New County Initiative Poised for November Ballot Outlines Sales of Medical Marijuana The day before the primary election, on June 6, representatives from the Inland Cannabis Farmers' Association dropped off a special delivery at the Butte County Clerk-Recorder's Office. Inside more than half a dozen boxes were thousands of signatures from Butte County voters, potentially enough to get a new initiative-the Medical Cannabis Cultivation and Commerce measure (aka MC3)-on the November ballot. "The big picture is that we need to stop the tactical skirmishes," said Jessica MacKenzie, ICFA president. "We looked at what makes sense-from the time a plant goes into ground to the time a patient picks it up as medicine in the dispensary?" [continues 438 words]
A nonprofit wildlife conservation organization has filed a lawsuit against the county of Mendocino, stating the Board of Supervisors passed its medical marijuana urgency ordinance without an environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act. The Mendocino County Blacktail Association, part of a larger group which includes people from over 57 cities across the state, says it has become "increasingly concerned with the destructive nature of unregulated marijuana activities" within wildlands. Among its concerns, the group cited illegal grading, the use of poisons and fertilizers during cultivation, theft of water resources and trash left behind by some growers. It also claimed the supervisors didn't consider the county General Plan when making their decision, and that zones dedicated for other purposes could be affected. [continues 348 words]
Re "Undermining the public's trust" (Guest comment, by Nathan Esplanade, Jan. 7): Apparently to undermine my anti-alcohol and -marijuana guest comment last week, the CN&R changed and deleted some of my words and made others insensible, and completely omitted my conclusion. In the same issue, the CN&R published more propaganda arguing legalizing pot would enable pain relief for the poor and enrich local governments. In so doing, it once again ignored the elephant in the room: Patients with a prescription can already acquire affordable medication via the Internet. [continues 150 words]
Personal pot possession in California was reduced from an arrest to an infraction in 2010, but systemic racism around pot enforcement continues, a new study finds. The American Civil Liberties Union of California, in conjunction with the Drug Policy Alliance, published a groundbreaking, heavily reported piece of research Monday that concludes that the Black community in California faces ticketing for pot at a rate four times as high as whites. Latinos have about double the rate of pot tickets as whites. [continues 1008 words]
Nevada City - Silas Hurd's "golden ticket" was losing its luster. The Medi-Haze B provided by Grass Roots Solutions, the Nevada County medical marijuana collective rallying to help the boy, wasn't having the same effect. His seizures returned in late 2015 following a four-month respite that had brought his parents so much hope. But Nicole and Forrest Hurd still believed in the potential of CBD - a compound in marijuana that has shown medicinal promise in limited childhood epilepsy studies - to help their son. [continues 3031 words]
North Coast Assemblyman Jim Wood's proposed medical marijuana excise tax advanced Thursday, passing the Assembly with the required bipartisan two-thirds votes needed for any new state tax. Assembly Bill 2243 would levy a $9.25 per ounce tax on cannabis flowers; a $2.75 per ounce tax on cannabis leaves; and a $1.25 tax on immature cannabis plants from nurseries. Wood's proposal is a tiered approach similar to how alcohol is taxed: based on the potency of the product. [continues 255 words]
Bills from North Coast lawmakers to tax and regulate medical marijuana advanced this week in the state capitol with bi-partisan support of the legislature. Two proposals -- tax measures from state Sen. Mike McGuire and Assemblyman Jim Wood, both Healdsburg Democrats -- won the required two-thirds majorities in their respective houses and move on for further consideration. McGuire's bill, SB 987, would place a 15 percent sales tax on medical cannabis. It would come in addition to an existing 8 percent tax and is expected to generate more than $100 million. About a third of the money would go to cities and counties for costs associated with medical pot. [continues 338 words]
Friday is the last day for submissions to Mendocino County's "Medical Cannabis Activity Registration," and as of Wednesday, the Department of Agriculture said it has received 58 returned forms. Not to be confused with the Board of Supervisors actual medical marijuana cultivation urgency ordinance adopted last month, the county has offered "priority processing" for local cultivation permit applications to those who voluntarily complete and return the activity registration form by 5 p.m. Friday, though it doesn't guarantee that a permit will be issued. [continues 410 words]
TRINIDAD, Humboldt County - Pot politics are nothing new to Sunshine Johnston, who has been cultivating cannabis on her organic farm near the famous Avenue of the Giants for many years. But the emergence of land speculators in the Emerald Triangle is threatening to ruin her bucolic buzz. Johnston, her friends, neighbors and fellow growers are perturbed by hordes of high rollers who are snapping up every old ranch, logging tract and forested parcel that goes on the market. The scramble for land in Humboldt County and, to a lesser extent, Mendocino County, is an apparent attempt by entrepreneurs to cash in on the possible legalization in November of recreational pot peddling in California. [continues 1850 words]
Supervisors ADD One Month to Temporary Prohibition, Hold Off Voting on Longer Plan. Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to extend a temporary ban on growing medical marijuana in unincorporated areas by one month, but shelved a proposed 10-month ban. Al Seib Los Angeles Times SUPERVISOR SHEILA Kuehl noted that there is a strong possibility that Californians will vote in November to legalize recreational marijuana use. In asking to postpone a vote on the longer ban, Supervisor Sheila Kuehl noted that there is a strong possibility that Californians will vote in November to legalize recreational marijuana use. [continues 311 words]
