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 [...]
The California Legislature will soon vote on two marijuana reform bills that seem to be more popular with the public than with the politicians in Sacramento: SB 129 by state Sen. Mark Leno, which would prohibit employment discrimination against medical marijuana patients, and AB 1017 by Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, which would allow for reduced, misdemeanor charges in marijuana cultivation cases. Both bills have strong public support according to a newly released poll of state voters by EMC Research, CalNORML Director Dale Gieringer writes in an e-mail advisory. However, both have had trouble getting through the [...]
Lake County law-enforcement and government officials fear property values and public safety will be threatened by a proposed ballot initiative that would allow up to 12 budding marijuana plants in residential backyards and 84 on parcels of seven acres or more. On rural parcels, “right to farm regulations” would apply, prohibiting the county or neighboring property owners from complaining the pot gardens are nuisances, Glenda Anderson reports in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. “It would just nuke people’s property rights up here. Just nuke ‘em,” Lake County Community Development Director Rick Coel said. The Lake [...]
On Jan. 18, the Supreme Court of California issued an order granting review of the now infamous line of medical marijuana cases of Pack v. City of Long Beach, City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patient’s Health and Wellness Ctr., Inc., Traudt v. City of Dana Point, and People v. G3 Holistic. Unless the Supreme Court decides otherwise, this means that medical marijuana advocates can rejoice because local jurisdictions and lower courts cannot use the logic of Pack or Riverside as a vehicle to scuttle the regulatory processes that assure safe access to California’s medical [...]
OROVILLE — The Butte County Board of Supervisors Tuesday repealed an ordinance banning marijuana dispensaries in the county, but the ban still remains in effect. The unanimous vote came in response to a petition drive seeking to rescind the ordinance passed in October that banned all medical marijuana dispensaries within Butte County jurisdiction. After the ordinance was passed, opponents began a petition drive to block the measure. The petitions were turned in to county officials in late November, Roger H. Aylworth reports in the Chico Enterprise-Record. In mid-December, the county’s Elections Office certified the petitions [...]
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 [...]
A medical marijuana group seeking to recall Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko was unable to gather 20 valid signatures that would have started the process. Cathy Darling Allen, the county’s registrar of voters, said Friday that though the group had submitted 23 signatures, she was able to confirm the legitimacy of just 14 of them, Ryan Sabalow reports in the Redding Record Searchlight. She said the rest of the signatures either didn’t belong to registered voters, were illegible or were missing an actual signature, though the person had printed a name. Rob McDonald, the 50-year-old [...]
San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed said Tuesday he would consider softening the city’s recently approved medical marijuana ordinance after critics succeeded in qualifying a referendum to repeal the new rules. The ordinance the City Council approved in September would shrink the number of medical marijuana collectives allowed in the city from more than 100 to just 10, in addition to requiring them to grow all of the marijuana they distribute on site. Critics collected more than 49,000 signatures in a month to repeal the law, which they argued would require the creation of marijuana superstores [...]
A group of local medical cannabis advocates is trying to gather 10,000 signatures to overturn a recent ordinance Shasta County supervisors passed that restricts marijuana growing for county residents. Nor Cal Safe Access member Dave Shore said about 30 people have been gathering signatures outside medical marijuana dispensaries and less controversial local businesses like Walmart for about a week now. While county supervisors passed two ordinances regulating medical marijuana earlier this month — one banning dispensaries and one introducing cultivation restrictions for county residents — the group is seeking a referendum only for the growth [...]
Medical marijuana advocates want to create a statewide system for licensing, regulating and taxing the industry as a way of persuading federal officials to ease up on their crackdown of California’s pot clubs and growers. After months of study, a coalition of medical marijuana activists led by Americans for Safe Access and a labor union that represents dispensary workers in Northern California, have proposed a 2012 ballot initiative that would create an appointed Board of Medical Marijuana Enforcement charged with overseeing businesses and nonprofits that grow, distribute, sell and test pot both in its raw [...]
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