Contempt Of Court Charges Filed LOS ANGELES - Medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access filed legal briefs Monday accusing the city of Montebello of contempt of court for refusing to return medical marijuana wrongfully seized more than four years ago. On Oct. 15, 2004, local police seized marijuana plants, growing equipment, and personal correspondence from the Montebello home of Terry Gene Walker. Police criminally charged Walker, regardless of his status as a medical marijuana patient, said Joe Elford, chief counsel for Oakland-based ASA, who is representing Walker in his contempt claim. [continues 312 words]
Contempt Of Court Charges Filed LOS ANGELES - Medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access filed legal briefs Monday accusing the city of Montebello of contempt of court for refusing to return medical marijuana wrongfully seized more than four years ago. On Oct. 15, 2004, local police seized marijuana plants, growing equipment, and personal correspondence from the Montebello home of Terry Gene Walker. Police criminally charged Walker, regardless of his status as a medical marijuana patient, said Joe Elford, chief counsel for Oakland-based ASA, who is representing Walker in his contempt claim. [continues 313 words]
Contempt Of Court Charges Filed LOS ANGELES - Medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access filed legal briefs Monday accusing the city of Montebello of contempt of court for refusing to return medical marijuana wrongfully seized more than four years ago. On Oct. 15, 2004, local police seized marijuana plants, growing equipment, and personal correspondence from the Montebello home of Terry Gene Walker. Police criminally charged Walker, regardless of his status as a medical marijuana patient, said Joe Elford, chief counsel for Oakland-based ASA, who is representing Walker in his contempt claim. [continues 314 words]
In Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Stephen Manley's chaotic courtroom, the bulletin board tells the story. The thank-you notes. The crayon drawings from grateful children. The Polaroids of former defendants who've regained the ability to smile. They are all telltale signs seldom found elsewhere in the local criminal justice system, where drama and sorrow ordinarily drown out the kind of hope Manley sells inside his courtroom every day. Manley believes in reclamation projects, and he sees hundreds of them each year as he runs one of the most unique courtrooms in California for defendants facing drug addiction and mental illness. [continues 741 words]
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE -- A purported medicinal marijuana provider has opened, and at least one city official and one resident are expressing concern about the new business. Patient to Patient Collective opened early this month at 2314 Lake Tahoe Blvd. A post on a message board at cannabis.com says the collective is distributing marijuana for medical use. A man who answered the phone at the collective and identified himself as a manager also said the collective is distributing marijuana to medical patients. [continues 871 words]
Your [medical cannabis] ordinance does not address ways of distinguishing between direct access gardens, where cannabis is grown for specific patients, and gardens that have paperwork on the wall but really just sell the cannabis. It also does nothing to ensure that gardeners who take advantage of patients or forge documents are punished. It certainly does nothing to reduce the price of cannabis either. In regards to fire safety, you could have just stipulated that gardens must either comply with the load-capacity of the existing electrical output of the building, or that they modify the building, according to codes, to accommodate larger usage. Limiting the amounts of cannabis that patients may grow is in direct conflict with California's Health and Safety Code, the Guidelines of our Attorney General's Office, and with more than one high court ruling. It's also mean spirited to punish qualified patients for the actions of black-market growers! [continues 409 words]
Sac County Supes Come To Their Senses, Approve State's Medical-Marijuana ID Card For information on medial-marijuana laws, visit Americans for Safe Access at www.safeaccessnow.org. Last week, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors approved the use of the state's medical-marijuana ID card in the county. There's really no reason to thank them; the ID card was mandated by the state Legislature in 2003 and had already been approved by 42 out of the state's 59 counties, including Fresno, for Christ's sake. By not enacting it, the supervisors were thwarting the will of the electorate and the Legislature. Apparently, only the prospects of a lawsuit by medical-marijuana advocates convinced a majority of the supes to pass the ordinance 4-1. [continues 643 words]
FALLBROOK ---- Twice a week, a small group of recovering drug addicts and alcoholics meets on the first floor of Riverview Church in Bonsall. They talk about their struggles with rehabilitation ---- everything from withdrawals from drugs to hunting for jobs ---- and senior members of the group guide newcomers through 12 steps of recovery. Jay Lawrence, an original member of the group, said last week that a dozen to three dozen people show up for the meetings on Tuesday and Friday nights. "We've been meeting for about 10 years now, and we always have three or four homeless people who come to the group," Lawrence said. [continues 868 words]
