Californians looking to break into the burgeoning field of dispensing medical marijuana have an interesting resource at their disposal:
On a recent rainy morning, Liz McDuffie was lecturing about a dozen students inside a classroom at her Medical Cannabis Caregivers Directory on Mentor Avenue.
She went over the the maze of legal issues surrounding the use and sale of medical marijuana, discussed the process involved in becoming a "primary care provider," and she spelled out the risks of operating a medical marijuana dispensing business.
"This is a new industry that's going to turn California around, and you're it," she told her students....
Alhough medical marijuana dispensaries are not allowed in Pasadena, McDuffie's classes and services are protected under free speech laws, city spokeswoman Ann Erdman said. MCCDirectory's business license describes it as a physicians' referral service.
McDuffie was one of the founders of another interesting group called Clean Green, which works to clear a path toward not just respectability but regulatory compliance for dispensers:
Run by Chris Van Hook, a licensed USDA organic certifier based in Northern California, Clean Green independently certifies that medical marijuana, according to its Web site, complies "with national and international guidelines for organic and sustainable farming...."
Van Hook said he modelled the program, still in its infant stages, after the USDA's requirements. He said he inspects sites to verify the nonuse of chemical and synthetic fertilizers and sprays and compliance with state laws.
"The advantage of the program is that it assists in differentiating legal and compliant from illegal and noncompliant, and that can only be good for a state that allows medical cannabis," Van Hook said. "I've toured these pot farms, and a lot of them use chemicals that are not legal in California, that are not approved for use, that are totally unregulated."
I'm looking for some advice as to how I should handle it before I approach my probation officer.