The recent U.S. Justice Department move giving Native American tribes the green light to legalize marijuana on their reservations gives us pause. While we respect the sovereign right of tribal governments to run their affairs as they see fit, the situation in the Coachella Valley is somewhat unique. The close proximity of tribal territory and adjacent cities gives decisions made by one entity tremendous impact on the entire region. This is especially true in Palm Springs, where the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians has authority over 32,000 acres in the western Coachella Valley, including a checkerboard grid of sections encompassing about half the city. [continues 1110 words]
The use of marijuana stretches back more than 2,000 years. For most of American history, marijuana was legal under both federal and state law. The decline in the use of medical marijuana was accelerated by the development of other drugs, such as aspirin and opium-derived drugs. Thus, the advances in medicine helped to replace marijuana in the treatment of pain and other medical conditions. In 1970, President Nixon signed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, which includes the Controlled Substances Act, as part of the "war against drugs." Congress classified marijuana as Schedule I drug because of its high potential for abuse, the lack of accepted medical use and the absence of accepted safety standards in medically supervised treatment. [continues 608 words]
Following a trend of relaxing marijuana policy, the Department of Justice announced recently that it will no longer prosecute people who grow marijuana on tribal lands. Though the Obama administration recently said something similar regarding states where marijuana has been legalized, the move was unanticipated and, in places, unwelcome, according to reports. Many tribes prohibit marijuana cultivation in their own bylaws. But the announcement has already spurred a movement in the Hoopa Tribe to relax a ban on growing on the Hoopa Reservation. [continues 539 words]
OK, so this federal budget thing passed and I am confused. Is medical marijuana legal or not? - -Paul Ahseewonk Marijuana is still illegal under federal law. However, the new budget contains an amendment written by Dana Rohrabacher, R-Orange County, and Sam Farr, D-Central Coast, that prohibits federal agents from raiding medical cannabis facilities in states that have medical cannabis laws. By the way, 32 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws allowing the use of medical cannabis, so this is kind of a big deal. Not only that, the new budget also strengthens protections for hemp farmers. And, like I mentioned last week, the Department of Justice has said that Native American tribes can grow and sell cannabis on tribal land. All in all, Obama has been a really good president when it comes to marijuana. I didn't like him all that much in 2011, when it seemed like damn near all the clubs in California were getting raided and shut down, but his policy work since then, and especially during his second term, has been excellent. [continues 328 words]
Legal Dispensaries Are Nearing Final Approval to Open in San Diego SAN DIEGO - Five more illegal medical marijuana dispensaries have been shut down by City Attorney Jan Goldsmith, including two in Mission Valley and one each in North Park, Kearny Mesa and City Heights. City officials are facing pressure to close as many illegal pot shops as possible before the first legal dispensaries open early next year. The most recent estimates put the number of illegal dispensaries operating in San Diego at roughly 50. [continues 146 words]
The letters sent from prison inmates follow a script. In block letters, handwritten in pencil, as many words as possible are squeezed onto irregular scraps of paper. Sentences are vague and innocuous so as to not raise the hackles of the prison censor. They're also profoundly depressing, even when the prisoner claims to be in good spirits. "On the way here, the guards had the prisoner next to me taken out and killed," read one letter I received from a man who is doing time for running a state-legal dispensary. "There are other things I can only tell you about in person." [continues 819 words]
Judge Says Nestdrop, Which Takes Orders From Customers, Is Violating L.A. Law. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge said Tuesday that Nestdrop, a smartphone application that lets customers order medical marijuana, must stop delivering pot. Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer filed a court complaint earlier this month saying that Nestdrop, which offers alcohol and medical marijuana delivery, violates a law that restricts pot shops in Los Angeles from taking their product to customers. Judge Robert O'Brien granted a preliminary injunction against the company Tuesday to stop the pot deliveries. [continues 346 words]
