SOLANA BEACH - Marijuana dispensaries, cultivation and deliveries have no place in Solana Beach, the City Council said this week. On Wednesday, the council directed city staff to prepare an ordinance that would ban those three avenues of medical marijuana distribution throughout Solana Beach. The ordinance will be presented for council approval early next year. City Manager Gregory Wade said the city needs to take action before March, or laws passed last year by the California Legislature would allow the state to step in and regulate medical marijuana in the city. About eight speakers urged the council to approve a ban, and none spoke against it. [continues 232 words]
City Working Against Clock to Implement New Cultivation Laws Before State Deadline After 19 years of practically zero guidance or oversight of California's estimated $1.3 billion medical-pot industry, the state passed a bowlful of marijuana laws this year-and now cities such as Sacramento are on a tight deadline to comply. "All of the sudden, there's just this flurry" of new rules, explained Chris Lindsey, an analyst with advocacy group the Marijuana Policy Project. Lindsey described the new laws, which he praised, as putting pressure on cities "to do something before the clock runs out." [continues 433 words]
Doing the holiday shopping. Any good ideas? - -Quan Za Oh yes. I love the winter holidays! I feel like people should practice gift giving year-round and not just when it's cold outside or someone has a birthday. Anyway, weed is always a great gift. Giving your cannabis colleagues a nug or a doobie or a nice wax will make you very popular during the holidays. If you can afford it, look into the "weed of the month club" at www.potbox.com. It's like Harry & David, but for pot. I will take a Sweet Island Skunk over a summer sausage just about any day of the week. If you would rather just give cool marijuana-themed gear, www.cannabox.com is Loot Crate for potheads. Here is an idea for a win-win: Maybe you can sign yourself up for a Cannabox, then give your friends small gifts on a monthly basis. Frugal yet generous is always a good look. [continues 354 words]
The City's Planning Commission Was Looking a Heavily Restrictive Ordinance The Commission Recommended Loosening the Contraints Medical cannabis users, growers and sellers won a small battle Wednesday in Merced, when the Planning Commission recommended loosening the constraints of an ordinance that would ban marijuana entirely from within the city limits. The first statewide licensing and operating rules for pot growers, manufacturers of cannabis-infused products and retail weed stores would give commercial operations the ability to sell in the state unless city ordinances specifically prohibit it. The law was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in October. [continues 305 words]
SAN JOSE - With the looming threat of medical marijuana collectives supporting a ballot measure that wipes out San Jose's pot regulations, city leaders Tuesday eased the rules and approved major compromises - including allowing collectives to grow weed anywhere in the state. The city a year ago adopted a pair of medical marijuana ordinances that limited where weed shops can locate, banned them from dispensing pot manufactured around the state and required some operational changes, including background checks for staff members. [continues 299 words]
County supervisors approved a voluntary registration program this week that could give local growers seeking state permits a leg up. New state medical marijuana laws, expected to go into effect in 2018, will create 17 different types of licenses for cannabis businesses. As an apparent stimulus to get applications rolling in, the legislation says that any medical marijuana business in operation and good standing in local jurisdictions by Jan. 1, 2016 will get "priority" status when applying for state licenses down the road. It's unclear what that status will provide, but the clause has left counties scrambling to determine how to recognize what "good standing" means, considering there's no county laws to date dictating how large outdoor grows can operate. (The title of this column is a quote from Senior Planner Steve Lazar describing the rush to develop regulations in the wake of new state laws.) [continues 618 words]
Most of California's 3 million or so cannabis consumers don't care how the state's biggest cash crop and America's favorite illegal substance becomes legal - just when. November 2016 is looking more and more likely, with the disappearance this week of one major roadblock to the legalization movement in California: the movement itself. For most of the second half of 2015, several competing legalization measures have presented themselves as contenders for next year's ballot - and not in a friendly way. Specifically, some organizers who worked on 2010's Proposition 19 - which bootstrapped its way to a losing effort in California but paved the way for Colorado and Washington to go legal in 2012 - took issue with the latecomer but current frontrunner campaign that is supposedly guaranteed funding from tech billionaire Sean Parker (himself a Prop. 19 donor). [continues 793 words]
