Just in time for Christmas, "Reefer Madness" is back. Federal prosecutors are threatening to shut down California's medical pot dispensaries, which are legal under state law. California Attorney General Kamala Harris is asking the state Legislature to clarify and close loopholes in the state's medical marijuana laws, saying those laws are so confusing that users, growers, sellers, cops and even the people who work in her office have a hard time telling what's legal from what's not. Meanwhile, one group is preparing a ballot initiative for next year that would tax and regulate medical marijuana, while another group is pushing for a vote to legalize pot for any and all uses. [continues 663 words]
It was very unfair of Bob Thompson to suggest in his letter to the editor that I want to legalize any hard drugs, but not marijuana. I was only saying that marijuana should be no easier to get than any other pain reliever for legitimate users. If I ever need to try it for severe pain, I probably will. But, I will get it from a "real" physician, not from a street corner clinic. And only if it becomes legal for that purpose, which it probably will. [continues 122 words]
Local law enforcement agencies got a holiday bonus Thursday when more than $1.2 million of assets seized in a 2006 marijuana bust in Hayward were distributed among five organizations to finance new technology and equipment. The funds were handed out through the federal government's asset-forfeiture program, which seizes assets used in or bought with the profits of crime and redistributes the money to law enforcement agencies that helped bring down the criminals. A federal investigation including five Bay Area law enforcement agencies found that Local Patients Cooperative, a medical marijuana dispensary in Hayward, was actually operating as a "sophisticated indoor grow" with hundreds of pounds of marijuana on hand even though their license only allowed three pounds of marijuana in the dispensary at one time, said Scott O'Briant, an agent with the Internal Revenue Service's criminal investigation unit. [continues 266 words]
California Attorney General Kamala Harris formally asked the state Legislature earlier this week to clarify state laws on medical marijuana to bring certainty and consistency to both law enforcement and patients. It's about time someone took action on the issue. The Legislature needs to take up the request. Under the state's medical marijuana law, the attorney general is authorized to issue guidelines on legality. As attorney general, Gov. Jerry Brown essentially made dispensaries legal if they were nonprofit cooperatives or collectives. As a result, storefront dispensaries boomed -- and the federal government stepped up efforts to go after them. [continues 87 words]
While I agree with your observation ("Nasty outbursts do nothing for marijuana cause," Dec. 14) that marijuana proponents are not always fond of the rules of decorum, it seems inappropriate to castigate them like unruly children. Please consider what is actually happening here: People dealing with serious medical issues are being systematically denied access to the medicine that best eases their suffering. Faced with the looming likelihood of being unable to obtain relief from that suffering and dealing with stress caused by such knowledge, it is understandable that they find it difficult to be polite to those hellbent on worsening their situations. [continues 348 words]
Can we please address this issue honestly? What is the difference at this point whether the desire for pot is medical or emotional? Some people use marijuana to control medical symptoms, and some to get high, relax and enhance. Marijuana has many emotional as well as medical gifts. Alcohol, however, does not, but it is legal to use it for the sole purpose of altering consciousness. Why then do we not legalize pot so that people have a choice of intoxicants? Alcohol is a very dangerous drug, and has been the cause of millions of deaths. [continues 95 words]
SHASTA LAKE -- Council members reversed the local trend of banning medical marijuana dispensaries Tuesday night and voted instead to ditch their permit system. The council voted 4-1 to have city staffers prepare an ordinance that will remove dispensary permitting requirements from the municipal code while keeping existing zoning regulations in place, City Manager Carol Martin said Wednesday. The discussion of a possible ban, placed on the agenda at Councilwoman Dolores Lucero's request, comes more than a month after Redding's City Council voted to outlaw at least 14 dispensaries in its city limits. Anderson's City Council approved a ban in October, while the Shasta County Board of Supervisors approved a dispensary ban for the county's unincorporated areas last week. [continues 399 words]
Patients, partyers and profiteers have a month to chop down their marijuana if they want to stay on the right side of the law in Live Oak. The City Council on Wednesday night finalized a ban on growing marijuana for medical use, which will now take effect Jan. 20. Council members first approved the ban at their Dec. 7 meeting, saying marijuana grows stunk up neighborhoods and threatened people's safety as criminals tried to steal plants and growers tried to protect them, sometimes with razor wire and guard dogs. [continues 507 words]
Glenn County planning commissioners are in no hurry to approve a medical marijuana ordinance for the unincorporated areas of the county. They opted to wait on the issue Wednesday to get more information on how Sheriff Larry Jones feels about the proposal. Planning Director John Linhart said the proposed ordinance would regulate the cultivation and other issues surrounding medical marijuana. The code would restrict the growing area to a maximum of 100 square feet per parcel, and keep the plants out of neighbors' views. [continues 586 words]
Although no substance is harmless (Letter: Marijuana not a harmless herb, Dec. 10, 2011), cannabis (marijuana) is among the safest. In over 5,000 years of documented medical use, there has not been a single death directly related to the relatively safe God-given plant (see the first page of the Bible). That's safety on a Biblical scale Stan White Dillon, Colo. [end]
