One of the greatest obstacles facing medical cannabis dispensaries is the image — firmly planted in the minds of some people – of what a medical cannabis dispensary is, what cannabis patient looks like and who they are.

No city wants “those people” to have a business in their community. Contributing to that false image are some rogue dispensaries whose practices would make Bob Marley outraged. Yet the reality is we are everyday people.

There isn’t one among the people that I know who wants to support the often-mentioned drug cartels. That being said, common sense needs to come into play.

Poor people are often judged as criminals. It is those poor people who are being marginalized in the conversation about cannabis. And if indeed the drug cartels are the ones behind the black market illicit cannabis trade in our neighborhood, it is those poor people who are going to be driven – by the market – to remain in the illicit market.

The current proposals help to keep the myth alive that poverty equals criminality.

What I care about are the people, the individuals who make up our community. I care about safe access to cost effective quality medicine, especially for the poor. I believe that Sequim could and should welcome the allotted ONE dispensary without further delay.

The moratorium in Sequim was deemed an emergency action by the city council. But there isn’t an emergency. The sky isn’t falling. What is happening is that the people who struggle each month to pay their bills are paying additional unnecessary costs for access to their medicine. That is the real “sin.”

We can find an appropriate and fair selection method for choosing the ONE Sequim dispensary that can fit well into our community. We can, and should, do it now. Right now, patients need their medicine.

Jan Gonzales

Sequim