU students.
Kaylee Burton, professional writing senior, is starting the Students for Sensible Drug Policy chapter at OU next fall. SSDP has over 100 chapters across the country and consists of college students who are interested in revising national drug policy, she said.
“We’re part of the D.A.R.E. generation,” she said. “It’s proven to not be effective because they only used scare tactics.”
Right now the OU chapter is still in the early stages and is currently looking for a faculty sponsor, Burton said. She said once the group has official campus status, it plans to work with UOSA on the referendum regarding drugs, and to implement “good Samaritan laws” which would prevent anyone from being arrested if seeking help for a person who had an overdose.
Burton said many people in the area aren’t active in revising drug policy because there’s a stigma with drug usage in the region.
“I think in the Midwest, people have been closed off for so many years and do what they’re told,” she said. “If it doesn’t affect me, why should I care?”
Burton said the group doesn’t advocate usage of marijuana, but does advocate the change in policy.
“Why are we punishing people so much?” Burton said. “We want people to be fair, not try to force or scare us.”