Bud’s note: The newspapers are playing catch-up on this as they plow through the other bills on Arnold’s desk. This action alert comes from the fine folks at NORML; I’ll post more coverage as it becomes available. “Weed Wars” coverage from the Sacramento Bee “Radical” Russ Belville’s reaction in NORML’s Stash Blog San Jose Mercury News coverage Los Angeles Times coverage ========== Yesterday outgoing California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 1449 — which reduces adult marijuana possession charges from a criminal misdemeanor to a civil infraction. NORML would like to thank the 2,500+ of [...]
Oct 012010
Apr 302010
If California’s medical marijuana trade were just one big harmonious smoking circle, attorney Daniel Marc Bornstein might be out of business. The veteran civil litigation lawyer formed Confidential Mediation Services so that marijuana dispensaries, cultivators and patients can resolve disputes, Peter Hecht writes in his “Weed Wars” blog. Bornstein offers himself as a peace facilitator for a trade that isn’t always comfortable with settling things the old-fashioned way of going to court and suing. So Bornstein, who has offices in San Francisco and Beverly Hills, says he is the man to call when a dispensary [...]
A 49-year-old Redding man is becoming an old hand in winning medical marijuana cases, the Record-Searchlight’s Jim Schultz reports. James Bradley Hall was arraigned Friday morning in Shasta County Superior Court on felony marijuana cultivation and for having a shotgun in his house while in the commission of a crime only to later learn that the entire case against him is being dropped. “What a relief,” Hall said after hearing the news. “Maybe now they’ll leave me alone.” District Attorney Jerry Benito said late this morning that his office is dismissing the criminal case against [...]
A 25-year-old San Francisco man was acquitted of murder and attempted murder charges today in connection with a marijuana robbery that ended in the victim’s slaying. Max Reyes, a laborer with no criminal record, broke down in tears after the verdict was read in San Francisco Superior Court and thanked jurors repeatedly, writes Jaxon Van Derbeken of the San Francisco Chronicle. Reyes had been accused of first-degree murder for allegedly participating in the Nov. 3, 2008, robbery that led to the slaying of 36-year-old John Rogers, Chronicle reporter Van Derbeken reports. Prosecutors said Reyes was [...]
Feb 012010
As supporters of a proposed ballot initiative to fully legalize pot turned in their signatures last week, a spokesman for San Francisco’s Tom Ammiano said the assemblyman would also reintroduce his own decriminalization bill in the state Legislature. “We are planning on reintroducing the bill in early or mid-February,” Ammiano’s spokesman, Quintin Mecke, told L.A. Weekly’s Dennis Romero. The bill would fly in the face of federal law by removing pot from a list of controlled substances and regulating it like alcohol, with with the over-21 crowd being able to buy it, grow it and [...]
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction Friday ordering an Eagle Rock dispensary to stop selling medical marijuana, a decision that city prosecutors believe is the first to find that state law does not give collectives the right to sell the drug. Judge James C. Chalfant’s decision applies only to Hemp Factory V, a small outlet in the city of Eagle Rock near Glendale, but it could have enormous ramifications, the Los Angeles Times’ John Hoeffel reports here. Hundreds of collectives in Los Angeles and throughout the state operate in the [...]
The California Supreme Court’s ruling shooting down restrictions on medical marijuana possession is just the latest twist in a murky and constantly changing legal landscape, according to this in-depth article in the Eureka Times-Standard. Thursday’s unanimous ruling in People V. Patrick Kelly, while not unexpected, has drawn a variety of reactions on the North Coast, write reporters Thadeus Greenson and Donna Tam. Prosecutors and law enforcement agencies worry it will make marijuana laws even more of a nightmare to enforce, some local municipalities wonder what it will mean for their ordinances, local defense attorneys say [...]
A long-running lawsuit against the federal government by the nation’s most prominent medical marijuana collective ended in a settlement that enables the organization to continue serving the ill, the San Jose Mercury News reports here. The founders of Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana said they agreed to dismiss the lawsuit based on new government policy with the understanding the litigation they started can be re-instated if the federal government changes its mind and sends drug enforcement agents to WAMM. The lawsuit stems from a 2002 Drug Enforcement Agency raid on the Santa Cruz-based collective. Thirty [...]
A unanimous California Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a law that sought to impose limits on the amount of marijuana a medical patient can legally possess, the Associated Press reports on this Sacramento Bee link. The California Supreme Court ruled that state lawmakers were wrong to change provisions of the voter-approved Proposition 215. The 1996 measure allowed for patients with a doctor’s recommendation to possess an unspecified amount of marijuana. The Legislature, seeking to give law enforcement guidance on when to make marijuana possession arrests, mandated in 2003 that each patient could have a [...]
Whether Vallejo will have a legal medical marijuana cooperative is up in the air after a Solano County Superior Court hearing Wednesday, according to this Vallejo Times-Herald article. (See Bud’s armchair legal analysis below.) Resident Chris Valentine, on behalf of the Vallejo Giving Tree Patients Cooperative, is suing the city. He says he was barred from his venture, despite city zoning codes not specifically banning cooperatives within city limits. Vallejo zoning codes specify what types of retail businesses are allowed, and marijuana dispensaries are not covered, said deputy city attorney Alan Cohen. Valentine initially sought [...]
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