While California's new medical cannabis regulations are spurring progressive cities to advance toward more access for patients, while conservative towns are rushing to wind back the clock. Two months after California regulated medical marijuana for the first time, patients and the billion-dollar industry are facing a mixed set of reactions from cities and counties around the state. Oakland and Sacramento are crafting "cannabis enterprise zones" to reap the tax windfall from ten types of newly state-licensed medical pot activities. And with the clarity of the new state rules, Marin County and the cities of Santa Cruz and Long Beach are advancing toward permitting dispensaries or other activity. The battleground city of San Diego has three licensed clubs open, and more on the way. And even the Southern California desert town of Adelanto is aiming to wean itself from its private prison tax base by becoming the cannabis mega-grow capital of the state. [continues 778 words]
We're wondering if the two sides will just jump to conclusions. We're talking about Yuba County supervisors and the advocates for a more lenient medical marijuana cultivation law. It was just reported that backers of an initiative to lighten up the county's cultivation laws successfully gathered enough signatures to force the issue. The proponents could jump to the conclusion that they've got the situation all zipped up - that by successfully gaining enough signatures, it proves that the population generally supports them. That would be a bad assumption, we think, but that's their business. [continues 518 words]
Having just read Steven Greenhut's report ("California needs to fix forfeiture abuse," Nov. 30) I'm both shocked and embarrassed that the very agencies that we pay to protect us are, in fact, fleecing us to fill their coffers. What hypocrisy. What must other countries think of the U.S. when these "asset forfeitures" are taking place all over the country? Have we become the new 1939 Germany? Land of the free? Not from the police. Home of the brave? We'd better be if these injustices continue. Mr. Greenhut is usually right on with his facts and I hope that his revelation of this deplorable practice is rectified at the next legislative session. Jim Bartlett Alpine [end]
Superior Court Judge Timothy Taylor's ruling socking SoCal Holistic Health Inc. and company President Ryan Murphy with a $1.835 million penalty for illegally operating a medical marijuana dispensary in Pacific Beach should send a clear message that San Diego's Wild West days - in which hundreds of medical pot shops sprang up around the city - are over. The ruling came nearly a year after the office of City Attorney Jan Goldsmith first targeted SoCal Holistic Health. Despite being ordered to close in February, the dispensary remained open. The fine is by far the largest assessed against anyone involved in the local medical marijuana industry. [continues 139 words]
The hunt is on for California's marijuana czar (or czarina), with a whole new branch of state government waiting to be shaped by his or her hands. Medical marijuana legislation recently signed by Gov. Jerry Brown will establish a new Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulations under the Department of Consumer Affairs. (Depending on how you feel about the long-overdue package of laws, you might refer to it as a BuMMR or the BoMM.) Heading this bureau will be a yet-to-be-named chief bureaucrat; the SF Chronicle's Joe Garofoli reports that the state is narrowing in on job qualifications. A representative of the Department of Consumer Affairs, which will hire for the position, said the job will be relatively straightforward, as state regulatory jobs go. The director will hire 40 to 50 people to staff the new bureau, write state policy and administer the new licensing scheme's rules. The post will pay up to $128,000 a year - which seems a relatively meager wage compared to other state and county salaries. [continues 352 words]
A curtain made from milk jugs cut into various patterns and shapes hangs in the locked doorway of 70 Second Street, a drab, three-story white brick building a few steps from Market Street in downtown San Francisco. Behind this middle-school-worthy art project is one of San Francisco's most lucrative business opportunities, advertised by a handwritten sign hanging in a nearby window. "AVAILABLE BUILDING," it reads, "WITH MEDICAL CANNABIS DISPENSARY." Commercial real estate in San Francisco is currently fetching $703 a square foot, according to LoopNet, which would peg this 7,600-square-foot building's value at a little under $5.4 million. But the asking price for this opportunity is rumored to be $15 million or higher. [continues 749 words]
Is it legal to sell weed in other states? - -Pez D. Spencer It depends on what you mean by that question. Can you sell weed in Oregon, Alaska, Washington, Colorado, California and a few other states? Yes. You have to follow a bunch of rules and pay your taxes, but yes, it is legal. In fact, it is more legal than ever. Alaska's Marijuana Control Board just voted to allow some recreational-er, adult use-retail cannabis dispensaries to allow onsite consumption of cannabis. How cool is that? And new Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has already started to work on legalizing cannabis. This is incredible. Just think: You can be high all day on the Alaska Highway. How about a cannabis-tasting road trip from San Diego all the way to Fairbanks? Good times. Hell, you could start in Mexico, since Mexico's Supreme Court just ruled that growing and smoking marijuana is a "fundamental human right" as defined in the Mexican Constitution. Daaaaamn. Way to go Mexico! [continues 345 words]
