Riverside has long prohibited medical marijuana dispensaries. Now officials may add recreational pot businesses to the ban -- at least temporarily. Since November, when California voters legalized adult use of marijuana, the Riverside City Council has not decided whether to allow, tax and regulate pot cultivation, manufacturing and sales. On Tuesday, July 25, council members will consider saying no to pot businesses until they have more information on how state regulations will look and what other Inland and Southern California communities are doing. [continues 469 words]
If there was any doubt that Sacramento was square in the path of California's "green rush," a recent tally showing the city could end up with more marijuana growing operations than it has Starbucks and McDonald's restaurants should serve as a wake-up call. More than 100 companies have applied to open grow rooms, The Bee's Ryan Lillis reported last week, and most are for industrial sites in already troubled, low-income neighborhoods in North Sacramento and off Power Inn Road. [continues 741 words]
San Jacinto has set permit fees for those who wish to operate commercial marijuana businesses in the city. Anyone wanting a permit to operate a commercial marijuana cultivation business in San Jacinto better have some cash. The City Council set the permit fee at $16,500 during its meeting Tuesday, July 18. Annual permit renewals will cost $6,000 and there also will be a $10,000 fee to transfer a permit. The money covers the cost of staff time required to review and process the applications, according to the city. [continues 322 words]
San Francisco Supervisor Jeff Sheehy sponsored legislation to create the city's Office of Cannabis. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday created a new "one-stop shop" to handle policies for marijuana businesses once recreational cannabis becomes legal. Supervisor Jeff Sheehy sponsored the ordinance to set up the Office of Cannabis, which will open for business by the end of this year. It will set up an application system for marijuana licenses, resolve complaints, be a conduit to state regulators, and serve as a centralized information source for the public. [continues 597 words]
California hopes to avoid the same shortage of legalized marijuana that now faces Nevada when sales begin here in January. (File photo | Los Angeles Times) With Nevada suffering a shortage of legalized marijuana, California's state pot czar said Wednesday that efforts are being made in her state to make sure sufficient licenses go to farmers, testers and distributors to supply retailers. Providing temporary, four-month licenses to support some businesses including growers as early as November is planned "so we don't have a break in the supply chain," Lori Ajax, chief of the Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation, said in testimony at a legislative hearing. [continues 236 words]
California's county fairs -- those wholesome showcases of agricultural bounty -- could become places to score some pot. Gov. Jerry Brown last week signed a bill that details how to carry out the November 2016 ballot measure that legalizes recreational marijuana as of January 2018. Tucked deep in the text is an option for county fairs to allow sampling and sales for people 21 and older in designated spots. The Stanislaus County Fair has had "minor discussions" among the board and Chief Executive Officer Matt Cranford about the issue, spokeswoman Adrenna Alkhas said by email. [continues 323 words]
More marijuana growers than Starbucks stores? That could be Sacramento's future. Someday soon, more businesses could grow marijuana in the city of Sacramento than there are Starbucks and McDonald's restaurants combined. More than 100 businesses are seeking special permits from the city to run indoor marijuana growing operations. From North Sacramento to South Land Park, and from downtown to the warehouse district near Power Inn Road, the flood of applications touches many corners of the city. For now, the applications technically cover marijuana for medicinal purposes, and some companies are already growing pot for that purpose under previously approved guidelines. However, commercial production and the sale of recreational pot will be allowed in California beginning Jan. 1, 2018 and city officials expect many of the new businesses will seek to enter that business. [continues 1030 words]
Just when I thought Fresno City Councilman Garry Bredefeld couldn't appear more ignorant and stupid, he proves me wrong with his half-page, anti-marijuana diatribe in Sunday's Bee. It's full of nonsense, half-truths and other easily contested points in support of his argument to try and buffer his moral crusade against the evil weed. Sorry, I underestimated Mr. Bredefeld. Steve Schmale, Fresno [end]
Proposition 64, also known as the Marijuana Legalization Initiative, not surprisingly passed statewide in November 2016 but wisely failed in Fresno County with 54 percent of the people voting against legalization. The district I represent strongly opposed Prop. 64. It now allows individuals 21 years or older to legally smoke marijuana and to grow up to six plants in their home, even if they are next to elementary schools. What many people don't know is that Prop. 64 also allows recreational marijuana dispensaries or businesses to be opened throughout the state unless a municipality officially prohibits or bans them, which a majority of the Fresno City Council and mayor wisely did last month. [continues 751 words]
The Coalinga City Council voted 4-1 on Thursday to immediately allow commercial marijuana cultivation within city limits. Councilman Ron Lander cast the lone no vote. The ordinances required a four-fifths majority to pass. The council also approved the sale of the city's dormant prison, Claremont Custody Center, to Ocean Grown Extracts for $4.1 million. Ocean Grown will transform the prison into a medical cannabis oil extraction plant. This sale will immediately bring Coalinga's general fund into the black. City Manager Marissa Trejo said Coalinga was $3.3 million to $3.8 million in debt. [continues 984 words]
Tens of thousands of people use cannabis in Fresno every day. Hundreds of people work in the cannabis industry, though few will admit it publicly -- and for good reason. Cannabis business is booming in Fresno and Fresno County, even though cultivation and retail sales are banned by local ordinances. The biggest pipe dream in Fresno is that cannabis bans work. In reality, they don't. Even so, the Fresno City Council just voted to prohibit dispensaries and other "recreational" businesses made legal by the passage of Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act. This is disappointing but not surprising. Medical cannabis has been legal since Proposition 215 passed in 1996, but City Hall has never bothered to draft local regulations. [continues 701 words]
