It could be the house next door, with a well-kept front yard and neighbors who are quiet, polite and raise no suspicion.

But there is little furniture inside these San Jose homes. Instead, there are rows and rows of marijuana plants carefully fed by elaborate water systems and powered by illegally installed electrical systems that are prone to short-circuit and cause fires.

In neighborhoods throughout San Jose, drug dealers are converting single-family homes into urban marijuana gardens capable of generating millions of dollars in profits. The haphazard wiring and illegal electrical hookups used in grow houses have sparked eight residential fires this year in San Jose, according to police.

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Prop. 19 wasn't the end of the debate over legalizing marijuana.

For once, it was a real beginning.

One might have expected the principals of the Proposition 19 campaign to partially decriminalize marijuana possession and use to be a little chagrined in the wake the initiative's 54-46 loss after it had maintained a narrow but reasonably steady lead in the polls until a couple of weeks before Election Day. But in two teleconferences in which I participated after the election, they were remarkably upbeat, celebrating Prop. 19 as the proposal that finally brought marijuana legalization into the mainstream, garnering mostly favorable news coverage worldwide that significantly advanced the debate over marijuana legalization.

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California has two minds on marijuana. Voters in 1996 thought it was OK for medicinal use, and just about any adult can get a "recommendation" to legally consume medical marijuana. But on Nov. 2, voters just said no to fully legalizing pot for recreational use and sale.

It's technically illegal to sell medical marijuana in California (it's supposed to be shared among collective members), yet several cities have enacted gross receipt taxes to raise revenue off the sale of medicinal pot. The city of Los Angeles is currently considering taxing medical marijuana. And voters from La Puente just approved a measure to tax medical marijuana sales in the city.

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Any Revisions To Laws Could Mean Refunds For Dispensaries.

LONG BEACH - The City Council is taking one more pass at Long Beach's medical marijuana law Tuesday.

Last week, the council decided not to vote on a proposal by three council members to add additional restrictions to the city's new marijuana law. Instead, council members decided that they first should have a closed session with the city attorney this week to discuss the potential legal ramifications of altering the ordinance.

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After the recent election was over, one of my friends confided to me that in the final analysis that he was unable to vote in favor of Proposition 19, which would have treated marijuana like alcohol for adults. The reason was that marijuana is harmful, especially to children, and if the initiative passed it would be yet one more compromise and retreat away from our value system.

I really understand his concerns.

Almost everywhere we look today, we seem to be losing ground in what is healthy about our way of life. The examples are familiar to us all, such as the managers of the city of Bell and other cities ostensibly manipulating the finances so as to pay themselves unconscionable salaries and benefits, professional baseball players taking steroids, young people valuing their membership in juvenile gangs more than obtaining an education, and many more. So now we "legalize" marijuana, thus allowing additional moral backsliding and decay? For many people, this was simply too much, and they registered their protest at the polls.

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A huge marijuana bust: They found a tunnel going under the Mexico-San Diego border. Over 24 tons of the stuff, worth millions. And the day after our elections.

My, my, what a fortunate coincidence. Tell me again how Proposition 19 would not have impacted smuggling from Mexico and how making cannabis legal and regulating it won't work? Police, prosecutors and a whole industry of federal, state and local government workers and bureaucrats will continue the insanity as they feed off our tax dollars and cry out that they are overworked and need more.

California voters got bamboozled on Nov. 2. The failure of Proposition 19 will cost the state millions. Marijuana needs to be controlled and taxed. Marijuana needs to be legalized.

Howie Zechner

Pasadena

[end]

Was it fear of federal government intervention that could have doomed Prop. 19? Well it wasn't, it was ignorance, fear mongering, half truths and lies. Your newspaper was fond of quoting Covina police chief Kim Raney as the resident expert on cannabis. Did he ever plant and harvest cannabis? Washington, Jefferson and Adams did. Has Raney ever used cannabis to weave a cloth from its fibers? Betsy Ross did when she made the first American flag.

Has Raney ever considered how great a fuel cannabis is? An acre of cannabis will produce four times the ethanol as an acre of corn. If we planted cannabis along the San Gabriel River in only six months time there would be enough ethanol to fuel all the cities vehicles along that river.