Re "Mixed messages on pot shops," Editorial, Dec. 16 The Times correctly criticizes the city of Los Angeles for continuing to collect business taxes from new pot shops that are actually not allowed to be open under Measure D. Kudos to City Council members Nury Martinez and Jose Huizar for their call to stop issuing tax certificates to such dispensaries. Indeed, the purported confusion about medical marijuana well reflects how pot is profitable for a few while costing society at large. [continues 53 words]
Judges Seek Clarity Before Sentencing In a sharp reversal of federal drug policy, Congress has prohibited the Justice Department from interfering with laws in California and other states that allow the medical use of marijuana. And the turnabout caught the immediate attention of federal judges, who want to know its impact on some recent criminal convictions under the federal law that classifies pot as one of the most dangerous drugs. A day after President Obama signed the new law last week as part of a government spending bill, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of San Francisco asked a federal prosecutor whether the change would affect the sentencing of a Mendocino County pot grower, who pleaded guilty to charges requiring at least five years in prison. [continues 696 words]
Before the last election when Measure S, the proposal to make some sensible changes to the county's current medical marijuana ordinance was on the ballot, our local sheriff repeatedly stated that the current "nuisance" ordinance was "complaint driven." That means, as I understand it, that someone, such as a neighbor, must complain about some annoying or illegal aspect of a local medical grow before the Sheriff's Department takes action. Yet, as The Union recently reported, during Brad Peceimer-Glasse's preliminary hearing for a cultivation arrest in early September, a sheriff's deputy "... testified that the properties were investigated after overflights revealed the marijuana cultivation." [continues 115 words]
The Landscape Has Changed Since the Issue Went Before California Voters in 2010. California voters shied away from becoming the first in the nation to legalize recreational marijuana in 2010, but four states have since approved such a law and the eureka state appears primed to join the party in 2016. Polls show public support growing in the state and nation, and advocates have repeatedly proven much better at fundraising than their foes. With momentum on their side, proponents are targeting California and four other states in the next election cycle. [continues 1477 words]
The reaction of local tribal leaders earlier this month to the latest memorandum from the Justice Department on marijuana enforcement illustrates an important point: However desirable the end of prohibition may be for the people of Humboldt County at large, it will not come without costs - decriminalizing cannabis cultivation improperly can wreak still more devastating damage on the environment. Leaders from the Yurok and Hoopa tribes took pains to remind the public at large of this following the Dec. 11 release of the Justice Department memo which allows individual tribes to grow and sell marijuana at their discretion and directs U.S. attorneys not to enforce federal marijuana laws on Native American reservations regardless of the state's regulation. [continues 212 words]
Regarding "Tribes and the marijuana business" (Dec. 17): The right hand of Congress does not know what the left hand is doing. In the spending bill just passed, while the left hand passed Republican Rep. Rohrbacher's bipartisan amendment to legalize medical pot in states that have approved it, the right hand passed a drug warrior's amendment to flout the will of 70 percent of D. C. voters to legalize what in 1937 the American Medical Association called a "harmless medicine" when it opposed the first federal anti-pot law. [continues 67 words]
The editorial that poor tribes "without a casino but lots if land" might be more interested in getting into the marijuana business more than the wealthier tribes that are already in the casino business is patently ridiculous. The successful tribes will be the first into the mix. With resources, business and marketing experience, security experience, connections and the ability to move quickly the successful tribes have advantages that greatly overshadow the tribes that have much, much less. And what goes better together than getting high and playing slots? Paul Jester Scripps Ranch [end]
A Richmond police officer won't face criminal charges over the discovery of a 4-pound package of marijuana at his Oakley home that he said he had used to train his police dog, authorities said Thursday. Officer Joe Avila, 43, was placed on paid leave after authorities found the package at his home on Sept. 24, 10 months after he first picked it up from a delivery company while on duty, police said. Investigators determined that in November 2013, Avila responded to a UPS Store in Richmond, which had intercepted the package with marijuana inside. Instead of booking it into evidence, Avila took it home, according to Barry Grove, a Contra Costa County deputy district attorney. [continues 305 words]