In light of shifting rules governing the cultivation of marijuana for medical use under California's Proposition 215, Sheriff Lorrac Craig is working with other law enforcement officials to figure out what the county's enforcement policies will be for the 2009 growing season. In a status report to the Board of Supervisors last week, Sheriff Craig said he believes the recent California Supreme Court ruling defining "caregiver" under Proposition 215 will "really help us a lot to weed out the others." The ruling issued at the end of November defines "caregiver" as someone who actually provides for the housing, health and safety of the patient and had that relationship before marijuana became part of the treatment. [continues 748 words]
OAKLAND - An Oakland police officer at the center of the department's search warrant imbroglio has been notified that the department plans to fire her pending an administrative hearing. Officer Karla Rush, an eight-year member of the force, was notified late last week of the department's decision, sources said. She can now fight the decision by presenting mitigating factors, a process that can take several months. Rush, who was placed on paid administrative leave last month, is responsible for writing more than 30 faulty sworn affidavits that were used to convince judges that search warrants were needed to raid the homes of suspected small-time drug dealers. [continues 593 words]
To the Editor: A day in the life, I read in the news today, oh boy. The UDJ Dec. 3, page 14 "Judge leans toward early release of inmates" after the California voters struck down Prop. 5, granted it was written too loosely, but now we may potentially see by order of a federal court judge, saying "releasing inmates early may be the best option for ensuring that California prisoners receive adequate medical care." People of the great state of California, this lawsuit is nothing new, for which not only has the CDCR an lawmakers have failed to give any recognition. A prison system designed to hold less than 100,000 in treatment space now holds 156,300 inmates, where some "mentally ill inmates receive counseling inside prison bathrooms." [continues 267 words]
Re "Supervisors vote to issue medical marijuana IDs," Dec. 15: It's a relief that our county supervisors finally decided to obey the long-standing law that requires them to implement an ID card program for medical marijuana users. Not only will law-abiding patients be able to live without fear of false arrest, taxpayers will not be forced to pay for a costly lawsuit that would result from noncompliance. Supervisor Roberta MacGlashan's comment that she wouldn't follow state law until a court orders her to is outrageous. The state's Supreme Court has in fact ruled that counties must implement this program, and Sacramento's top attorney advised MacGlashan and other supervisors that failure to follow the law would result in a lawsuit they couldn't win. [continues 60 words]
For most of this year, I was the Web editor here at the old Times-Standard, toiling away on making sure that this newspaper did its best to bring all of its brilliant content to the Internet. It was a nice job in a cozy office with Jeff Soderberg, the technical guru of all things interactive at the T-S. But since early November or so, I have switched jobs, becoming the city editor and leaving my digital roots behind. But even with that transition, I can't help but be interested when the top 10 list of online stories for 2008 was circulated in the office. [continues 282 words]
Re "Supervisors vote to issue medical marijuana IDs" (Page B2, Dec. 17): It's a relief that our county supervisors finally decided to obey the law that requires them to implement an ID-card program for medical marijuana users. Not only will law-abiding patients be able to live without fear of false arrest, taxpayers will not be forced to pay for a costly lawsuit that may result from noncompliance. Joseph Burch, Citrus Heights [end]
As a Christian, I was pleased reading, "New medical marijuana collective opens in Sausalito," (IJ, Dec. 15) and learned from it. If Marin County Sheriff Robert Doyle is opposed to medical marijuana cooperatives because he believes they're hiding behind Proposition 215 to be distributors and sellers of a banned substance, then perhaps he along with Marin law enforcement agencies can get involved in the process. It could help add to safety for the cooperatives and citizens, ensure they survive for people that honestly benefit and gain trust in the community. Sick citizens would be grateful. Stan White Dillion, Colo. [end]
It is obnoxious and misleading for the Independent Journal to put the word "medicine" in quotation marks when referring to medical marijuana. Marijuana's use as a medicine goes back nearly 5,000 years in the written medical literature. Prestigious organizations from the American College of Physicians to the American Public Health Association and American Nurses Association have all acknowledged that marijuana can be a legitimate medicine. So have the governments of Canada, Israel, Germany and the Netherlands. And the IJ still puts the word in quotes? Give me a break. Bruce Mirken, director of communications, Marijuana Policy Project, Washington, D.C. [end]
