Video Transcript:

GLORIA PENNER (Host): In other local news, the City Council appointed 11 people to serve on the newly created Medical Marijuana Task force. Their job is to recommend rules for medical marijuana dispensaries which are proliferating throughout the city. Here we are, the old saying is, when in doubt, appoint a task force. How will this group help resolve this impasse between federal law, which prohibits marijuana, and California law, that permits the dispensing of medical marijuana. 

DAVID ROLLAND (Editor, San Diego CityBeat): Well, there's nothing they can do about the federal law. Under federal law, marijuana is illegal no matter what, even more medicinal uses. So, what they are trying to do is do what cities have done up and down the state, some cities. There have been some cities that have banned these things all together, there are some cities that have put moratoriums on them, they are not going to allow any more than they already have. And then there are some cities that are more progressive and that have really, really established some clear guidelines in terms of how people can get the marijuana that they say they need. 

PENNER: What it is it, at the core of this issue, JW? I mean, why is medical marijuana such a hot topic?

JW AUGUST(Managing Editor, KGTV 10News): One of the major issues, Bonnie Dumanis' DA office noticed, and I saw it too, we did some stories on it, how much money this is in for the people that are actually selling the prescriptions and selling the marijuana; the profit motive. That was not the intention of the proposition when it passed. The intention was to help people who have terrible pain, cancers; the pot would help them relieve the pain. But it has turned into this growth industry, no pun intended, that is making lots of money for a lot of people, and I don't think that's the right thing. I'm still not straight in my mind how these guys get the pot who sell it to the people who need it. 

PENNER: Maybe the task force can straighten that out for you, but this law was passed 13 years ago. Why is San Diego just now getting around to clarifying how the law is administered? 

ROLLAND: That's the big question. A number of years ago in the early part of this decade they went ahead and established some guidelines in terms of how much marijuana an individual patient can have and how much an individual or caregiver can provide to an individual patient. But they have just been really, really, really slow on the distribution side.