San Francisco Chronicle, 30 Jul 2012 – Your editorial ("From chaos to prohibition," July 26) succeeds in herding the cats: It makes sense of the chaos caused by current medical marijuana policy, and by the absence of good policy. Without clear rules and standards, as you wrote, it has been impossible for dispensaries, cities and counties to thread the ever-moving needle of federal enforcement messages. However, through the efforts of my office, Sacramento has not been ignoring this issue. The Assembly passed my AB2312 to regulate production and distribution of medical marijuana. And, as you know, I asked for the bill to be held in the Senate so we could work on it some more. Though it hasn’t been easy, things are not at a standstill. The Senate will hold a hearing on the bill in the coming fall session. I’m hopeful that we can get on the road that doesn’t lead to prohibition, but goes from chaos to coherent care.

Sacramento Bee, 21 Jul 2012 – Re "Wildlands caught in drug war crossfire" (Editorials, July 18): Your editorial rightly noted that there can be human costs to the pesticides used in illegal pot grows, in addition to the disasters befalling wildlife like the Pacific fishers. When vulnerable patients use medical cannabis as part of their treatments, they can be exposed to and endangered by the same harsh pesticides used by growers against animals. It is yet another reason for California to enact effective regulations to make control the production and distribution of the medical cannabis approved by voters more than a decade ago. Wildlife and medical patients both deserve to be protected from criminal growing operations, and I will continue to promote legislation that will help make them safe.