SAN DIEGO - A Pacific Beach medical marijuana dispensary has been hit with a $1.8 million penalty for operating outside of San Diego's zoning regulations, incurring by far the largest fine against a dispensary in city history. That more than doubles the total amount of dispensary-related judgments the city has collected to date. On Nov. 20, Superior Court Judge Timothy Taylor ruled against SoCal Holistic Health Inc. and the company's president, Ryan Murphy. Besides the $1.835 million penalty for operating illegally, Taylor also issued a permanent injunction against the dispensary and its president, prohibiting them from having a dispensary anywhere within city limits. [continues 728 words]
We all remember the days when El Cajon was dubiously labeled the world's crystal meth capital for its many clandestine labs. These small-scale operations in motor homes, trailers and apartments cooked up a product that was about 50 percent pure, sometimes even less. And it was expensive. Those days are all but forgotten now, dwarfed by a new phenomenon. Today's meth is manufactured in huge quantities in giant warehouses in Mexico known as "Super Labs," which are supplied by Asian chemical distributors and staffed by university-educated chemists and engineers. [continues 719 words]
The Associated Press FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - A state appeals court has upheld Fresno County's ban on marijuana cultivation, but struck down a provision that criminalizes pot cultivation as a misdemeanor. The 5th District Court of Appeal said Tuesday the cultivation ban does not conflict with state laws that allow cultivation of marijuana for medical use. The appeals court said the state laws do not expressly prevent a local government from restricting land use. Another state appeals court previously upheld a similar cultivation ban by Live Oak, a city in Sutter County. The 5th District court, however, said the county's classification of marijuana cultivation as a misdemeanor is overridden by a state law that does not allow local officials to arrest some marijuana growers. After-hours calls to attorneys in the case were not immediately returned. [end]
The time is long overdue for marijuana to be legalized by both federal and state governments. In 1971, I was a college freshman debater, and one of the issues was whether marijuana should be legalized. As I researched the topic, the arguments were overwhelmingly in favor of legalization, and it was difficult to put together a credible case for continued criminalization. More than 40 years have gone by, and possession of marijuana remains illegal under federal law and in 46 states. Only Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington have legalized possession of small amounts of marijuana. [continues 679 words]
Put a bounty on used syringes, perhaps 25 cents each. There are plenty of people on the streets collecting cans and bottles, why not syringes as well? Let the needle exchange make the payments. Far cheaper than increasing the budgets for streets and parks who clean up. A bounty on needles would be as effective as a redeemable deposit has been for cans and bottles. Steve Glaeser, Berkeley [end]
In 1997, I went to a "needle exchange" in San Francisco to see firsthand how the "harm reduction program" prevented the spread of HIV among addicts. Exchange staff offered vitamins, treatment for sores and referrals to kick the habit; addicts handed over carefully bundled needles in a one-dirty-for-one-clean exchange. Users' participation demonstrated that they had not given up on themselves. The needle program began with good intentions. In the 1990s, addicts often shared needles - and HIV. The pioneer program promised to save lives make users responsible for syringe disposal. Little did I know that over the next two decades, in San Francisco and other U.S. cities, "needle exchange" would morph into "syringe access." [continues 486 words]
I would like to respond to the article in the Appeal-Democrat Nov. 13 regarding the methadone facility relocation. I do not believe that most of these people are getting their meth on the way to work, or housewives on their way to taking the kids to school. These are people who made a bad choice in life, and have issues. I don't believe for a minute they are there because of prescribed drug or by choice. Most are court ordered because of street drugs. If they get treatment and straighten their life out, wonderful, but most of them have problems besides their drug issues. [continues 121 words]
FRESNO (AP) A state appeals court has upheld Fresno County's ban on marijuana cultivation, but struck down a provision that criminalizes pot cultivation as a misdemeanor. The 5th District Court of Appeal said Tuesday the cultivation ban does not conflict with state laws that allow cultivation of marijuana for medical use. The appeals court said the state laws do not expressly prevent a local government from restricting land use. Another state appeals court previously upheld a similar cultivation ban by Live Oak. The 5th District court, however, said the county's classification of marijuana cultivation as a misdemeanor is overridden by a state law that does not allow local officials to arrest some marijuana growers. After-hours calls to attorneys in the case were not returned. [end]
DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO - Sixteen people in downtown San Diego were sickened by a synthetic drug called spice on Saturday, authorities said. It was the second weekend for multiple overdoses in the downtown area. Last Sunday, paramedics treated eight people, one as young as 13. Police were investigating to find out where the drug, a popular form of synthetic marijuana, came from. It is illegal in California. There were more than 10 calls to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department involving 16 ill patients between 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Saturday, fire spokesman Lee Swanson said. [continues 96 words]
