And there's some people already ruining it. I believe Amsterdam had this same problem. Drug tourism is not something cities want for many obvious reasons.
>> She said that she suffered from seizures and fibromyalgia, and her husband from post-traumatic stress, but that the couple had not been able to get medical marijuana at home. “We’re thinking about moving here because of it,” she said.
Maybe they're just making up excuses, but doesn't sound like these are a couple of 20 year olds just looking to get high in the middle of the day.
I have a MMJ card in CA because it helps with some nerve pain I have. Half the time I use it it's a tiny amount to get me through the next couple hours (placebo or not it works well especially for the trivial cost) and half the time it's to get so high at night that I stop caring about it and hopefully get at least a few hours of uninterrupted sleep in. The benefits of the latter are severely underrated when you deal with chronic pain.
Not to mention I have no idea why society has a double standard with casual marijuana use especially given the use of alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, prescription drug abuse, and more out there. I'm trying to drink less alcohol as part of my weight loss plan for my wedding and it really shocked me to realize that people around me easily kill a bottle of wine per person at a single dinner on top of drinking cocktails, beer and straight liquor... and that my restraining myself to 1-2 alcoholic drinks a week is crazy in comparison. Some of my friends persistently bother me for Adderall that I never give away because I barely have enough of for myself. Et cetera. Weed is pretty harmless in comparison I would think.
It was dead simple to get a red card - go into one of the many shops advertising an on site doc, complain of chronic back pain (or PTSD if a veteran), and there you go. The hardest problem was finding a shop taking new patients, as the MMJ law capped the number of patients per provider.
I think wine country is a pretty good analogy.
Cities love to have tourists come, spend money, use hotels, etc
This is a jingoistic view of "drug users" that really needs to die. Marijuana "users" are normal people -- with a slim majority supporting marijuana legalization and a significant fraction of that openly admitting marijuana use, the old stoner/loser stereotype is hopefully on its last legs. Paul Bucheit's comment above is really right on the nose.
Most places already allow bars, so this is something they have to deal with anyway.