After His Conviction on Six Felony Counts Related to Marijuana Distribution, a Father Agonizes Over Strategy. Noah Kleinman faced his moment of reckoning: Should he tell a federal judge his marijuana dispensaries were just a front to distribute bulk marijuana and make hundreds of thousands of dollars? Or stick to his claim of innocence? Kleinman, a 39-year-old salesman from Studio City, had been convicted of six felony counts related to marijuana distribution in June. Now at his sentencing at the downtown federal courthouse, U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright said he was inclined to go with the prosecutors' recommendation of 17 1/2 years in federal prison- devastating news for a father of two young children. [continues 1056 words]
Planners Postpone Hearing for Approval of First Legal Store SAN DIEGO - San Diego's efforts to shut down illegal pot shops continued on Thursday with a court ruling that a landlord must pay $250,000 in fines for repeatedly renting to illegal dispensaries. Meanwhile, a final approval hearing for the city's first legal dispensary was postponed from Thursday to Jan. 29 by the Planning Commission because scheduling conflicts would have forced three of the commission's seven members to miss Thursday's hearing. [continues 447 words]
Why do activists flock to the Emerald Cup, as Tim Blake tells the Journal in this weeks' issue? It crosses my mind - somewhat pessimistically, I will admit - that marijuana activism is relatively easy. It's not a difficult position to take, that weed is a relatively harmless drug. It doesn't take a leap to imagine that cannabis has health benefits for both the sick and well. It's also something that's inherently fun for millions of users around the world. So it's not difficult to build a really big party around a collection of academic seminars and panels. You can't throw an "end police brutality" festival with beer and musicians and expect 10,000 people to pay $40 to get in. (Those are called marches, or sit-ins, and they are incredibly dangerous for participants, as we're seeing all over the U.S.) [continues 501 words]
Cultures Collide As an Industry in Transition Celebrates Harvest A few days before the Emerald Cup, Casey O'Neill, the proprietor of Happy Day Farms in Laytonville, was feeling confident. Well, maybe not confident about his chances of winning a trip to Jamaica, the cup's top prize for marijuana bud - he was going up against more than 650 other entries of California's premier pot, including those from his dad, brother and wife, after all. But he was confident about the quality of his entry. [continues 1966 words]
Re "Pot 'O money" (Downstroke, Dec. 11): California NORML objects strenuously to Butte County's requirement that medical marijuana be cultivated in a contiguous space, and to the proposed "Stay in the Box" campaign advanced by the Butte County Sheriff's Office to ensure compliance with this scheme. Cal NORML is in favor of using square footage of plant canopy rather than plant numbers as a scientific measure of crop yield, as determined by DEA studies. To force plants to grow in some imaginary box, crammed together, will increase the likelihood of disease, making for an unhealthy product. Many patients, especially AIDS patients, have compromised immune systems and are especially susceptible to molds in particular. Furthermore, growing this way will interfere with a patient harvesting their required amount of cannabis. As far as I understand state law, [the county's $446,500] budget allocation [for Measure A enforcement] won't go into effect until the board takes a second vote on it. Locals should contact their supervisors. Ellen Comp Cal NORML deputy director, Berkeley [end]
As usual I am late on my holiday shopping. Any ideas? - -P. Rocrastinator I find a hug is always an appropriate gift. OK, not always, but don't worry, friend. There is still plenty of time to find the perfect gift for your cannabis-loving compatriots. Vaporizers are all the rage these days. I like the PAX (www.ploom.com/pax) for cannabis flowers and the Zen Pen (www.zenpen.org) for oils. Also, there's a company called cannabox (www.cannabox.com), and while they won't send you any actual cannabis (yet), they will send you a box filled with all kinds of cool things for the discerning pot smoker. Think of them as a "loot crate" for weed nerds instead of gamers. Or you could just buy people some cannabis-infused products like soap or massage oil. Those are always nice. I hope you have a hempy holiday season. [continues 363 words]
A memo released last week by the Justice Department said it would allow marijuana to be grown and sold on Indian reservations. But local tribal leaders weren't interested in pursuing the option. Two tribes in the Oroville area, the Mooretown Rancheria and Tyme Maidu, said they had only recently heard of the announcement, and doubted the decision would make any difference. A call to the Enterprise Rancheria was not returned. The amount of land owned by tribes in Butte County is relatively small, and two include the Gold Country and Feather Falls casinos. [continues 521 words]
