THERE are at least two things everyone can agree on when it comes to California's prison population: The prisons are severely overcrowded. Taking the radical step of simply releasing 40,000 inmates means 40,000 more Californians on the streets and out of work. If it's impossible for so many good folks with degrees and deep resumes to get a job, how hard is it going to be for crooks? The state's prisons have been stuffed too full of inmates for over two decades. You don't have to be a softie to recognize that. But you also aren't necessarily hard-hearted if you spend precious little time worrying about the conditions in which the felonious among us bunk down. [continues 409 words]
Rancho Mirage faces a legal claim from a marijuana dispensary it shut down while officials sift through conflicting legal signals on the issue. On Thursday, attorney Jeff Lake filed a $530,000 claim with the city on behalf of Desert Heart Collective, the first step toward filing a lawsuit. Rancho Mirage has 45 days to either pay or reject the claim, at which point the collective would be ready to sue, Lake said. But he added it still doesn't have to come to that. [continues 367 words]
Re: "Why Legalization Failed," Legalization Nation, 11/10 I hate to say it, but it was our own doing, those who support the usage and benefits of marijuana, that caused this bill not to pass and we've set ourselves back another ten years. It wasn't about the actual legalization of the plant (not drug). It was about being heard; having a voice. People were so caught up in the media propaganda that they failed to look at the true picture. The federal government would have overturned our proposition before it ever got put into practice. The fact is, they don't have the balls to say to the people of this nation, the people they falsely imprisoned, to those who lost their homes, jobs, families ... lives, "We're sorry. We were wrong." How would they? How can you apologize for forty to sixty years of ignorance and naivety? [continues 247 words]
The Central Valley is stuck in a "cannabis-is-illegal-no-matter-what-Prop-215-said" mode. I will be opening California2012.org forum in hopes of gathering the pro-cannabis people from all over the State of California in hopes of initiating dialogue for a 2012 legalization initiative. One thing that Prop 19 did not do was get the people in the loop of crafting their own initiative. If we are to succeed in 2012 we need the communities involved and not just canna-business millionaires. Ernst Berg, Turlock [end]
Gifts for that special stoner in your life. Tis the season for "harm reduction." This school of psychology assumes that rational adults sometimes engage in risky, unhealthy behavior. Teaching them to reduce the associated harms picks up where outright banning and criminalizing fail. With more than 300,000 qualified medical cannabis patients in California alone, and Arizona becoming the fifteenth medical marijuana state, there's a huge demand for safer, more sustainable ways of cannabinoid administration, and the market is meeting that demand head on this holiday season. Legalization Nation consulted doctors, dispensary operators, growers, and Haight Street retailers to round up six legit items in a nebulous, largely unregulated field. [continues 723 words]
The owner of a Palm Springs medical marijuana dispensary accused of illegally operating a pot collective in Palm Desert four years ago will go on trial in April, a judge ruled Thursday. Stacy Hochanadel, owner of CannaHelp in Palm Springs, is charged with possession of marijuana for sale, transport and sale of marijuana and keeping a place to sell controlled substances. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Duane Lloyd set an April 4 trial date and allowed Hochanadel to remain free on his own recognizance. [continues 152 words]
Enough of the oppressive, big-government drug war. Marijuana, cocaine and heroin are available in larger quantities than before the drug war began in 1971, while meth and crack emerged as new drugs in the 1980s. Prohibition is not working, unless you are in the prison industry. Stop legislating preference. Alcohol has been scientifically proven to be worse than marijuana in terms of negative side effects and addictiveness. There is no logical reason Marijuana should be illegal. Throwing people into prison for drug use ruins people's lives and does more harm than good not to mention it costs billions to house drug offenders in prison. You want to pay fewer taxes. don't you? Christopher Belanger Fullerton [end]
Regarding the letter, "Tell the truth about marijuana": I totally resent the author's claim that I am nothing more than a drug dealer, only interested in money. The truth is my collective provides pharmaceutical-grade medical cannabis to a wide variety of patients for a wide variety of ailments. We are a nonprofit corporation. I rarely get a paycheck. We are here for the patients, and I'm very proud of what we do. When I first became involved with medical cannabis I too had my doubts about the fantastic claims being made as to this herb's ability to mitigate certain types of pain and suffering. Now, after talking to more than a thousand patients I have been educated properly. I would advise the writer to do the same. Even a cursory investigation would have schooled her to the fact that there are many, many people whose bodies simply cannot tolerate synthetic narcotics, or who simply prefer to be able to control what medicines they put in their bodies. [continues 86 words]
Regarding your story on baby boomers and sex: Years ago a doctor I worked with explained that the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, attaches itself to fat cells in the brain and glands of the body. The brain gets fuzzy, and gland function does too. Hence, after a time on THC, women loose their sex drive and men become impotent. It's worse with younger users. THC interferes with the maturation process, which completes at about 25 years. I suspect this may have much to do with other gland functions such as insulin production in diabetes and problems with the thyroid glands. This lack of glandular function is increasing in baby boomers. It seems that the irresponsible '70s have caught up with them. [continues 130 words]
It's not exactly the Nobel Peace Prize. But then again, when it comes to weed activism, maybe it is. Veteran California marijuana author and advocate Dale Gieringer was honored in Amsterdam on Nov. 25 as the High Times magazine "Freedom Fighter of the Year." Gieringer has been the California director of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws since 1987. He is a co-author of the Marijuana Medical Handbook, billed as a "practical guide to the therapeutic uses of marijuana," and a leading supporter of Proposition 19, which was voted down Nov. 2. [continues 84 words]
