Medical marijuana advocates have filed lawsuits in California’s four federal judicial districts aimed at quickly winning court orders to halt the U.S. attorneys from closing dispensaries. The lawsuits are the second legal challenge to the stepped-up enforcement efforts that the four prosecutors announced last month at a high-profile joint news conference in Sacramento, John Hoeffel reports in the Los Angeles Times. Matt Kumin, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuits, said that Tuesday the plaintiffs plan to ask the judges assigned to the cases for temporary restraining orders halting the crackdown. “The government has [...]
Pot suppliers went to federal court Monday to try to halt the Obama administration’s campaign to close down their dispensaries, saying the survival of California’s medical marijuana law is at stake. In lawsuits filed in each of the state’s four federal districts, medical marijuana cooperatives, joined by patients and property owners, accused the Justice Department of violating an agreement to leave them alone if they complied with state law, Bob Egelko reports in the San Francisco Chronicle. The department had pledged to the courts, and to patients and their suppliers, that “those who possess, grow [...]
Medical marijuana advocates have obtained enough signatures to qualify a ballot measure that could force a repeal of new restrictions on storefront collectives in San Diego. Citizens for Patient Rights, the Patient Care Association and the California Cannabis Coalition submitted 44,106 signatures — 31,029 of which were deemed valid, San Diego City Clerk Liz Maland said Wednesday. After it is formally presented with the matter, the City Council will have 10 days to either repeal the ordinance or put the question to the voters, Christopher Cadelago reports in the San Diego Union-Tribune. Leaders of the [...]
Opponents of new restrictions on medical marijuana dispensaries submitted more than 46,000 signatures to the city of San Diego on Friday, halting a years-long effort to regulate the location of storefront operators and setting the stage for a possible referendum. Citizens for Patient Rights, part of a coalition of patients and providers, needs 31,029 valid signatures from registered voters to qualify the measure. If the group succeeds, the City Council must either repeal the ordinance or put the question on the ballot, Christopher Cadelago reports in the San Diego Union-Tribune. “The people have made a [...]
Sponsored by the California Cannabis Coalition, the “Citizens for Safe Access Ordinance” (“CSAO”) was recently filed with the San Diego city clerk. When the initiative receives enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, the citizens of San Diego will finally have the opportunity to do what the city has been unable to accomplish for over a year, enact reasonable regulations for the cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana to the qualified patients of San Diego. In 2009, it seemed as if the city would make a good faith attempt to enact such an ordinance, San [...]
Oct 182010
Proposition 19, the Nov. 2 ballot measure that would legalize the possession, cultivation and transport of marijuana for “personal use” by adults over 21, and would allow local governments to regulate and tax it, may be the worst drafted legislation since 1996, when Proposition 215 legalized “medical marijuana.” That decision by voters 14 years ago set California on a collision course with the federal government that continues today, writes the San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board. It led to the explosion of marijuana dispensaries in urban areas throughout the state, almost all of which, according to [...]
Gretchen Burns Bergman is co-founder and executive director of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing), an organization established in San Diego by parents seeking therapeutic alternatives to the War on Drugs. Her column appears in the Huffington Post. =============== Why would a respectable, responsible and caring group of parents want to legalize marijuana? Because we are fed up with the violence and the loss of lives and liberty caused by the war on drugs, which has become a war against our loved ones who use, struggle with, or are addicted to drugs, [...]
Medical marijuana advocates are rallying to the cause of San Diego County defendant James Stacy, expressing hand-wringing outrage that the former dispensary operator is facing federal drug prosecution. Stacy operated a medical pot shop, called “Movement in Action,” in Vista, “Weed Wars” blogger Peter Hecht writes. He was charged with federal counts of illegally manufacturing and distributing marijuana after a series of undercover buys by a San Diego County sheriff’s detective and subsequent raids by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officers on his home and business. Last week, U.S. District Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz rejected Stacy’s [...]
SAN DIEGO — Federal agents on Friday arrested 12 people in San Diego and Los Angeles and charged them with participating in a massive marijuana distribution ring that sold the drug via a medical marijuana storefront. The ring also is accused of growing dozens of plants in a hidden room in a Rancho Santa Fe mansion. Federal agents served seven search warrants as part of the investigation, including five in San Diego. Two other warrants were served in Los Angeles. At the center of the probe is Joshua John Hester, which federal court records unsealed [...]
Bud’s note: We highlight this quote from the mayor of El Cajon not because it stands out from the norm, but because it is the norm among many city leaders who prefer illegal drug dealing to regulated sales of medical marijuana. “I don’t think our citizens will put up with it,” Mark Lewis said. “If anybody wants it, they certainly can find it in another community, either that or out on the street.” Wow, that’s an enlightened approach to a serious problem. ================ San Diego became the 10th county in the state to regulate medical [...]
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