ABOUT YAK, DHARMA, AND THE HOSPICE PROGRAM Jon Dough asked: “Could you please tell us a bit about Dharma, YAK, and the Hospice Program?. Thank you. Jon.” I will be glad to. While I haven’t had much to do with the day-to-day operations for a while, I am one of the founders of the original incarnation of the Dharma Care and Hospice Program and I am very proud of the work it has done over the last five years. But first, let me say a few words about the Dharma “community,” and some of the different incarnations of Dharma over the years. The group has been around for quite a while. When prop. 215 passed in 1995, making medical cannabis legal in California on January 1, 1996, Dharma Producers Group was formed in San Francisco to provide cannabis medicine to qualified patients. DPG was the first new medical cannabis dispensary to open in San Francisco after the passage of Prop. 215 and was located in the historic old Warfield Building at Sixth and Market. At this time, San Francisco was deep in the AIDS crisis and many unfortunate citizens were literally dying on the street. Dharma was located in the heart of San Francisco’s Tenderloin District, where many indigent patients lived in residential hotels. The San Francisco public health system made it easy for an AIDS patient to obtain a doctor’s recommendation for cannabis; the medicinal efficacy of the kind herb was indeed proven to them in the fight against AIDS, as evidenced by the saintly work of Brownie Mary Rathbun. Interestingly, Readers Digest sent out a reporter to cover the work of DPG. The reporter spent several days at the dispensary, and began crying when he spent time with a number of dying patients, all of them telling him that their lives were being extended by cannabis use. We thought we had a highly sympathetic treatment about to be published. The article, a true hit piece, was entitled “High on a Lie.” I wonder how Reader’s Digest would treat the subject these days … I am proud to say that DPG never turned away a qualified patient due to lack of money, and supplied numerous indigent patients with high-quality medicine, at no cost, day after day. This was truly the beginnings of the Dharma Care and Hospice Program as it exists today. Dharma worked very closely with San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan to develop the procedures and techniques necessary to provide cannabis medicine to patients in need. Terence and his son and law partner, Brendan, have been looking after Dharma’s legal affairs for many years. Along with Dennis Peron and Brownie Mary, Terence is considered one of the founding fathers and original heros of the medicinal cannabis movement for allowing its birth to take place in his town when he was District Attorney. Along with Dennis Peron’s Cannabis Buyer’s Club about a mile up Market St., John Hudson’s Flower Therapy, and Dr. Aldrich’s CHAMP (Cannabis Helping Alleviate Medical Problems) at the corner of Market and Church, many of the foundational workings of the modern-day dispensary were developed at this time in San Francisco. The first federal intervention into MMJ came about two years later when Dharma and the five other medical cannabis dispensaries operating in California were named in a civil action, causing DPG to change the way in which medicine was provided to the patients. The next “official” incarnation of Dharma took place around 2008, right after AG Holder made his famed announcement that the federal government was going to respect states’ rights to some degree in this area. Dharma Patient’s Cooperative, Inc. – A California Corporation Organized Not for Profit, was formed in 2008, shortly after Holder’s announcement. The care and hospice program was formed at this time. It’s purpose and mission is to provide cannabis medicine, at no cost, to any qualified Californian who is in a hospice program, or is hospitalized for a terminal illness, and cannot afford the cannabis medicine recommended by the doctor. The second mission of Dharma has been to provide whole plant cannabis capsules, at approximately their cost to manufacture and distribute, to numerous California dispensaries. Dharma has provided their hospice program services, and their whole plant healing capsules, to a great number of California dispensaries over the years, and currently networks with several hundred of the most legitimate and established dispensaries throughout the state. Over the years, the care and hospice program became the main thrust of the work being carried out. This was formalized a few months ago with the formation of Dharma Care and Hospice Program, LLC., which has taken over the work and administration of the program from Dharma Patients Cooperative, Inc. DCHP continues in Dharma’s longtime mission to provide free cannabis medicine to any Californian in hospice, or hospitalized for a terminal illness. Those qualified patients in need can apply through any dispensary which has partnered with the program. There are several hundred in California who carry the YAK products, and any of these can arrange for application to the program.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 17:22:16 +0000
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