Search-Warrant Affidavits Give Insight into Sting Operation on Local Collectives-and in Many Cases the Evidence Appears Flimsy Remember back in June, when the sheriff called in law-enforcement help from all over the North State to raid eight local medical-marijuana dispensaries and their owners' homes? Well, the search-warrant affidavits have finally been unsealed, and what they reveal is extremely interesting. For one, they explain exactly how the Butte County Sheriff's Office conducted its sting operation on local cooperatives. [continues 1327 words]
Napa is on track to get its first medical marijuana dispensary next year, with six applicants seeking to be the one chosen. Passed in June, the city's new medical pot ordinance allows for just one dispensary to operate in the first year. The applicants vying to open Napa's first dispensary are: the Grateful Valley Compassion Center, Harmony Health & Wellness Center, Mr. Natural, Inc., Napa Holistic Remedies, Inc., Napa Organics and Remedia - - Napa Valley, according to Desiree Brun, who manages the process for the city. [continues 551 words]
Lassen County residents won't have to fear large-scale marijuana gardens or medical marijuana dispensaries in their neighborhoods. The Lassen County's Board of Supervisors approved an ordinance "banning the establishment and operation of medical marijuana dispensaries and restricting the cultivation of medical marijuana within the county" by a 4-1 vote Tuesday, Nov. 23. The ordinance takes effect Thursday, Dec. 23. The board did not vote on a second proposed ordinance based on the one in place in Los Angeles that allows the cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana authorized and regulated by city-issued use permits. [continues 503 words]
The operator of an already approved medical marijuana dispensary withdrew his business license application yesterday just before the Board of Supervisors was set to discuss reversing an earlier decision to grant it. Bradley Ehikian, who was poised to operate the Peninsula's first permitted dispensary, said San Mateo County's commitment to providing legal medical marijuana does not match his own. "The county simply does not have the will to allow any facility in the county," Ehikian said. In October, Ehikian was granted a business license for the Sans Souci Medical Collective in a 14,000-square-foot building at 2676 Bay Road in the unincorporated area near Redwood City's Fair Oaks neighborhood. But Sheriff Greg Munks, District Attorney Jim Fox and 39 residents who were worried about the size and location appealed the license board decision to the Board of Supervisors. [continues 410 words]
What Joanne Crouch really wants (Letter: Marijuana in California, Nov. 27, 2010) is to continue discriminating against responsible citizens who choose to use the relatively safe, extremely popular, God-given plant cannabis (marijuana). The federal government should have never been allowed to prohibit cannabis from the beginning. Now citizens across all of North America are, as Crouch notices, displaying blatant contempt for government prohibitionists. The epitome of ignoring the federal government will come when citizens vote to completely legalize (and it will be legalized) the plant against its wishes. Millions of citizens can hardly wait to end that luciferous discrimination. By Stan White of Dillon, Colo. [end]
Poll Finds Only a Third Express Confidence in State Leaders, While 44% Trust the Public to Decide on Policies. After an election year shaped by anxiety about the economy and frustration with gridlock in Sacramento, a new survey by the Public Policy Institute of California has found that most state voters have little confidence in the ability of their elected leaders to work together. In a sobering set of findings in the institute's post-election survey, voters expressed more faith in their peers to decide public policy matters than in their representatives. [continues 797 words]
A new survey about voter attitudes finds that a lot of Californians were interested in Proposition 19, the recently failed proposition to legalize and tax marijuana. But the people most interested in it were opposed to it, according to a new survey by the Public Policy Institute of California. According to the survey of 2,003 California voters who reported participating in the Nov. 2 election, 38 percent said they were most interested in Prop. 19, an enthusiasm level more than double that for any other proposition. [continues 585 words]
Proposition 19's failure will not be the end of the marijuana legalization effort. Rest assured it will continue unabated, but we should focus our attention on better protecting medical marijuana patients. Doctors need more data to choose the best treatment option for their patients. We should call for the expansion of cannabis research for FDA approved studies in order to settle medical marijuana at a national level through its approval as a prescription medication. Research is currently blocked by a federal monopoly over the marijuana supply, held by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. NIDA's mission is to study the harmful effects of illicit drugs; with this in mind they have denied studies looking into the therapeutic potential of cannabis research materials even after their protocols obtained FDA approval. Another source of marijuana is clearly needed. [continues 62 words]
Corte Madera has signed a settlement agreement allowing a Tamal Plaza medical marijuana dispensary to stay open until June 2014, so long as it hands over a portion of gross sales and doesn't accept new patients under 21, among other requirements. Marin Superior Court Judge James Ritchie on Monday approved the agreement among Corte Madera, Marin Holistic Solutions operator Verdance Inc. and landlord Francisco Properties, officials said. "Given the rapidly escalating costs of this litigation, the Town Council believed its fiscal obligations compelled re-assessing the wisdom of further prosecuting its case to remove (Marin Holistic Solutions) from the town, when ... it could achieve the same result -- albeit later than the town had initially envisioned," Town Manager David Bracken said in a statement. [continues 772 words]
What Joanne Crouch really wants (Letter: Marijuana in California, Nov. 27, 2010) is to continue discriminating against responsible citizens who choose to use the relatively safe, extremely popular, God-given plant cannabis (marijuana). The federal government should have never been allowed to prohibit cannabis from the beginning. Now citizens across all of North America are, as Crouch notices, displaying blatant contempt for government prohibitionists. The epitome of ignoring the federal government will come when citizens vote to completely legalize (and it will be legalized) the plant against its wishes. Millions of citizens can hardly wait to end that luciferous discrimination. Stan White Dillon, Colo. [end]
Inside California
