WHITTIER — Dolores Enriquez and Robert Ortiz of Pico Rivera and Sandra Newby of Whittier opened up the city’s newest business this week. Like most new enterprises, customers are slow to come in but they still came up with the money to join the Whittier Area Chamber of Commerce. But the three merchants have had to go through more than most to open their business because they operate the city’s first legal medical marijuana dispensary, the Whittier Daily News reports. It took them 15 months before getting the necessary permits and then another three months [...]
Saying federal agencies aren’t doing enough to stop Mexican drug cartels from growing marijuana illegally on public lands, U.S. Rep. Wally Herger has drafted a resolution urging Congress to create a long-term solution to permanently dismantle the traffickers’ operations. “It’s important that Congress becomes aware how serious a problem it is in our national forests,” Herger told the Redding Record Searchlight. “It’s going to take a unified effort and a dedicated effort in coming up with a strategy that can permanently dismantle Mexican drug trafficking on federal lands. This is a federal responsibility.” Last week, [...]
Jason Browne is a medical cannabis advocate who lives in Red Bluff. His “guest view” column appears in the Red Bluff Daily News. The column does not specify when the “newspaper’s statements” regarding the lawsuit appeared, and whether they were contained in a story and/or editorial. ======= In response to the newspaper’s statements about our lawsuit against Tehama County, several corrections must be made in order for local residents to understand the facts and to have an informed, intelligent discussion about the merits of this case. We identify ourselves accurately as qualified patients in this [...]
Jul 302010
Proposition 19, a November ballot initiative, would legalize recreational marijuana use for California residents over 21 and allow small residential cultivation — but also would put the state in conflict with federal law that says the drug is illegal. “The [Obama] administration opposes legalization of any drugs, including marijuana,” Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, said in an interview Thursday. Kerlikowske was in Fresno to announce the results of an ongoing crackdown on marijuana-growing operations known as Operation Trident, the Fresno Bee reports. It is focused on pot [...]
If voters in November pass Proposition 19 to legalize marijuana, Californians will be inhaling a new tax and regulatory environment as well, according to this Orange County Register editorial. Voters are weighing it closely: A Reuters/Ipsos poll taken in late June found that Prop. 19 was opposed by Californians, 50 percent to 48 percent. A key element of the “Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010″ is taxation, coming at a time when the state has difficulty balancing its budget every year. The deficit for the still-unpassed budget for fiscal year 2010-11, which began [...]
STOCKTON — A City Council committee Wednesday endorsed a revised set of rules that would regulate medical marijuana dispensaries in the city but relax some restrictions outlined in an earlier draft. There was a round of applause from the medical pot advocates and lawyers gathered when committee member and Councilwoman Susan Eggman asked for acknowledgement of the city’s efforts to tailor a fair compromise. The full City Council is scheduled to weigh in on the proposed rules late next month, Daniel Thigpen reports in the Stockton Record. (Subscription required.) It will be the second time. [...]
The Hummingbird Healing Center plans to appeal a Humboldt Superior Court judge’s ruling that paves the way for the county to shutter the Myrtletown medical marijuana dispensary. ”Although the trial court appears to have put a great deal of effort into the ruling, which we do appreciate, it still appears that the decision is legally in error,” the dispensary’s attorney, Chris Johnson Hamer, wrote in an e-mail to the Times-Standard on Wednesday. Hummingbird Healing Center has been operating without a county-issued conditional use permit since opening its doors in the Myrtletown shopping center last fall, [...]
After several marathon meetings, much hand-wringing and numerous flip-flops, the Richmond City Council voted early Wednesday to allow three marijuana dispensaries in the city and place a 5 percent marijuana tax on the November ballot. The decision reversed last week’s vote, which would have allowed an unlimited number of dispensaries in commercial districts. “Richmond’s been flirting with this issue for a long time,” said City Councilman Tom Butt. “But my feeling is, if you’re going to allow these dispensaries, you might as well get all the money you can out of it.” The marijuana ordinance [...]
Local law enforcement officials joined their federal counterparts Wednesday to deliver a unified message: Marijuana farming operations in the foothills and mountains of the Sierra Nevada are dangerous to citizens and the environment. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, and Benjamin Wagner, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, joined local sheriffs Margaret Mims of Fresno County, John Anderson of Madera County and Bill Wittman of Tulare County at a town hall in Clovis to discuss their concerns over marijuana-growing operations on public lands, the Fresno [...]
After long tumultuous debate, with virtually no one happy with plans to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries, Sacramento’s 39 registered pot shops seemingly got new life in a remarkable kumbaya moment. The Sacramento City Council voted Tuesday night to pursue the most liberal of three options for permitting and governing dispensaries. It junked a plan to set a citywide cap of 12 cannabis clubs, Peter Hecht writes in “Weed Wars.” And it bypassed an alternative to permit a higher concentration in Midtown — with another nine outlets scattered outside the urban district. In the end, all [...]
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