by Shona Gochenaur AB 266 Bonta will dismantle SB 420, take action now to protect medical cannabis in California! San Francisco, CA July 14, 2015 As medical cannabis advocates and providers are comparing what is being proposed in the California statehouse via AB 266 Bonta to regulate medical cannabis and what is being filed by broad based coalitions for the state ballot in 2016, the concerns are growing. For the small to mid-sized farmers, AB 266 will dismantle SB 420. This senate bill (SB 420) allows patients to have a communal garden, and provide for each other, often bringing their carefully crafted surplus to local distribution centers as patients/growers, and donating to "compassion" programs that provide sliding-scale-to-free medicine to patients too disabled to make a gainful income to be able to purchase market rate medical cannabis. "AB 266 Bonta without being amended to include a state wide framework to create equity in safe access and register SB 420 collectives for our most vulnerable patients, it pushes the poorest disabled patients back to the illicit market, and enhances that illicit market even further by not upholding SB 420 community gardens, and only "making legal" the much larger scale commercial grows." -- Shona, Director, Axis of Love SF The company line of corporate cannabis lobbyists for the last several sessions in the statehouse has been that SB 420 collectives are the loophole for diversion. However, the small to mid-sized farmers have not been proven to exploit these loopholes to the degree that large-scale projects have (see: http://www.insidebayarea.com/crime-courts/ci_28396381/northern-california-pot-raids-uncover-86-500-marijuana) nor done the environmental damage. Instead of strengthening the illicit market, we should simply close the loopholes in SB 420, and include tracking of medical cannabis, verification of donations and local registry with city/county sheriff of SB 420 compliant collectives. Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water, people's access to health care is at risk, as is public safety. AB 266 will be heard in senate committees of health and government finance this Wednesday starting at 9am. Please take action: Assembly Member Bonta (916) 319-2018 assemblymember.bonta [at] assembly.ca.gov For more information contact: Shona Gochenaur (415) 240-5247 AxisofLoveSF [at] gmail.com