When the MILegalize petitions proposing the legalization of recreational marijuana in Michigan hit the streets last summer I signed the first one that came my way. That was sometime in July. Now my signature probably won't count. That's the big issue facing the folks who organized the legalization effort right now: whether or not petition initiative signatures collected outside of a 180-day window are valid. And it doesn't look good. The most immediate answer to that question will be rendered by Gov. Rick Snyder when he decides to sign, or not sign, S.B. 776, the recent legislation that sets a hard 180-day window for collecting signatures on a petition initiative. [continues 1181 words]
If Successful, It Would Allow Only Personal-Use Cultivation Proponents of banning commercial marijuana production in Calaveras County on Monday gathered signatures at grocery stores and other locations in hopes of placing its proposal on the ballot in November. Bill McManus, a volunteer with the campaign, said he got about 25 signatures during two hours parked near Vista Del Lago Drive and Highway 26 near Valley Springs. In late morning he moved to the MarVal grocery parking lot at the Valley Oaks Center in Valley Springs, where his first signature came from Hershall Roberts, 66, of Valley Springs. [continues 762 words]
Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a proponent of the legalization effort, should be reminded that his most important responsibility as an elected official is to protect the people from all enemies, foreign and domestic. The Adult Use of Marijuana Act is rumored to be bankrolled by billionaires who do not have California's best interest in mind. New York billionaire Sean Parker has purportedly been recruited to augment money that will flow from George Soros and the Drug Policy Alliance. They didn't earn billions because they are dumb, but apparently they think we are. Their stated benefits of legalization are frankly an affront to one's intellect. [continues 481 words]
The Board of Supervisors delayed a vote on a proposed cannabis cultivation urgency ordinance on Monday, after several hours of discussion concerning the permanent ordinance, and some last minute changes to the proposed urgency regulations. The item, intended to update the county's cannabis regulations for this year, is planned to go before the supervisors for a vote Tuesday afternoon and will require a four/five vote of approval to pass. The proposed urgency ordinance is intended to encourage compliance with county cannabis regulations to mitigate any further environmental damage and threats to public safety while a more long-term redrafting of county cannabis regulations and accompanying environmental review takes place over this year. It is based on the county's 9.31 cultivation program and would be administered by the Sheriff's Department, and permit certain growers to cultivate up to 99 plants per parcel. [continues 793 words]
The THC Potency Of Street Marijuana Has Increased, Writes Diane McIntosh In my psychiatric practice, I treat patients with psychotic illnesses including schizophrenia. Most were born with a genetic vulnerability to develop the disorder, but many share another important life experience: they smoked pot from an early age. Debate has raged across Canada about the impending legalization/decriminalization of marijuana. Canadian physicians, in their role as advocates for physical and mental health, have been conspicuously absent from the debate. This troubling void in leadership is apparent from the lack of informed discourse exhibited across all forms of media. Our failure to educate Canadians regarding the potential risks of street pot, particularly for a developing brain, has important social, physical and psychological implications. [continues 916 words]
Voters Statewide Rejected Last Attempt by Seven Percentage Points New Campaign Took Time to Craft Measure and Build Coalition Reaching Out to Latinos and African Americans San Francisco - Nate Bradley, co-founder of the California Cannabis Industry Association, paused for a moment as he assessed how the latest campaign to legalize recreational marijuana differs from an effort in 2010 that was decisively rejected by voters. Bradley, who worked on the failed campaign, said the previous attempt was a grass-roots undertaking, while the latest measure is "run by experts at passing initiatives." [continues 1486 words]
Up In Smoke (Cheech and Chong,1978) may have floated the hazy notion that smoking marijuana was harmless fun, but new research shows that a woman's chance for delivering a healthy baby is actually what goes up in smoke if she lets smoke into her brain and lungs while pregnant. Researchers from the University of Arizona looked at 24 studies of pregnancy and marijuana smoking. They discovered pregnant women who smoke cannabis were more likely to be anemic and babies more likely to end up in neonatal intensive care with a low birth weight. [continues 146 words]
"Up in Smoke" (Cheech and Chong, 1978) may have floated the hazy notion that smoking marijuana was harmless fun, but new research shows that a woman's chance for delivering a healthy baby is actually what goes up in smoke if she lets smoke into her brain and lungs while pregnant. Researchers from the University of Arizona looked at 24 studies of pregnancy and marijuana smoking: They discovered that pregnant women who smoke cannabis were more likely to be anemic and their babies more likely to end up in neonatal intensive care with low birth weight. [continues 158 words]
Up in Smoke (Cheech and Chong, 1978) may have floated the hazy notion that smoking marijuana was harmless fun, but new research shows that a woman's chance for delivering a healthy baby is actually what goes up in smoke if she lets smoke into her brain and lungs while pregnant. Researchers from the University of Arizona looked at 24 studies of pregnancy and marijuana smoking: They discovered that pregnant women who smoke cannabis were more likely to be anemic and their babies more likely to end up in neonatal intensive care with low birth weight. [continues 148 words]
The big names and deep pockets behind California's effort to legalize marijuana have paid off with a voter initiative that's almost certain to qualify for the November ballot. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, joined by leaders in law enforcement, public health and social justice, said Wednesday in San Francisco that enough signatures had been collected to put recreational pot up for a vote in this year's presidential election. The broad array of marijuana proponents, marking the official launch of their statewide campaign, overcame the hurdles of competing priorities and scant funding, on top of general unease about the drug. They coalesced support behind the Adult Use of Marijuana Act - a consensus that past efforts to legalize cannibas have not enjoyed. [continues 628 words]
