LAKE FOREST – Charles Café, the last of nearly 40 medical marijuana dispensaries that opened shop in this city during the past two year years, has been closed by federal agents. The café, which was known to city officials and police as a place that served pot-infused edibles in a Happy Hour-type setting after 5 p.m. was raided on Friday, said Orange County Sheriff Department Lt. Pat Higa, the city’s chief of police services. Federal agents confiscated the marijuana and marijuana edibles and arrested the two owners on federal charges, Erika I. Ritchie reports in [...]
In the design of America’s founders, the states are supposed to be centers of democratic experiment They’re not supposed to be uniform, the Orange County Register observes in this editorial. For example, even though alcohol Prohibition ended in 1933, local laws restricting sales exist in 33 states. In Arkansas, more than half of 75 counties prohibit alcohol sales. This design is why it is disturbing to us that the Obama administration has launched a crackdown on medical marijuana, which is legal in 16 states and the District of Columbia, the home of the federal government. [...]
One of California’s most-watched medical marijuana cases is headed back to the state Court of Appeal for what could be a crucial ruling on whether cities and counties can ban dispensaries. In a case that has bounced around the courts for four years, a Superior Court judge in Orange County decided this week that Anaheim’s ban on dispensaries does not violate state law, John Hoeffel reports in the Los Angeles Times. But Anthony Curiale, attorney for the Qualified Patients Association, a dispensary that sued Anaheim in 2007, said he will appeal. “Their ordinance is unconstitutional, [...]
LINCOLN, Neb. — A 63-year-old California woman has been given three to eight years in a Nebraska prison for the 66 pounds of marijuana found in the back of her sport utility vehicle. Cynthia Bruckner, of Fountain Valley, was convicted of a drug-delivery charge in November. The Lincoln Journal Star says Bruckner was sentenced on Thursday, the Associated Press reports in the San Jose Mercury News. She had sworn she didn’t know the marijuana was secreted in the SUV she was driving along Interstate 80 last February when it was pulled over. A drug dog [...]
Jan 192011
LAGUNA BEACH – Medical marijuana dispensaries remain illegal in the city despite a state agency’s vote to reject the ban. The Coastal Commission asked Laguna Beach to go back to the drawing board and find a way to regulate marijuana dispensaries instead of opting for a citywide ban. The dispensary ban became part of the city’s zoning code in 2009, which falls under Coastal Commission’s jurisdiction. Since the ban didn’t affect coastal access issues, the commission’s primary focus, the vote last week was expected to be a formality, Claudia Koerner reports in the Orange County [...]
Riverside County supervisors John Benoit and Jeff Stone will ask their colleagues today to rescind the board’s order to draft a law regulating medical-marijuana dispensaries. The two supervisors first asked for the medical-marijuana law in September. Two weeks ago, Benoit changed his position and called for a renewed ban, Duane W. Gang reports in the Riverside Press-Enterprise. An ordinance regulating how and where dispensaries could locate in unincorporated areas would have ended the county’s four-year prohibition on the businesses. Benoit and Stone in their proposal wrote that they are concerned that the “number of these [...]
SANTA ANA – A Long Beach man sat handcuffed to a chair in a mustard-colored jail uniform surrounded by sheriff’s deputies Monday as he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the torture and stabbing death of his marijuana supplier 22 years ago. Paul Gentile Smith, now 50, made no statement and showed no emotion as he was given the maximum sentence for the special-circumstances murder on Oct. 24, 1988 of Robert Haugen, who had been Smith’s close friend since elementary school. Haugen, 29, was stabbed 18 times in his [...]
Supervisors in Los Angeles and Orange counties moved in sync Tuesday to ban medical marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated territories. The bans, affecting an area with 1.5 million people in L.A. County and 120,000 in Orange County, were approved in 4-1 votes in both counties, Garrett Therolf reports in the Los Angeles Times. “Attracting crime and other nuisances, these facilities have a negative impact on the communities where they’ve operated — leading more than 100 cities and nine counties in California to pass similar ordinances,” said Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, who wrote L.A. County’s provision. In [...]
Oct 172010
Before we take an official position on Proposition 19, which would make it legal for adults to possess and use up to an ounce of prepared marijuana and grow as much as will fit in a 25-square-foot patch, and authorize local options for larger-scale cultivation and sales, we thought it would be prudent and responsible to discuss some of the issues involved. We invite discussion by our readers, the Orange County Register editorial board writes. Prop. 19, as major proponent Richard Lee of Oakland told us early on in the process, is not a simple [...]
Oct 172010
If the side effects of Proposition 19 – the one legalizing pot – seem a little hazy to you, you’re not alone. Opponents of the measure argue that even if you want marijuana legalized, Prop. 19 is slapdash and ambiguous when it comes to details, and you should wait for something better. After all, if you like to smoke the illicit herb, you probably aren’t having much trouble finding it under current laws – something Prop. 19 backers point out when they compare current pot laws to the U.S. prohibition on alcohol, Martin Wisckol reports [...]
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