Marijuana Brings a Relaxed Aspect to the Ancient Meditative Practice In a small South of Market studio, yoga is practiced on, shall we say, a higher level. As if doing child's pose, or balasana, in a candlelit room with tranquil music wasn't relaxing enough, Ganja Yoga adds cannabis to the experience as a way to help bring one's practice to a state of heightened spiritual consciousness that may otherwise not be reached. On a recent evening, instructor Dee Dussault talked her students through the various poses, encouraging them in a soothing voice how to breathe deeply through the diaphragm and, when the mood strikes them, to take a hit off a joint or vaporizer. [continues 936 words]
As if state and federal drug policies weren't already a mishmash of contradiction and confusion, the U.S. Department of Justice announced last week that Native American tribes can grow or sell marijuana on their reservations, even in states that have not legalized pot for medicinal or recreational purposes. The decision was a further recognition of the sovereignty of Indian lands. But its ramifications will be felt far beyond the reservations. Under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, the federal government ranks marijuana in the same category of drugs such as heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and PCP - defined as narcotics that have no established medical use and carry a high potential for abuse. But in 1996, California voters became the first to legalize marijuana for medical purposes, launching a movement that now includes 23 states. Four states have voted to legalize pot for recreational purposes as well. [continues 337 words]
Alcohol and marijuana do not mix. Just ask Lagunitas: In 2006, the Petaluma-based microbrewer's weekly beer tastings went on an infamous hiatus after state liquor officers discovered some of those drinking there were also smoking marijuana (let's hope ABC never pays a visit to the Zeitgeist back patio). Regardless, Champagne was definitely popped at Shambhala Healing Center last week. The Mission District medical cannabis dispensary is one of nine city-licensed pot clubs caught up in a federal Department of Justice crackdown. About one-third of San Francisco's permitted and taxpaying pot shops closed. Unlike all the others, Shambhala stayed and fought the feds in court. [continues 707 words]
In a sign of the burgeoning marijuana cultivation industry and its mainstream acceptance, an estimated 10,000 people flocked to the Sonoma County Fairgrounds over the weekend to honor the growers behind some of the finest and most powerful strains of pot in Northern California. The Emerald Cup, now in its second year in Santa Rosa, drew a record number of people and entrants to the competition to acknowledge and celebrate "the best outdoor cannabis in the world." Almost 900 entries were received this year, more than three times the amount vying last year for best marijuana buds, and other forms of cannabis, including concentrates such as hash oil, edibles and topicals. [continues 904 words]
Despite 2013's Measure D, under which only about 135 existing medical marijuana dispensaries have permission to stay open in Los Angeles, the city has continued to issue tax registration certificates to new pot shops and keeps collecting business taxes from some 450 dispensaries. Talk about mixed messages. While the city attorney and Police Department are attempting to close rogue pot shops, the Office of Finance keeps cranking out new tax certificates for those same dispensaries. Even though the certificate is not a permit - and it says so right on the document - it sure feels like one; often, for instance, it can convince a landlord that the dispensary is OK with City Hall. The city collected $3.6 million in business taxes this year from dispensaries, whether they were allowed to operate or not. What's more, the finance department has only recently begun sharing the list of tax-paying pot shops with the Police Department and the city attorney, after City Council members questioned why nobody was using the tax rolls to crack down on illicit shops. [continues 292 words]
I write in response to the Times-Standard article, "DOJ says Indian tribes can grow and sell marijuana" (Dec. 12, 2014), the North Coast Journal article, "The Revolution Starts Here" (12/11/14), and in anticipation of the TRT's coverage of this issue. The Department of Justice decision that tribes can grow and sell cannabis as long as they follow the same federal conditions as laid out for states that have legalized cannabis is truly a game changer for Indian tribes and a tremendous economic opportunity for our tribal citizens. [continues 677 words]
Saturday night, the Senate passed an omnibus spending bill, averting a government shutdown and keeping the government open through September 2015 once signed into law. In a rare moment of compromise, Congressional Democrats and Republicans were able to piece together a $1.1 trillion spending package that pays for many things on President Barack Obama's priority list. Topping headlines was the bill's targeting of the Dodd-Frank law, which aimed to curb some of Wall Street's riskiest trading, and its allowing of wealthy donors to contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars to lawmakers. [continues 379 words]