Medical marijuana may soon be another product you can buy locally - if you have a permit, that is. At Wednesday's meeting, the Sonoma City Council took further steps toward setting up a licensing system that would allow a medical marijuana dispensary to open in Sonoma. The license would be a one-year permit, renewable upon verification of compliance and revocable at any moment if holder is non-compliant. Dispensaries could not be located within 100 feet of single-family residences, schools and parks. Growing or consuming marijuana on-site would be prohibited and the city would have the authority to do a third-party audit. [continues 449 words]
How can it be that Temecula and Murrieta, cities that pride themselves in forming the "Bible belt of Riverside County," allow businesses to promote the use of marijuana and other illegal drugs? I wrote a letter several weeks ago about how Temecula recently issued a business license to IECannabisConsultants.com, a Temecula-based company on Commerce Center Drive that sells marijuana for "medical use." After checking around more thoroughly, I've since discovered several drug paraphernalia supply stories in our communities, including four along Jefferson Avenue between Overland Drive and Murrieta Hot Springs Road. There are more "head shops" in this area than there are McDonald's. [continues 111 words]
Officials Seize Thousands Of Pipes In Vista, San Marcos, Escondido As part of a crackdown on so-called "head shops" and smoke shops, law enforcement officials this week served search warrants at 11 businesses in Vista, San Macros and Escondido. They seized thousands of pipes and other smoking materials that authorities said are blatant drug paraphernalia. Shopkeepers and owners at some of the shops were cited for misdemeanor drug charges, mostly for selling paraphernalia, but more charges could be filed as the investigation continues, said Damon Mosler, a deputy district attorney who heads the office's narcotics unit. [continues 666 words]
Newport Beach residents voiced frustrations Wednesday with drug and alcohol rehabilitation homes in the city at a hearing to decide whether the sober living home the Kramer Center should be allowed to keep its doors open. "I am tired of these group home operators who take advantage of our amenities and beautiful beaches but do not observe city regulations," said Newport Beach resident Barbara Roy at the hearing. The Kramer Center is a 12-bed, unlicensed treatment center that houses its clients in a duplex at 207 28th St. in Newport Beach. [continues 408 words]
McKINLEYVILLE -- A county permit application for a medical marijuana collective in McKinleyville has generated immediate opposition and the most influential opponent is the owner of the property for which the growing facility is slated. Stephen Gasparas has submitted a permit application to the county for The Rose Center, a proposed medical marijuana collective at 1551 Nursery Way in McKinleyville. Allowed under Proposition 215, the state's medical marijuana law, a collective is a members-only group cultivation site for people with cannabis prescriptions. Gasparas' application states that his collective would not be open to the public and would not dispense marijuana. [continues 608 words]
LOS ANGELES - Police officers patrolling the city's Skid Row area must undergo special training and face new restrictions on how they can search people and run parole status checks, under a settlement with a civil rights group announced Thursday. The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California initially sued the Los Angeles Police Department in 2003, claiming officers in Skid Row were unconstitutionally searching people or running criminal checks after they had been stopped for trivial offenses such as jaywalking or littering. The city's Skid Row area, spanning about a square mile on the east side of downtown, is home to thousands of homeless. [continues 253 words]
County Becomes 42nd In California To Issue MMJ Patient ID Cards After years of delay, Ventura County has fully complied with the state mandated "Medical Marijuana Program Act", which changes the way the county and its municipalities regard medical cannabis and the estimated 10,000 seriously ill patients who require it. Indeed, as early as December 7, an intrepid Web voyager could find her way to a page on the Ventura County Public Health site titled "Medical Marijuana Program." The ordinary-appearing page provides information for qualified Ventura County medical cannabis patients regarding how to obtain the state-issued Patient's ID Card. [continues 368 words]
The Compassionate Use Act of 1996 (Act) (Health & Saf. Code, ? 11362.5, added by voter initiative in the November 1996 general election provides partial immunity for the possession and cultivation of marijuana to two groups of people: qualified medical marijuana patients and their primary caregivers. Roger Mentch was arrested in 2003 and convicted in 2005 for possession and cultivation of marijuana for sale in Santa Cruz County. His conviction was overturned on appeal in October 2006, primarily because the appeals court believed the trial judge should not have instructed the jury Mentch was not authorized by the law to sell or distribute marijuana. [continues 293 words]
