“We’re trying to get a movement going,” says Chantel Waske, receptionist and consultant at People’s Choice. She says the marijuana dispensary on W. Liberty wants customers to “get out of their houses and call their representatives.”
In January, People’s Choice was handing out a call script downloaded from milegalize.com. The key line: “I was hoping that Congress(man/woman) would make a statement in support of the Rohrabacher Amendment, which protects the states’ right to medical marijuana.”
Dana Rohrabacher, a California conservative, is often described as “Putin’s favorite congressman”–but he’s also an ardent champion of legalizing marijuana. In January, when attorney general Jeff Sessions repealed a policy that let U.S. attorneys ignore state laws that conflict with the federal prohibition, Rohrabacher accused him of delivering “an extravagant holiday gift to the drug cartels.”
Rohrabacher’s amendment was temporarily extended three times last year; as the Observer went to press, advocates were pushing to have it be renewed once again. Will anything change if it doesn’t? “It’s definitely on our minds,” says People’s Choice manager Mike Olszewski. “We’ll just have to wait.” But at least for now, customers can still select a plant from their modest greenhouse, or enter the inner sanctum for advice from a “budtender.”