[continues 70 words]

Shame on all those who condemn victims of accidents before there is any proof of intoxication. Shame on those who make premature statements about the possible use of marijuana for causing the Oct. 22 fatal accident on Highway 1 that took the life of not only the young mother, but the driver of the other car.

California Highway Patrol officers said at the scene that Stephen Sibley, whose car crossed over into oncoming traffic, was suspected of using marijuana before the accident.

[continues 357 words]

The purpose of this letter is to provide education about what happens when you visit a medical marijuana dispensary or collective. I have visited the two major collectives in Santa Cruz, as well as the establishments mentioned in Tuesday's front page article. FACT: I have never seen any discarded containers of any kind littering parking lots or common areas of these establishments. Most of these establishments are cleaner and have better security than most retail businesses. FACT: At every visit, in every dispensary, I have left with all packages stapled closed with specific instructions/reminders that I am not allowed to consume any medicines in any public areas of the establishment. FACT: At every visit, I am reminded to be respectful of the neighborhood that the business is in. My experience with these businesses has shown that they are conscientiously monitoring their establishments to ensure harmony with their neighbors and in their neighborhoods. And lastly, medical marijuana consumers come from all walks of life and all backgrounds: I am a middle-aged professional woman who has successfully utilized medical marijuana for the past two years. Yes, I'm a typical stoner and proud of it. If you have never been, I encourage you to visit a collective and see firsthand how they operate.

Lois A. Roth, Felton

[end]

Re "Pot psychology" (Editorial, Nov. 11):

I hope Gov. Schwarzenegger didn't think he was speaking for everyone when he said "No one cares if you smoke a joint or not," because I certainly care.

When the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes was approved by voters in 1996, it was thought to be a humane gesture for those who were terminally ill. As the editorial pointed out, a "recommendation" from a doctor is easy to come by.

As for the state collecting revenue by taxation of marijuana, medicinal or recreational, if it can still come into the state illicitly, where's the tax revenue from its sale/distribution?

One thing is for sure, marijuana has a vile odor which nothing can improve. Maybe that's why it can be considered a stinking weed.

Linda Stoner

Westlake Village

[end]

Thankfully, Proposition 19 didn't pass. It's a good thing, too, or someone would have had, as Ricky would say, "a lot of 'splainin' to do." Imagine my seventh-graders' confusion when, the week before, I'd pushed drug abstinence for Red Ribbon Week.

Ironically, as commentators debated legalizing marijuana, schools celebrated Enrique "Kiki" Camarena's dream "to make a difference." When Kiki left Mexico and his dirt-floor house for America as a 9-year-old, he picked fruit. Eventually, he attended school and won "best all-around senior." Then, after graduating from college with a criminal justice degree, he became a naturalized citizen.

[continues 375 words]

Chico Cannabis Club Leader Challenges Lack of Safe Access

Joel Castle winced as he described some of his experiences inside the Butte County Jail. Being placed in a pod filled with sex offenders and "baby killers" was bad. Being put on suicide watch, despite no intention of self harm, he swears, was worse-no clothing or sheets, no toilet paper, no showers (unless you ask, and then you get watched by two guards while you wash).

Castle has spent a good portion of 2010 behind bars for something he believes the police entrapped him to do. And, although he was a free man a few days ago, out on his own recognizance, as he stood outside Angie's Poker Club smoking a joint, he talked about his plans to go back to that place he despises. All he needed, he said Tuesday afternoon (Nov. 9), was his suit, which was being altered over at Men's Wearhouse.

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Medical Cannabis Is Again on the City Council's Agenda

It's medical-marijuana time again for city leaders.

At its next meeting, the Chico City Council will again be tackling the regulation of cultivation, processing and distribution of medical cannabis. Council members and the public will weigh in on the proposal to amend the city's municipal code during a public meeting on the issue.

Council members have had a difficult time coming to grips with the complex and controversial topic. Fore more than a year, they have been discussing the possible ways to protect the community while simultaneously allowing qualified patients to have safe access to the herb.