LAKE COUNTY -- There will not be two measures regarding local marijuana laws on the June ballot after one group of proponents failed to submit signatures by Thursday's deadline. Supporters of the proposed "Lake County Act to Adopt Federal Marijuana Laws" informed county election officials on Thursday that they would not be turning in names, according to Maria Valadez, deputy registrar of voters. The group began its signature-gathering effort last week and needed to gain support from at least 2,115 registered Lake County voters by the end of business Thursday to qualify for the June election. [continues 188 words]
California Attorney General Kamala Harris formally asked the state Legislature earlier this week to clarify state laws on medical marijuana to bring certainty and consistency to both law enforcement and patients. It's about time someone took action on the issue. The Legislature needs to take up the request. Under the state's medical marijuana law, the attorney general is authorized to issue guidelines on legality. As attorney general, Gov. Jerry Brown essentially made dispensaries legal if they were nonprofit cooperatives or collectives. As a result, storefront dispensaries boomed -- and the federal government stepped up efforts to go after them. [continues 85 words]
Re "Medi-pot collective charges dropped" (Downstroke, Dec. 8): Good news for Mountainside Collective. [Assistant District Attorney Helen] Harberts states, "The public-safety risk of having a marijuana store has been abated. Justice has been served." If that was their goal, why continue the prosecution? It should always be pointed out these would-be heroes deprived thousands of chronically ill people of their holistic medical choice. A choice we the people voted on and our suppressors tell us we were too stupid to know what we voted for. [continues 76 words]
An outspoken Redding medical marijuana patient and advocate presented three City Council members with recall notices Tuesday night. Rob McDonald, 50, presented council members Francie Sullivan, Rick Bosetti and Patrick Jones with the notices during the meeting's public comment period. "Tonight I do something that isn't easy for me," McDonald said before announcing and presenting the notices. "Four weeks ago you basically listened to a group of people who basically wanted to violate another group of people's rights and you closed down the dispensaries." [continues 544 words]
Riverside County supervisors are right to shut down all illegal medical marijuana dispensaries in the unincorporated areas. The Board of Supervisors outlawed dispensaries in 2006, as has every city in the county except Palm Springs. However, county officials estimate there are now at least 36 illegal pot dispensaries, not counting the ones in cities. There's a cluster of 11 of them in, of all places, unincorporated Thousand Palms, which has less than 8,000 residents. Even Palm Springs, which allows up to three dispensaries or collectives to operate legally, has 10 of them and home-delivery services. [continues 198 words]
What a difference the city limits can make. Last month the Redding City Council - after granting wide rein and official Police Department blessing to its medical marijuana collectives since 2009 - abruptly ordered them to shut down in response to a Southern California Court of Appeal ruling that found city licensing schemes in fatal conflict with federal law. Just up the road in the city of Shasta Lake, on the other hand, the City Council reacted to the latest legal twist Tuesday night not by rushing to shutter collectives, a move suggested by City Councilwoman Dolores Lucero, but by declaring them welcome local businesses that serve a real need for patients. The council voted 4-1 to take a new stab at writing a zoning ordinance, this one in compliance with the law, at least as it stands this week. [continues 284 words]
Group Proposes Own Regulations After Helping Block Previous SD Ordinance Medical marijuana collectives on Monday unveiled specifics of a proposed ballot initiative that would regulate storefront operators and generate additional revenue through a sales tax to the city of San Diego. The 18-page ordinance, which had been foreshadowed for two weeks, would create operating zones for dispensaries and levy a 2.5 percent sales tax on their retail transactions. It also would impose a fee for the city to recover its expenses, establish security measures and hours of operation and mandate inspections and certification by a third-party group. [continues 671 words]
Glenn County planning commissioners are in no hurry to approve a medical marijuana ordinance for the unincorporated areas of the county. They opted to wait on the issue Wednesday to get more information on how Sheriff Larry Jones feels about the proposal. Planning Director John Linhart said the proposed ordinance would regulate the cultivation and other issues surrounding medical marijuana. The code would restrict the growing area to a maximum of 100 square feet per parcel, and keep the plants out of neighbors' views. [continues 584 words]
Tragic as it was, the death of Thousand Oaks High School senior Griffen Kramer could be the tipping point in this area's fight against heroin. Word this week from the Los Angeles County coroner's office confirming the drug as the cause of the 18-year-old's death (see related story on page 1) puts an end to any debate and provides another opportunity to address this life-and-death topic. We're amazed by how many people we've talked to in the past month who had no idea high schoolers were using heroin and no clue about the prevalence of prescription painkillers in the local party scene. Along with this spike in awareness is a desire for action. [continues 348 words]
Trumpets and trombones blast across a rodeo ring where women in miniskirts dance with men in cowboy hats and gold chains. Some fans try to climb onto the stage while others whoop to the deafening music and sing along to an outlaw ballad about one of the most-wanted criminal suspects in North America, an alleged drug kingpin. "We take care of El Mayo "Here no one betrays him... "We stay tough with AK-47s and bazookas at the neck "Chopping heads off as they come [continues 1031 words]
Inside California
