San Jose’s new ordinance to regulate medical marijuana clubs has run into a buzz saw of challenges, not the least of which is a referendum qualified for the June ballot to repeal the regulations. Rather than take on that fight, the City Council should suspend the ordinance, as Mayor Chuck Reed has proposed, and hope that the courts, the Legislature or both will clarify what cities can do to regulate dispensaries. Pot clubs need to move back to the spirit of Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act voters passed in 1996, the Mercury News editorial [...]
A proposed ballot initiative aimed for the November elections begs a key question looming over California’s medical marijuana industry: Can stricter state regulation keep the federal government from shutting it down? Dispensaries, medical marijuana growers and a powerful union local are rallying behind an initiative that would regulate California’s $1.5 billion pot trade, Peter Hecht reports in the Sacramento Bee. They predict they will be able to raise $2 million from medical marijuana businesses and drug policy groups to qualify the measure for the November ballot. A drive to gather a required half-million valid voter [...]
A federal grand jury in Sacramento has indicted a Trinity County man on marijuana conspiracy and cultivation charges, months after a series of raids resulted in the seizure of more than 2,700 pot plants. According to a criminal complaint, William Robert Barsanti, 26, who was indicted Thursday, bragged to local sheriff’s deputies that he could beat any charges against him because he was protected under California’s medical marijuana laws, the Sacramento Bee reports. Redding Record Searchlight coverage Trinity County authorities referred the case to federal prosecutors after 2,769 marijuana plants and five pounds of pot [...]
Faced with legal threats from Uncle Sam, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday gutted its innovative, revenue-generating medical marijuana permitting program that allowed cooperatives to grow up to 99 plants. “The mistake was made when we pushed the envelope,” said Supervisor Kendall Smith. Rather than issuing permits — a process that was recently suspended — the county now limits the number of plants to 25, well within the limits set in other counties and less likely to raise a red flag for federal authorities who consider pot for any purpose to be illegal. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Pressure from California Northern District U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag has led to the closure of an Arcata medical marijuana dispensary, changes in Arcata’s landmark medical marijuana ordinance and a swirl of fear in Humboldt County’s medical marijuana community. As a result, Humboldt County 3rd District Supervisor Mark Lovelace met with Haag on Thursday afternoon to express his disappointment with the recent federal crackdown. In an interview with the Eureka Times-Standard on Friday, Lovelace said the U.S. attorney’s actions “showed incredible disrespect for local governments,” Grant Scott-Goforth reports. Lovelace said his meeting with Haag, which Humboldt [...]
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