San Francisco, the hotbed of marijuana law reform, has frozen medical cannabis dispensary permitting this winter as the City — and dozens of others across the state — nervously await a decision by the California Supreme Court on the very legality of such permits. Nine groups that are seeking permits to open new San Francisco clubs — mostly in the Mission — have been caught in limbo, the Department of Public Health told Legalization Nation blogger David Downs in the East Bay Express. San Francisco currently has 26 permitted dispensaries. However, an October decision by [...]
When California voters approved Proposition 215 in 1996, their intent was to provide compassionate care to patients by legalizing the use of marijuana to ease pain from illnesses such as cancer. Prop. 215 was never meant to give the green light to the hundreds of profit-making dispensaries that have cropped up in the years since to sell marijuana to people who don’t need it, the Long Beach Press-Telegram writes in an unsigned editorial. But intent and reality collided, and the result has been a muddled mess for the cities, such as Los Angeles and Long [...]
U.S. authorities filed suit Thursday seeking to seize the building of a Sacramento dispensary, charging the marijuana store violated federal laws against drug transactions near schools. The forfeiture complaint filed over the Sacramento Holistic Healing Center – a Southside Park dispensary also known as “Grass on 10th” – marks the first formal federal seizure action against a medical marijuana outlet in the city, Peter Hecht reports in the Sacramento Bee. In court papers filed in Sacramento, U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner suggested the business was being targeted because it was dispensing marijuana within 1,000 feet of [...]
LONG BEACH — The Avalon Wellness Center sits in an industrial neighborhood on Long Beach’s Westside. Surrounded by welding and industrial supply businesses, the gray block building almost disappears in the bleak backdrop, but for the green medical cross painted on the wall. Avalon may have to close its doors if the City Council on Tuesday follows a recommendation to repeal existing ordinances allowing medical marijuana dispensaries and to ban the sale and distribution of cannabis. The recommendation from City Attorney Bob Shannon comes in the wake of an Oct. 4, 2010, state Court of [...]
Three people were arrested and marijuana was seized early Sunday after authorities found a smuggling boat near Point Mugu. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested three men they said were transporting drugs in a panga boat found off Pacific Coast Highway and Deer Creek Road, Ventura County sheriff’s officials said. Sheriff’s officials responded to a call about 5 a.m. Sunday to help ICE officials who were looking for the passengers on the boat, the Ventura County Star reports. ICE officials found the three men on foot near the area before 7:20 a.m., Capt. Dave Murray [...]
Michael Steffens gets a little nervous these days when he hears car wheels coming up his rural Healdsburg driveway or one of his dogs barking at the window. A little more than two years ago, the 51-year-old carpenter was the victim of a home-invasion robbery in which he was tied up and beaten by four men who dressed as police officers. Steffens survived and the men were quickly caught and punished, Paul Payne reports in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. But unlike other victims, Steffens said he’s been unable to get public assistance for the [...]
One of Redding’s most vocal medical cannabis advocates is questioning whether a low-income housing program run by the city illegally discriminates against marijuana patients, and he’s asked the Shasta County district attorney to weigh in on the matter. Meanwhile, city officials maintain they’re following guidelines set forth by the federal agency funding the program, Sean Longoria reports in the Record Searchlight. Rob McDonald, 50, said the city’s policy of denying or terminating assistance to Section 8 participants who use medical marijuana may be illegally discriminatory, regardless of any federal policies in place. “The city has [...]
Mendocino County’s one-of-a-kind, income-generating medical marijuana cultivation permit process has been suspended pending the outcome of a Southern California court case that challenges the legality of issuing permits for activities that are illegal under federal law. “We’re waiting to hear something,” said Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman. The popular permits allowed medical marijuana collectives to as many as 99 plants under a fee structure that includes inspections and zip-tie identification markers for each plant, Glenda Anderson reports in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Ukiah Daily Journal: County pot permits not suspended The annual permit application [...]
It’s official. I have joined an amicus brief with a doctors group and surgeons regarding Obama health care! We will be filing in support of Florida and all the other many states in the Obamacare legal challenge. As some of you may know, Gonzales v. Raich is at the heart of the Obamacare legal debate from Congress, and now it’s going to the U.S. Supreme Court, Angel Raich writes by e-mail. (Learn more at Angel Raich’s website.) In a month or so we will file the amicus brief. Our team will be working hand in [...]
Jan 122012
Title: Medical Cannabis Cup – L.A. Location: Los Angeles Center Studios, 1201 W. Fifth St., Los AngelesLink out: Click hereDescription: The world’s premier medical-marijuana competition arrives in Los Angeles for the first time. Panels and seminars with leaders of the medical-marijuana movement, including doctors, patients, researchers, growers, dispensary owners, activists and HIGH TIMES magazine’s own cultivation editors. A Saturday-night VIP party featuring performances by very special musical guests. A closing-night Medical Cannabis Cup awards ceremony honoring the top indicas, sativas, hybrids, concentrates and edibles entered by California’s legally operating cannabis dispensaries and collectives.Start Date: 2012-02-11End [...]
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