Superior Court has received nearly 10,000 petitions to reduce felonies to misdemeanors; more in wings Alisa Griego still had two weeks to serve on her sentence. She had spent half a year in a county jail for stealing from a store, one of a handful of convictions in a past filled with unhealthy relationships and drug addiction. But when she appeared before a judge late last month, she was told her felony conviction was now a misdemeanor, that she'd served her time. She was out of custody by the next morning, one of more than a dozen offenders in San Diego County who have been resentenced and released in the wake of Proposition 47. [continues 1655 words]
As you alluded to ("Is Vista tougher on med pot than San Diego?" Nov. 24), it appears the flaw in the city attorney's numbers of closed pot shops is that he is using many of the closings that came in great part with the help of U.S. attorney letters to landlords. However, we want San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith and his team to know that we don't think of them as the enemy. They are doing their best in a difficult situation. We are all struggling to deal with the real enemies, who are the drug dealers. [continues 90 words]
Libertarian boy wonder Rand Paul, a U.S. Senator from Kentucky, recently told a Louisville news outlet he smoked pot in his youth. "Let's just say I wasn't a choir boy when I was in college and that I can recognize that kids make mistakes," Paul said. "And I can say I made mistakes when I was a kid." Paul has previously annunciated his desire to end the War on Drugs, and reiterated that he doesn't support drug use but also doesn't support throwing people in prison for drug use. Of course, Rand, the son of racist-nutjob former presidential candidate Ron, falls firmly into the government-outta-my-face set, so deregulating marijuana would fall firmly alongside his desire to deregulate just about everything else. [continues 409 words]
Board of Supervisors Allocates a Half-Million to Marijuana Measure On Tuesday (Dec. 9), the Butte County Board of Supervisors unanimously authorized spending nearly a half-million dollars toward the added costs of code enforcement anticipated with the recent passage of Measure A, a stricter medical marijuana cultivation ordinance than the county formerly had in place. Director of Development Services Tim Snellings explained that reduced sizes of grow areas and relaxed limitations on who can file complaints likely will lead to more calls for service. Snellings asked the board to allocate $446,500 from the general fund for contingencies, including money for additional personnel, vehicles and an educational campaign called "Stay in the Box" to inform growers of new regulations. Of the money allocated, $30,000 is budgeted toward instituting an online, cellphone-friendly complaint system. About 60 percent of Butte County voters approved Measure A in November. [end]
Hey, I hear Fresno is going to repeal their growing ban. What have you heard? - -Ray Zin Hey yourself. The Fresno County Board of supervisors had a meeting last week to discuss changing their ridiculous and overbearing ban on outdoor cultivation. The way the law stands now, no one can grow any cannabis at all and those that do are subject to a fine of $1,000 per plant, plus interest. If growers would like to appeal the fines, they have to appear in front of the Board of Supervisors. As it turns out, dang near everyone would like to appeal their fines, especially landlords from out of town, seeing as there is no grace period allowed for removing plants, and the BoS is having a hard time keeping up. So they had a meeting, and surprise surprise, nothing changed. It is still illegal to grow medical cannabis, indoors or outdoors, in Fresno County. This sort of zero-tolerance policy toward medical marijuana seems to be contagious. Some supervisors in El Dorado County are looking to repeal their current growing ordinance and replace it with a total ban on cannabis growing. Last week, they decided to form a committee to look into the best way to change the law. [continues 287 words]
A Fledgling Political Action Committee's Push to Regulate Weed in Humboldt It's Dec. 8, and three members of California Cannabis Voice Humboldt are sitting in the Journal's Old Town office. There's a sense of urgency - and even a little desperation - as they explain how the group has grown from its inaugural meeting less than six months ago to push itself to the forefront of the 18-year-old conversation about how Humboldt County should regulate its largest industry. [continues 3588 words]
