Napa: Good News and Bad News for Cannabis Patients

Ryan Voss testifies in Napa. Credit Keri Brenner

The city of Napa, California, is generally fairly compassionate. The City Council wrote a law several years ago to approve and allow medical marijuana dispensaries, but they never implemented it for fear that the Federal government would prosecute them.

Instead, they set up a moratorium on dispensaries, which expires this October. So for four long years, the medical marijuana patients in Napa — many of whom are disabled — have had to travel to surrounding cities to obtain their medicine legally.

Now the City Council has taken firm action (sarcasm alert), according to this Patch article. They’ve repealed their law altogether, and written a letter to state and federal lawmakers expressing their displeasure at the unsettled nature of the laws.

If the City Council seems frustrated, imagine how the patients feel, as many of them testified from their wheelchairs about the pain they’re in and how hard it is for them to get their medicine.

The Napa City Council could show a little backbone. They don’t have to explicitly set up “approval” of any kind for dispensaries if they’re afraid of the federal government. All they would have to do is set up a zoning ordinance for alternative herbal health centers, or something like that, and no mention of the dreaded reefer is necessary. But the good news is that, this October, the moratorium will expire, so if nothing else, hopefully Napa patients will get some local relief.