There has been a lot of talk about weed in San Jacinto recently, but when the City Council gathers for a special meeting Thursday, July 5, it will be discussing the pesky garden variety. Council members, who recently put in place a number of rules related to legalized marijuana, will be asked to lift a moratorium on "discing," a type of plowing weeds that was outlawed in the city in 2007 as a dust control measure. The ban is likely to be lifted because of current weather conditions, including the extreme drying of vegetation and high temperatures, which have led to fires being started from the use of push mowers in weed abatement. Mower blades can cause sparks when striking debris, which can ignite the brush. [continues 61 words]
A new state law allows pot sales at county fairs, but will yours go green? A minor clause in a recently passed California State Senate bill could lead to a dramatic increase in funnel cake sales at county fairs across the state. On Tuesday, Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB-94, which combined the medical and recreational marijuana laws into one set of rules. The massive bill includes a section that allows for cannabis sales on state-owned fairgrounds -- either at county fairs or during private events -- provided certain conditions are met. These include securing proper permits and, in the case of county fairs, having a designated enclosed space for pot. No recreational marijuana sales are legal until Jan. 1. [continues 546 words]
The state has put out new rules for testing marijuana planned for medical use. With businesses expected to get state licenses in January to sell marijuana in California, the top regulator said Thursday that they will be given up to six months to comply with a requirement the pot be thoroughly tested by a licensed laboratory. State pot czar Lori Ajax said it may take months for enough testing labs to be properly screened and licensed to handle the supply of marijuana expected to be sold in California starting next year. In addition, many existing medical marijuana dispensaries will have untested supplies when licensing begins, she said. [continues 168 words]
I just heard Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer on the news discussing our gang problem, killings and crime in Fresno. He then mentioned marijuana as the drug gangs use. That might be true, but why do we rarely hear about the huge methamphetamine problem in Fresno from Chief Dyer, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims and the local media? Methamphetamine is being imported, made and sold widely in Fresno and surrounding areas. It is sucking the life out of our communities. Methamphetamine is the problem, not marijuana, which is legal in California. Apparently it's easier to advertise "cracking down on crime" by using our tax dollars to bust growers/dealers of this legal plant. [continues 98 words]
In the early 1930s, the federal government cracked down on California's legal drug programs, leading to numerous arrests. Above, a California jail in 1930, occupying the third floor of Ventura City Hall. In the early 1930s, the federal government cracked down on California's legal drug programs, leading to numerous arrests. Above, a California jail in 1930, occupying the third floor of Ventura City Hall. (Los Angeles Times) For one bright and flickering moment last year, it looked like the global war on drugs was about to die. California -- the sixth largest economy in the world -- voted to fully legalize cannabis, while a smorgasbord of countries including Uruguay, Canada and Jamaica were also moving toward more sensible policies. But like Freddie Krueger after the nubile teenagers believe he is finally slain, the drug war is suddenly back with even sharper claws. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions is reviving the worst of the old policies that led to mass incarceration, while President Trump has said that the Philippines is doing "a great job" on the drug war under a President, Rodriguo Duterte, who publicly boasts: "There's 3 million drug addicts. There are. I'd be happy to slaughter them." [continues 966 words]
HAYFORK, Calif. - The red and purple opium poppies that his family grew on a mountainside half a world away were filled with an intoxicating, sticky sap that his mother traded for silver coins to feed her children and pay for their escape. Adam Lee smiles at the memory of a childhood in war-torn Laos and voyage to America, where he spent decades adapting to life in big cities. Now 47 years old, Mr. Lee has returned to the mountains - the Trinity Alps of Northern California - and to a career farming a different mind-altering crop for his livelihood: marijuana. [continues 1270 words]
SALINAS, Calif. - This vast and fertile valley is often called the salad bowl of the nation for the countless heads of lettuce growing across its floor. Now California's marijuana industry is laying claim to a new slogan for the valley: America's cannabis bucket. After years of marijuana being cultivated in small plots out of sight from the authorities, California cannabis is going industrial. Over the past year, dilapidated greenhouses in the Salinas Valley, which were built for cut flower businesses, have been bought up by dozens of marijuana entrepreneurs, who are growing pot among the fields of spinach, strawberries and wine grapes. [continues 1291 words]
SANTA ROSA, Calif. - In the heart of Northern California's wine country, a civil engineer turned marijuana entrepreneur is adding a new dimension to the art of matching fine wines with gourmet food: cannabis and wine pairing dinners. Sam Edwards, co-founder of the Sonoma Cannabis Company, charges diners $100 to $150 for a meal that experiments with everything from marijuana-leaf pesto sauce to sniffs of cannabis flowers paired with sips of a crisp Russian River chardonnay. "It accentuates the intensity of your palate," Mr. Edwards, 30, said of the dinners, one of which was held recently at a winery with sweeping views of the Sonoma vineyards. "We are seeing what works and what flavors are coming out." [continues 827 words]
Recreational cannabis may be legal in California, but buying the actual stuff still makes Scott Campbell, a celebrity tattoo artist and fine artist, feel like a class-cutting teenage stoner. "You go in to buy weed, and it's like visiting your parole officer," said Mr. Campbell, who lives in Los Angeles. "You get buzzed through three metal gates." Inside, cannabis products are often packaged with loopy Deadhead-style graphics and goofy dorm-humor strain names like Gorilla Glue and Purple Urkle. [continues 841 words]