DEA Says More Marijuana Grown Indoors, Exposing Children to Chemicals SAN DIEGO - Indoor marijuana farms and hash oil labs in San Diego County are increasingly putting children's health and safety at risk, law enforcement officials said Wednesday as they released results of this year's pot-eradication efforts. Authorities said the number of hash oil labs seized this year jumped to 54 from 30 the year before. Seven of them were found because they caught fire or exploded. "These labs are a hazard to anyone, especially children," said Gary Hill, assistant special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's San Diego office. [continues 378 words]
While having uniform standards to determine whether driving is impaired by ingestion of marijuana ("How stoned is too stoned to drive?" Dec. 7) would greatly assist law-enforcement, it seems doubtful that any can be created that will be applicable across the broad spectrum of individuals. There are simply too many variables. Unlike alcohol, which can be proven to metabolize at a predictable rate, the THC in cannabis stays in the body for a long time and no studies have provided guidance in how to equate test-levels with degrees of impairment for driving purposes. This is not to say that pot combined with alcohol doesn't produce an undesirable effect on the ability to drive safely and prudently; it does. But that should not lead to blanket assumptions about cannabis alone and driving. Linda P. Hughes Lakeside [end]
OROVILLE - Butte County's supervisors Tuesday gave their unanimous approval to a $446,500 experiment on controlling medical marijuana production. During the regular board meeting, Director of Development Services Tim Snellings outlined for supervisors a program called "Stay in the Box, Learn the Facts." The program relates to an ordinance passed by the board in February putting limits on medical marijuana gardens. Instead of limiting the number of plants that can be grown, the February rule put strict limits on the physical size of the grow. On a lot larger than a half-acre the grow can cover 50 square-feet. On a parcel larger than five acres the plot can cover no more 100 square-feet, and on a parcel larger than 10 acres the maximum garden is 150 square-feet. [continues 383 words]
The Costa Mesa City Council has postponed its discussion of a new report by the police department that urges caution about the potential effects of medical marijuana dispensaries returning to the city. The discussion is now scheduled for 7 p.m. during the council's Dec. 16 meeting. It was originally set for Tuesday's meeting. In the report, police contend that dispensaries in Southern California "have had a negative impact on the communities where they operate," and are associated with "negative consequences for the surrounding communities, including robberies and murder." [continues 278 words]
About 300 people turned out for Tuesday's Yuba County Board of Supervisors hearing. Medical marijuana patients and growers - making up most of a standing-room-only crowd - vociferously told Yuba County supervisors that banning outdoor pot grows is a bad idea. "I want to get rid of the criminal element as much as you," grower Chris Ashe told the board during a three-hour Tuesday afternoon supervisors workshop on the county's medical marijuana ordinance. "Everybody in this room wants the same thing, a good quality of life." [continues 668 words]
Bhang Chocolate is one of the fledgling marijuana industry's most recognizable brands. The company's tasty and potent cannabis-infused chocolates come in snazzy packaging that make them instantly recognizable to a seasoned edibles consumer and just as alluring to a first-timer without brand loyalty. Bhang is Oakland-bred, but licenses production out to other firms. This means Bhang products are sold in Colorado, Washington, and other places where cannabis is legal. This makes Bhang one of the few national brands in the weed game and one of the only major marijuana businesses operating across state lines. [continues 820 words]
Two council members want L.A. to stop profiting from stores that don't meet city requirements. Two Los Angeles lawmakers are pushing to end a controversial city practice of issuing tax registration certificates to medical marijuana shops without determining if they are allowed to operate under a voter-approved crackdown on the businesses. Councilwoman Nury Martinez and other critics complain that pot shops that do not comply with city requirements have used the documents to persuade customers and landlords that they are lawful. And the city is guilty of "the biggest hypocrisy" by reaping tax income from businesses that f lout the law, the San Fernando Valley lawmaker said. [continues 657 words]
Sheriff's Officials Link Three-Year Rise to State's Prison-Reduction Law Keeping Nonviolent Offenders in County Lockup Drug and alcohol cases on jail grounds in the county this year, up from 221 in all of 2012. Sheriff's officials are reporting an increase in drugs being smuggled into the county's jails over the past three years, a problem they say is linked to the state's public safety realignment law. Passed in 2011, realignment changed the way some nonviolent felons are housed and supervised throughout the state. As a result, local authorities have had to deal with a new population of offenders some authorities have described as more "criminally sophisticated." [continues 445 words]
