[SmilerG]

Anyone who knew nothing about the validity of marijuana as an effective treatment for bona fide medical problems before reading this article, was certainly left with the wrong impression, after reading it!

About the only thing that Washington Post writer, Karl Vick, did not do was to include a recommendation, in his slanted article, for readers to watch "Reefer Madness".

It's no wonder that newspapers are dying left and right in the U.S., given the shoddy work like this, that's being turned-in for publication by lazy, sensationalist reporters.

Here's a link to the story -- but be sure to have your meds handy when you read it -- to fight off the overwhelming wave of nausea that will hit you!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...041100767.html

[allorganic]

No, we should not be mad at the reporter. Every single person on Weedtracker knows that there was not a single thing in this story that isn't the 100% total truth.

Here's the truth: The state of the integrity of our industry is that offensive. If you don't like what you read here, then don't enable and participate in the behavior by not patronizing the types of places you read about in this article.

We can't be mad at anyone but ourselves for reading stuff like this. We need to clean up our own act before we blame reporters for reporting the facts.

If you want reporters to write glowing stories about the struggles of patients, then be what you want to read about. There is a collective that shall go unnamed that appeared in another very prominent East Coast newspaper that got a very positive story because that story was the truth. If everyone in this industry behaved like that, those would be the only stories to write about.

[superface13]

I didn't see the article as all that negative. Sure, there were negative accounts of dispensary proliforation, and wink and nod recommendations from doctors...but that means there is HUGE demmand for cannabis in CA. My favorite quote from the article is:

"The one thing that's really caused it to go from medical to pretty much all-out legalization is the doctors," Lee said. "They have realized you can't over-prescribe it. They've really taken the lead. Alcohol -- frat boys drop dead by the hundred every year. You really can't kill yourself with marijuana."

[lavelee]

I came over to post about this very article that I saw linked internationally on HuffPo...of course someone here was on it already.

My reaction was a bit of an "uh-oh". I had no idea of the sort of thing like the Venice beach scene (I don't get out that way much). I cringe to read this kind of publicity.
As someone who just got their recc a short time ago and has found it to be a great boon for my problem I'd say that yes, that scene is there, pretty much as the reporter describes--but only if you're already looking for it. Otherwise imho it's still virtually unknown. I don't walk by loads of people puffing away on the sidewalk(again, I'm not a habitue of Venice beach), as this story somewhat paints it.

[CJK]

It's not so much a hatchet job, as showing what the outside person thinks of our community! They don't see the discreet, proper legal facility. They see this:

""Medical marijuana, right here, right now," chants a barker on the Venice Beach Boardwalk, outside the doorway of the Medical Kush Beach Club. "Get legal, right now." It really is that easy, the barker explains. Before being allowed to enter the upstairs dispensary and "smoking lounge," new customers are directed first to the physician's waiting room, presided over by two young women in low-cut tops. After proving state residence and minimum age (21), customers see a doctor in a white lab coat who for $150 produces a "physician's recommendation." Valid for one year, it is all that California law requires to purchase and smoke eight ounces legally. "I told him I had problems with my knee," said Joe Rizzo, 31, emerging from an examination recently with a knowing grin and a renewed card."


Then, from that, this is what happens:


In Los Angeles, Councilman Dennis Zine warned that half the city's sales outlets might be forced to close, but only to control the growth of what the city now regards as an accepted business. "We're not getting complaints about people smoking marijuana," said the retired motorcycle policeman. "We're seeing complaints about the proliferation of facilities. They opened up right down the street from my district office, in the same complex as a liquor store. Got the big green leaf in front."



Zine is one of the few people who have been with us since the beginning. I know for a fact he is not happy with the current crop of clubs.

We want better press from big outlets, we need to present ourselves better. It's a responsibility that we must have.

[Atoodope]

The way I see it, its kind of like constructive criticism. Now, we all cant deny that they are GREAT elements of this movememnt, and their are hundreds if not thousands of people who do this for the right reasons, to help patients! But, their is that very small percentile that do not do it for the right reasons, and I believe that those people should be dealt with. Not only do they give us a bad name, but they give a bad name to the entire movement!! Thats why im glad Weedtracker is here, because instead of going off hear-say, we can actually look and see with our own eyes which clinics are in this for the reasons that it was intended for, rather than clinics looking at the big dollar signs over every patients head . I just hope that more people, from this article, try to not only see the bad, but possibly research the good to get the larger picture and to understand that there may be a few bad apples, but it would not only be insane, it would be uncompassionate, to throw out the whole batch!! I dont know, just my opinion heh