FRESNO, Calif. -- Fresno County supervisors are supporting a needle exchange program aimed at reducing disease among drug addicts who might be tempted to use contaminated needles. The board voted 3-2 on Tuesday to approve a pilot, one-year program that will include substance abuse counseling and free medical care. The supervisors, who have rejected similar proposals in the past, acknowledged concerns about illegal drug use, but said the county needs to reduce the spread of diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C. [continues 53 words]
SANTA CRUZ -- The city's first medical marijuana dispensary is hoping to build a new kitchen for its two pastry chefs so they can bake pot brownies, cookies and truffles in a controlled space at its shop. Lisa Molyneux, owner of Greenway Compassionate Relief Inc. in Harvey West, is slated to ask the city Planning Commission on Thursday to approve plans for a new, 430-square foot commercial kitchen. Now, the two chefs rent a commercial kitchen, which Molyneux said she can't watch as closely as if she had her own. [continues 394 words]
CLEARLAKE -- In light of an expired moratorium prohibiting the issuing of new business licenses for medical marijuana dispensaries, the Clearlake City Council has chosen to fall back on a city ordinance that has brought into question the legality of the section. Liz Byrd, owner of Lakeside Herbal Solutions, was recently issued a business license only to have that license revoked. Byrd and her attorney William McPike, who specializes in medical marijuana defense, addressed the council at its Dec. 11 meeting appealing the revocation of the license. After a lengthy discussion that lasted more than hour, the council still made no decision and continued the item. [continues 817 words]
Desert Hot Springs on Tuesday joined four other Coachella Valley cities in voting to ban medical marijuana dispensaries. The City Council voted 4-1 to ban the dispensaries, with Councilman Karl Baker dissenting. The city's moratorium expires in February, and the ban will take effect 30 days after a second reading in January, City Attorney Ruben Duran said. Several on the council said they worried a medical marijuana cooperative or collective would strain an understaffed city police department that has its hands full with crime. [continues 291 words]
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a resolution to begin issuing identification cards for patients who use medical marijuana. The board followed the strong recommendation of its county counsel, who worried supervisors could face unwinnable litigation. Sacramento Sheriff John McGinness also had dropped his earlier opposition. In a 4-1 vote, the board approved the resolution. Supervisor Roberta MacGlashan cast the dissenting vote. In March, supervisors had shot down a similar resolution to begin issuing the cards, which are mandated by a 2003 state law. [continues 198 words]
While no one would begrudge Sheriff Bill Wittman his award for doing his job energetically, the unfortunate truth is that marijuana "eradication" is a myth ("Anti-marijuana campaign earns national honors," Dec. 3). The U.S. government's own National Drug Threat Assessment 2008 reports no decline in marijuana availability despite years of escalating plant seizures and increasing arrests for possession. In fact, the report cites raids on outdoor grows (such as those for which the sheriff is being honored) as one of the factors causing illicit growers to "shift operations indoors," where they "will produce higher-potency marijuana year-round, allowing for an exponential increase in profits derived." [continues 71 words]
You might not like the state's medical marijuana laws, but you'd better follow them. That's the message Sacramento County's attorney has sent the Board of Supervisors, which once again is debating whether to issue state-mandated medical marijuana ID cards to patients. The board today will reconsider a resolution to issue the cards nine months after shooting down a similar measure and five months after an appeals court upheld the state law requiring such a program. Currently, Sacramento County is one of the few counties in the state that doesn't issue medical marijuana cards and where there is no process for determining who is using the drug for legal medical purposes as defined by the state. [continues 510 words]
Down an alley in the back of an aging commercial building on Gate 5 Road in Sausalito, members of the county's newest marijuana collective, Gate Five Caregivers, come to pick up their "medicine." Inside the collective's steel-caged door sits Darryl Compton, a burly 22-year-old Marin City resident and collective member. Compton watches a large-screen TV monitor that connects to a closed-circuit camera trained on the alley. "Darryl's the door man. He's keeping it real safe," said Kris Scott, 24, of San Rafael, another collective member. [continues 1003 words]