OROVILLE - Butte's supervisors will be considering the costs associated with enforcing the voter-approved tighter medical marijuana cultivation regulations. Measure A, which was passed in the election Nov. 4, sharply limits the physical size of medical marijuana gardens. Also, under the old regulations a person had to live within a specified distance from a particular marijuana garden to file a complain about it. Measure A erases the proximity requirement from the code and now any one can file a complaint about a garden. [continues 256 words]
State Law Doesn't Set Firm Limits for Drugged Driving Everyone knows the rules surrounding drunken driving. The legal limits are clearly defined and well-established by science. But how do you know when someone's too stoned to drive? It's a critical question given the spread of legal marijuana use, but there's no easy answer. Measuring impairment from cannabis, it turns out, is difficult and scientifically complex. Drugged driving is on the increase. Nearly twice as many California drivers tested positive for drugs than alcohol in a recent study, and 30 percent of drivers in the state's fatal crashes tested positive for an impairing drug, according to state officials. [continues 1100 words]
Several Inland Cities Have Spent Hundreds of Thousands Fighting Pot Shops, While State Polls Showing Growing Voter Support Polls show California voters back medical and even recreational marijuana. And they may get the chance to legalize it in 2016. But a handful of Inland cities are moving in the opposite direction, spending at least $1.85 million in legal battles to shut down dispensaries. Moreno Valley, Riverside, Jurupa Valley, Upland and Riverside County each reported spending between tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars to enforce their dispensary bans. [continues 1391 words]
California is doubling down on decriminalization. Three weeks ago, the passage of Prop. 47 converted a half-dozen felonies to misdemeanors. In 2011, marijuana possession was reclassified from a misdemeanor to an infraction without jail time. If Rip Van Winkle fell asleep a decade ago at the height of California's prison boom and woke up this morning, he'd quickly recognize this as a scramble to undo decades of harsh and expensive policy. The state is not alone - we are seeing a seismic shift in how the United States handles punishment, especially with respect to misdemeanor decriminalization. Marijuana is the most famous example, but many states are eliminating jail time for other minor offenses, such as driving violations and public order crimes, and replacing them with so-called "nonjailable misdemeanors," "nonarrestable" or "fine-only" offenses, and "civil infractions." [continues 1063 words]
S.F. Officers Convicted of Stealing From Drug Dealers A San Francisco police corruption scandal, triggered by surveillance videos that appeared to show officers as thieves, registered its first verdicts Friday when a federal court jury found two veteran officers guilty of stealing property and thousands of dollars in cash from drug-dealer suspects to enrich themselves and defraud the city. The jury took 31/2 days of deliberations to unanimously find Officer Edmond Robles guilty of five felony charges and Sgt. Ian Furminger guilty of four. Jurors acquitted them of four charges, including conspiracy to deprive the public of their honest services, and deadlocked on a theft charge against Furminger. [continues 781 words]
For four decades, the "war on drugs" has yielded more harm than good. With a trillion dollars spent, a million drug-related arrests a year and international interdiction efforts to stop people from intoxicating themselves, it is clear that drug prohibition has been a failure. Drug prohibition, as with alcohol prohibition, is yet another showcase of the failure to suppress desires through decree. Inevitably, unintended consequences arise as markets adjust and adapt to legal prohibition, and the market goes underground. The Press-Enterprise recently reported on a few such unintended consequences of drug prohibition. There have been multiple cases of drug lab explosions, a proliferation of unauthorized marijuana growing operations and a need by local governments to ban synthetic analogues of illegal drugs. [continues 425 words]
SAN DIEGO - Two proposed marijuana dispensaries, one in Clairemont and one near the Valley View Casino Center, got key approvals Wednesday morning that put them in position to be among San Diego's first three legal pot shops. A dispensary proposed for Otay Mesa got similar approval from a city hearing officer on Oct. 15. Wednesday's approvals also stand to limit opportunities for other groups hoping to open legal dispensaries. City regulations approved last winter cap the number of dispensaries to four per City Council district, and both dispensaries approved Wednesday could take one of those four precious spots in districts with a glut of applicants. [continues 532 words]
Inside California
