Thirty bales of marijuana with an estimated street value of $500,000 were found floating in the waters off Marina del Rey, sheriff’s deputies said Thursday. Sheriff’s Sgt. Michael Carriles said a recreational boater first found five bales in the water around noon Wednesday and alerted deputies and the U.S. Coast Guard, Kristin S. Agostoni reports in the Los Angeles Daily News. Not long after, authorities found another 25 bales in the same vicinity – within a roughly 4-square-mile area about six nautical miles northwest of the harbor entrance, he said. Carriles said it appeared as [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
LONG BEACH – A jury Wednesday convicted two local men on all counts for using a trio of medical marijuana collectives to illegally sell the drug, as well as grand theft and filing false tax returns. Supporters of defendants Joe Grumbine and Joe Byron insisted the charges – 13 felony counts – are nothing more than an attack by zealous police and prosecutors in violation of the state’s medical marijuana law, Tracy Manzer reports in the Long Beach Press-Telegram. Deputy District Attorney Jodi Castano countered the case was about two men using the sick and [...]
LONG BEACH — The fate of medical cannabis in Long Beach will continue to be uncertain for at least a few more weeks after the City Council on Tuesday put off a decision to ban marijuana collectives. The council voted 6-2 to push the matter to its Jan. 10 meeting following more than three hours of public comment and debate. Prior to the delaying vote, members deadlocked 4-4 on approving the ban. The continuance approved by the council was proposed by Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal. She cited the absence of Councilman Robert Garcia, who has [...]
Two suspected smugglers were arrested Thursday morning when another panga fishing boat was discovered on a San Pedro beach, police said. The discovery was made about 7 a.m. on the rocks near Leland Avenue below Point Fermin Park, Larry Altman reports in the Torrance Daily Breeze. “A citizen saw a couple of guys leaving a boat,” said Phillip Sanfield, a Port of Los Angeles spokesman. “They were on the rocks. Apparently there was either a helicopter or something that seemed to spook them to get off the boat quickly. They were soaking wet.” Port police [...]
LONG BEACH — An accessory to murder charge was dismissed Monday against a Granada Hills woman who was accused in the slaying of a medical marijuana distributor. The stunning move was made Monday morning when the prosecutor announced to the court the people could not meet the statutory time limit for the trial against Rosemary Sayegh, said Shiara Davila, a Los Angeles County District Attorney’s spokeswoman. The 32-year-old Sayegh (pronounced Sage) was charged as an accessory in the slaying of Philip Victor Williamson, 29, of Los Angeles, Tracy Manzer reports in the Long Beach Press-Telegram. [...]
A local judge had upheld the controversial medical marijuana ordinance enacted by Los Angeles, denying motions from 29 medical marijuana dispensaries for a preliminary injunction. The decision came after Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mohr held a series of hearings over many months on a host of challenges raised by the collectives. It represents a major victory for the city attorney’s office, which has invested considerable time and expense in defending the city’s ordinance from a phalanx of lawyers working for dispensaries, John Hoeffel reports in the Los Angeles Times. “It has [...]
Federal law prohibits California cities from issuing permits to collectives authorizing them to supply marijuana to medical patients, a state appeals court has ruled, raising questions about the scope of local regulation of pot dispensaries. In overturning a Long Beach ordinance, the court said the city went a step beyond California’s action in 1996, when state voters eliminated criminal penalties for patients who used marijuana with a doctor’s approval. Deciding not to prosecute someone for drug use doesn’t conflict with the federal ban on marijuana possession and distribution, the court said. It also said a [...]
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday that Long Beach has the authority to criminally enforce its medical marijuana ordinance. Superior Court Judge Laura Laesecke’s decision was in response to a June claim from 14 defendants representing five medical marijuana collectives who wanted their criminal cases dismissed. They claimed that Long Beach’s ordinance was invalid and was pre-empted by California law, so it couldn’t be criminally enforced, Phillip Zonkel reports in the Long Beach Press-Telegram. Long Beach was prosecuting the collectives because they were considered illegal, not complying with Long Beach’s medical marijuana [...]
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