Editor - Regarding "Tenderloin front-window spy camera on the Web" (Dec. 6): I admit I'm a bit of a people watcher, but I don't care for 24-hour surveillance cameras, whether they're in the name of safety or entertainment. Remember the '60s British series "The Prisoner" and the Jim Carrey movie "The Truman Show"? I believe in that endangered species called privacy rights. Maybe people should focus more on themselves (careers, relationships, diet, exercise, self-esteem, etc.) than watching other people. [continues 107 words]
I am the one who spoke on behalf of Desert Ballet Center at the Town Council meeting Thursday night regarding their dissatisfaction f the medical marijuana facility located next to a business serving our community children for over 20 years. I was booed for my speaking. Now, others probably would have crumbled at this (after all, I am 42 years old and was a public speaker in college), but one thing I don't do is give in when I fight a battle. What the booers did, their act of disrespect for others, is why they should not be allowed anywhere near a business with children involved. If they would publicly try to humiliate a speaker of our community as well as show a blatant disrespect to our Town Council rules, why would any of the medical marijuana users show common courtesy while driving in a parking lot where young children are readily coming and going for afternoon activities? They decided to "hoop and holler" as though they were attending a backyard concert. They drive through our parking lot with that same careless enthusiasm on their way to see their vendor for their so-called "herbal cure." [continues 257 words]
A medical marijuana growing collective that organizers hoped would be housed in a downtown McKinleyville building was quashed in its early stages after planners failed to contact the owners of the property. In late November, an Arcata-based developer Danco submitted a conditional use permit application to the Humboldt County Planning Commission for a new project called The Rose Center. The application was filed on behalf of Steven Gasparas, the owner of the Arcata iCenter, who envisioned The Rose Center as a marijuana growing facility allowing Proposition 215 card-holding growers, who cultivate more than they need for their own purposes, a commercial space to house their gardens. [continues 494 words]
Medical marijuana is not illegal in California, but the DEA continues to raid dispensaries in Long Beach. We ask the obvious question: Why? It's just before noon on a sunny day in early October, and a young man in a Dodgers T-shirt skateboards up one of the funky East Village sidewalks of downtown Long Beach to 745 E. Fourth Street, picks up his board and enters Unit E. Inside the small vestibule, he greets the guys behind the counter and presents documents confirming that a doctor has diagnosed him with a medical condition with symptoms alleviated by the use of marijuana. He takes a seat to wait. He doesn't know his arrival has been watched. But any second now, he will. [continues 2972 words]
REDDING, Calif.-The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging a Northern California school district's drug testing policy. The ACLU filed a lawsuit that contends Shasta Union High School District's policy violates the state Constitution. It's forcing students involved in athletics, choir, band, drama and other extracurricular activities to take drug tests. It's an expansion of a policy that has applied to student athletes since 1999. ACLU attorney Michael Risher says it's unnecessary and that random drug testing without any suspicious behavior violates students' privacy. The group filed the suit Dec. 5 in Shasta County Superior Court. Small groups of students have been tested once a month since the policy started in August. Superintendent Jim Cloney says the policy complies with state law. [end]
Our view: A suit filed by two honor students and their parents against the Shasta Union High School District holds good news about school drug use. The cost of litigation alone makes an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit against a local school district about as welcome as two weeks of detention. A suit challenging the Shasta Union High School District's new drug-testing policy, however, actually contains some good news. Namely, district students' rates of drug and alcohol use are not all that bad. [continues 339 words]
They're Designed So Police Will Know Patients Have Medical Need Starting Monday, medical marijuana patients in the county can apply for an identification card that shows proof they can legally use the drug. The program, which was enacted under Senate Bill 420, is designed to alleviate confusion between police and those who are legally allowed to transport and consume the drug. Though 41 other counties in California have enacted similar state-mandated programs, Ventura County officials wanted to see how a series of lawsuits played out before starting a program here. [continues 390 words]
The Desert Hot Springs Planning Commission weighed in this week on two key issues affecting the city's future: medical marijuana and its art-in-public places program. The commission voted 3-2 on Tuesday to recommend banning medical marijuana dispensaries. The commission had tied 2-2 on the issue at a previous meeting, one that Chairman John Gerardi had been unable to attend. The commission also voted 3-1-1 to recommend a new fee structure for the city's proposed art-in-public-places program. Commissioner John Aguilar dissented, and commissioner Ron Stewart abstained. [continues 151 words]