Those discussions have been bouncing back and forth between the panel and the Chico Planning Commission. This latest round will be held during the council's regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 16, in council chambers, Fourth and Main streets.

[end]

REDWOOD CITY -- A San Francisco man is asking for San Mateo County's approval to open the Peninsula's first officially sanctioned medical marijuana delivery service, but he's off to a rocky start.

James Sanabria will receive a hearing Monday in front of the San Mateo County License Board on establishing the MedWeedZoom collective, though a report from the sheriff's office already recommends that his request be denied.

Sheriff's Sgt. Bryan Cassandro notes in his report that Sanabria has been convicted of numerous felonies, including possession of PCP for sale and possession of cocaine, both from 1989, a 1993 robbery conviction, and of being a felon in possession of a firearm in 2007. San Mateo County's medical marijuana ordinance, which applies only to unincorporated areas, bans felons from working at medical marijuana collectives.

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An Archive, of Sorts, of the 1960s Psychedelic Experience Made Visual Preserves an Era

Seated around an ash-stained coffee table below a glowing chandelier in Mark McCloud's dusky parlor on a rainy Saturday morning in October, four friends passed around a joint, trying to define in simple terms the three-story Victorian on 20th Street.

"It's an archival museum of psychedelic art. Our friend here is the curator," proffered Arthur Round, an older man cross-legged in a wicker chair. The parlor is plastered with approximately 350 pieces of framed blotter art and guarded from prying eyes by heavy black curtains, making the space feel like a vault or secret subterranean headquarters.

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In response to the letter to the editor, "Don't spread myths about cannabis," printed on Nov. 5: This man runs a dispensary. His prime interest is monetary. These dispensary operators don't give this stuff away, they sell it. They are nothing more than drug dealers with a (sometimes) permanent storefront.

As anyone involved in law enforcement in this county can tell you, most of the people with medical marijuana recommendations are growing marijuana to sell as well as to use. There is no possible way that a person could consume as much marijuana in one year as these people are allowed to grow in one year.

[continues 66 words]

For a medical marijuana ordinance update described by Planning Department Director George White as "essentially outlining the same process that already exists for dispensaries," the level of opposition among the people crowding the boardroom for the hearing Tuesday was astounding.

While opposition was universal throughout testimony, the reasons varied distinctly. From the Sheriff's Office's perspective, the ordinance did not do enough to restrict a Schedule I controlled substance. For patients, it did too much to restrict compassionate sharing of a homegrown medicine that eases the pain for many people with few other options.

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Paul Koretz Backs a 180-Day Delay for Dispensaries to Comply With Rules.

With its medical marijuana ordinance snared in prolonged court proceedings, the Los Angeles City Council is moving to extend the amount of time dispensaries will have to comply with it and to change a controversial provision that would have required all but 41 to close down.

Since the city realized that hundreds of dispensaries had opened despite a moratorium adopted in 2007, it has struggled to regain control. Scores of dispensaries have sued to invalidate the ordinance, and a Superior Court judge is expected to issue a ruling early next month on many of their claims.

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The ordinance spelling out guidelines for medical marijuana dispensaries and collectives in Calaveras County is in the process of getting a facelift.

Officials say it should modernize it and enhance the law's enforceability, but it also could mean the end of a controversial medical marijuana shop in Valley Springs, a first-of-its kind operation in the county.

Public officials privately state that the retrofit of the ordinance is long overdue, but it is happening now because of Forgotten Knowledge Collective, which opened for business in Valley Springs in July. Some public officials and some private individuals question whether it is operating legally.

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CALIFORNIA has two minds on marijuana. Voters in 1996 thought it was OK for medicinal use, and just about any adult can get a "recommendation" to legally consume medical marijuana. But last week voters just said no to fully legalizing pot for recreational use and sale.

It's technically illegal to sell medical marijuana in California (it's supposed to be shared among collective members), yet several cities have enacted gross receipt taxes to raise revenue off the sale of medicinal pot. Los Angeles is currently considering taxing medical marijuana as well.

[continues 406 words]