By The Happy Wanderer
Meaghan McCain, the daughter of late U.S. Senator John McCain, has never been afraid to voice her opinions, no matter how controversial.
She made national headlines earlier this week when she told Ricki Lake, her co-host on the television show “The View,” that cannabis treatment could have extended the life of her father. Senator McCain died in August 2018 after losing his battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
In 2010, a study published in the Journal of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, discovered that cannabis compounds THC and CBD “may represent an improvement for the treatment of patients with glioblastoma and perhaps additional cancers.”
Sunday Goods has filed a formal application with the City of Scottsdale for a conditional use permit that will allow it to build and operate a medical marijuana dispensary near the Galleria. It would be the first south of the Airpark (four exist in that area) and will redefine what a dispensary looks like, looking like an art gallery. Scottsdale has enacted some of Arizona’s most restrictive zoning regulations for dispensaries. Accordingly, this proposed location is one of the few locales in the area that could become home to one.
The city can take a proactive step in continuing to improve the area east of the Galleria with this proposal to replace a tattoo parlor at 4255 North Winfield Scott Plaza that serves a very limited (and “interesting”) clientele with something that can become a community asset for all of Scottsdale’s citizens and improve the lives of the city’s most ill. Opposition to what’s been proposed has been nearly non-existent.
Senator McCain’s opinions on marijuana legalization softened over the course of the last decade of his life. During his presidential campaign in 2008, he was stanchly opposed. Five years later at a Tucson town hall when confronting an attendee who yelled “Legalize it!”, McCain responded, “Well, maybe we should legalize it. We are certainly moving that way so far as marijuana is concerned, but I will respect the will of the people.”
Though we can’t speak for The Maverick, even though we would like to see the mural of him on Marshall Way, we certainly feel that he would respect the will of Scottsdale’s citizens in this case. A recent poll found nearly two-thirds of likely Scottsdale voters supportive of the state’s medical marijuana program and the Galleria area site, with less than one-third opposed.
We just wish the proposed dispensary was a little closer to Scottsdale landlord Dewey Schade, leader of the opposition to the McCain Mural. A medical marijuana card just might do wonders to chill him out. Or we can only hope.