Yucca Valley -- The Town Council voted unanimously Thursday night to put a moratorium on the establishment of medical marijuana dispensaries and the distribution of medical marijuana at existing businesses in the town. This will grant the Town an initial 45-day review period in which to form zoning and other land-use policy for this kind of business. A health collective that opened about three months ago in the Monterey Business Center and is dispensing marijuana will be allowed to continue to do so despite the moratorium. [continues 501 words]
Stan Binnie is Trinidad's new mayor. The council voted unanimously Wednesday to appoint Binnie as mayor. At the same time, the council chose Kathy Bhardwaj as the mayor pro-tem and bid farewell to long-time councilman and Mayor Chi-Wei Lin. Although newly elected City Councilman Mike Morgan had stated his interest in serving as the city's mayor on his recently launched blog, he did not put his name forward at the meeting, according to City Clerk Gabriel Adams. [continues 309 words]
A little more than a year ago, Richard Steenken obtained a doctor's recommendation for marijuana. He applied for and received a state patient ID card in case, he said, police questioned him. He grew his own marijuana plants. And then he was arrested for growing plants in his home. Despite his card and prescription, he was held in jail for 21 days before his case was dismissed. [continues 955 words]
Program Coordinates Efforts Among Agencies. Drug cartels beware: The Iron Triad is coming. International drug traffickers looking to unload their poison in Merced County will have to contend with a new challenge in January -- a task force that combines federal, state and local resources. Sheriff Mark Pazin, Merced County District Attorney Larry Morse II and Merced Police Chief Russ Thomas met with federal Drug Enforcement Administration officials and others to put the final touches on the North Valley High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). [continues 553 words]
In line with the unnatural addiction to the growth of grey hairs I have developed over the years since learning that stupidity tends to summon them from my skull, I continually wake up in the mornings and start my day by asking, "Could today provide me with stupidity more painful than yesterdays?" This addiction of mine to such repulsive material is surely a product of habit and without the assured instant gratification from information dispensed by groups such as The Office of National Drug Control Policy, I could never have aged so suddenly to look so wise. [continues 753 words]
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors was in the unenviable position this week of trying to determine how to regulate illicit businesses. At issue is the continuing degradation of rural Humboldt County through marijuana-related diesel spills and the improper disposal of waste oil. "It's no secret this area resonates as home to fine marijuana cultivation," said Jessie Hill, a 33-year resident of the Salmon Creek watershed and member of the "Concerned Citizens" group from southern Humboldt County. The problem is that outdoor grows have moved indoors -- a situation that requires round-the-clock operation of diesel-powered generators. [continues 546 words]
Should we tax pot? An alternative approach would be to legalize the substance and not tax it. We would save the money used to criminalize it but not incur the "cost of regulating and enforcing the legal market." Ridding ourselves of the cost of pot-law enforcement is a good way to begin trimming the budget. Ken Hart Long Beach [end]
Re "Should we tax pot?" Opinion, Dec. 4 Patt Morrison tells us that a Rand Corp. researcher estimates that if pot were legal, 60% to 70% of the population would smoke it regularly, as its addictive potential has supposedly been underestimated. Yet pot is legal or decriminalized in some countries -- the Netherlands, for example -- and rates of regular use in these countries are lower than in the U.S., where pot is illegal. Was Morrison high when she wrote this column? Jonathan Taylor La Habra [end]
Morrison's witty musings miss the key issue behind changing marijuana laws. It certainly would be splendid if a legal marijuana market helped California pay some bills. Nevertheless, the real reasons to repeal marijuana prohibition are moral, not financial. In the United States, we take pride in our laws because they are just. Crimes that cause the most harm to others get the most severe punishments. Murder deserves a bigger penalty than double parking because it creates more harm. But what harm is caused by owning a plant? [continues 71 words]
Re "Should we tax pot?" Opinion, Dec. 4 Patt Morrison says legalizing marijuana wouldn't necessarily eliminate pot-related crime because there still might be a black market -- as there is with legal alcohol and tobacco. Though that may be true, without question the majority of the criminal market would disappear. What consumer wouldn't be willing to pay a slight premium for the convenience of purchasing marijuana from a safe and regulated facility instead of running the risk of being hurt or killed in an illegal drug deal on the streets? [continues 66 words]
Inside California
