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 [...]
A young Mendocino man whose legal plight has become a cause célèbre for medical marijuana advocates appeared in Mendocino County court Thursday in hopes of halting extradition to Texas. Mendocino County Judge Ann Moorman told Chris Diaz’ attorney, Don Lipmanson, he needed to submit that request to Texas authorities. “I don’t have any jurisdiction,” she said. But Moorman said she will consider releasing Diaz on bail at a hearing she then scheduled for Tuesday. Supporters of Diaz, 22, an asthmatic and father of two children, ages 1 and 4, contend that he is emblematic of [...]
In response to a court order, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department Friday afternoon returned 2 pounds of medicinal marijuana to a dispensary from which it was seized earlier this month. A Sacramento Superior Court judge Friday morning ordered the Sheriff’s Department to return the marijuana to the Common Roots Collective, Kim Minugh reports in the Sacramento Bee. On Dec. 1, deputies accompanied code enforcement officers who executed an inspection warrant at the dispensary on 52nd Street in Sacramento, said John Fuery, the collective’s attorney. While at the collective, deputies seized 2 pounds of marijuana, citing [...]
SAN FRANCISCO — Attorney General Kamala Harris urged California lawmakers Wednesday to get serious about clarifying the state’s 15-year-old medical marijuana law, saying numerous holes in the notoriously liberal statute have left law enforcement and legitimate patients in a near-constant state of uncertainty. In a letter to the Legislature’s leaders, Harris said the state needs to spell out if the hundreds of storefront dispensaries and delivery services that sell marijuana—purportedly for medical use—are legal, or if the only lawful way to obtain the drug is through patient collectives in which all members jointly grow their [...]
When marijuana growers suggested ordinances Yuba County could use to regulate medical marijuana, and anti-pot Supervisor Andy Vasquez said he appreciated the input on an issue here to stay, it could be taken as a sign of progress in the Yuba-Sutter area’s weed wars. With supervisors holding a workshop Tuesday to discuss a possible medical marijuana ordinance, the prevailing theory among both the board and more than a dozen speakers seemed to be: Mend it, don’t end it. “We want to work with you. We want to get an ordinance drafted,” said Eric Salerno, spokesman [...]
MODESTO — Investigators found guns, a bullet-proof vest and 106 marijuana plants growing in the Keyes home of a former Stanislaus County sheriff’s detective when they served a search warrant at the property earlier this year as part of an off-duty shooting investigation, according to court testimony Thursday. Kari Abbey, 34, is accused of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter in connection with the shooting death of Rita Elias, 31, who was living in one of the rental homes Abbey managed for her father. Abbey also has been charged with criminal conspiracy, embezzlement, cultivating marijuana, receiving [...]
The federal Department of Justice’s crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries in California has meant the loss of thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue, according to cannabis advocates and government statistics. An estimated 2,500 people statewide have lost their jobs since late September, when California’s four U.S. attorneys sent letters that threatened jail sentences for dispensary owners and the possible seizure of buildings that house the pot clubs, said Dan Rush, director of the United Food and Commercial Workers’ national medical cannabis division. The union began organizing medical marijuana workers in May [...]
Three Lake of the Pines residents have been arrested in connection with a large marijuana grow after authorities seized at least 135 pounds of processed marijuana. Nevada County Narcotics Task Force members served search warrants Thursday on two residences in Lake of the Pines and a 40-acre parcel in south county, Liz Kellar reports in The Union. The parcel in the 19000 block of Kingswood Court, as well as the residences in the 13000 block of Torrey Pines Drive and the 11000 block of Skylark Court, all are owned by John Steven Vanliefde and his [...]
SANTA CRUZ — The Sheriff’s Office seized more than 130 pounds of marijuana and $67,000 in cash from a warehouse in Watsonville on Wednesday afternoon after an anonymous tip. It’s being described as one of the biggest pot busts the office has seen in recent years, Jessica M. Pasko reports in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Members of the narcotics enforcement team executed a search warrant at a warehouse on the 600 block of Rodriguez Street, where they found a high-level marijuana-growing operation. Dozens of bags of marijuana were recovered, all packaged in 1-, 2- and [...]
Kern County has changed the way it enforces a controversial ordinance limiting the cultivation of medical marijuana after a judge raised concerns about its tactics. The law, passed in August, was challenged in court by attorney Phil Ganong on behalf of several medical marijuana collectives and advocates, James Burger reports in the Bakersfield Californian. Kern County Superior Court Judge David Lampe refused Ganong’s request to block implementation of the ordinance limiting grows to 12 plants on a single parcel while the law was being litigated. But Lampe threw in a twist by also saying he [...]
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