The Ordinance Is in Reaction to Regulatory Act Signed by Brown. Bricks-and-mortar marijuana dispensaries and delivery services are now illegal in Newport Beach. Despite some protests, the City Council approved an ordinance last week banning the cultivation, processing, distribution and delivery of medical cannabis in Newport Beach. The ordinance was in response to the state's Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law Oct. 9. The act, which becomes effective Jan. 1, will create California's first statewide licensing and operating rules for pot growers, manufacturers of cannabis products and retail outlets since state voters legalized medical marijuana nearly 20 years ago. [continues 153 words]
Federal Agents Say Proper Record-Keeping Helpful in Fight On July 13, 2012, a pharmacy technician ordered 1,000 hydrocodone pills through the San Diego pharmacy he worked for. But it was not a sanctioned order. The highly addictive drugs were either meant for his own consumption, or to restock the pharmacy's supply of pills he had already stolen, concluded the state Board of Pharmacy, which ultimately revoked his license after he was convicted of prescription forgery and burglary. [continues 754 words]
Tax Agency Estimates That Cannabis Industry Is a Growing Source of Revenues SACRAMENTO - The state's cannabis industry is learning that its expanding freedoms may come with a stiff price tag. In 1996, the state's voters approved Proposition 215, which legalized the sale and purchase of marijuana for medical purposes. It was hailed as a victory for freedom, but the initiative's details were hazy and the state has struggled for two decades to figure out how to tax and regulate it - especially given the feds still treat marijuana as a banned narcotic. [continues 764 words]
New 'Seed-To-Sale' Regulatory System Seen As a Boon, but Challenges Remain. SACRAMENTO - An unmistakable scent, rotten-sweet and earthy, greets visitors to Basil McMahon's pine- and oak-sheltered Nevada County farm. It wafts from cannabis plants growing in a murky legal terrain between acceptance and prohibition. Over the next few years that will change, as a sweeping new package of laws will reverse years of state silence by regulating and licensing every stage of the medical marijuana industry. [continues 1419 words]
The City of Ukiah is evaluating its current regulations on growing medical marijuana, and will likely have more discussions and perhaps recommended actions for the City Council soon, City Manager Sage Sangiacomo said at the board's most recent meeting earlier this month. "I know that the marijuana ad-hoc committee (which includes Council members Jim Brown and Maureen Mulheren) is working diligently reviewing the regulations and determining possible actions for the Ukiah City Council, and they may be brought forward for further discussion," Sangiacomo said, responding to a city resident who urged the council to review its medical marijuana regulations in light of a regulatory package signed into law in October that requires state oversight of the entire industry. [continues 266 words]
Marijuana Should Not Be Easier for a Minor to Access Than Alcohol Ballot Measure Includes Strictest Child Safeguards Proposed in Pot Legislation Measure Would Help Restore Natural Resources, Prevent Unauthorized Water Diversion As the former division chief for preventive medicine at the California Department of Public Health, I know that, like alcohol, marijuana has potential health consequences for California youths. Unfortunately, our current legal approach to non-medical marijuana use is failing to protect our kids. It is unregulated yet widely available without any child protections. [continues 566 words]
If you claim success is reducing the jail population that is correct. We have long known that most crimes are drug related. Endangering lives by robbing people and stores at gunpoint, breaking into your home or car and taking your precious items to be sold for pennies on the dollar to finance their drug habit, all manner of violence with drug dealers on the streets, sex crimes like prostitution and credit card fraud, identity theft and gang violence are all related to drugs. [continues 146 words]
Re: "Beat officers: Prop. 47 boosts crime" [Front page, Nov. 21]: I was not surprised to see David Whiting speak against Prop. 47. However, he fails to acknowledge that our "war on drugs" increases crime rates by turning thousands of law-abiding people into felons. Anybody can go to prison by possessing certain drugs for personal use, or possessing them without a prescription. Economics 101 teaches us that when supply goes down, the price goes up. Our strict drug laws mean huge profits for those willing to produce or distribute drugs. And the users must come up with lots of money to buy them. Crime and money always go hand in hand! If Mr. Whiting really wants to see a decrease in crime, he would stop advocating more drug regulations and start asking for less. Tom Harris Anaheim [end]
Tommy Chong Looks Back on the Early Bit and All the Pot He Smoked LAS VEGAS - Dave's not here. For more than a generation, for both the young and the not-so-young anymore, those three words have become synonymous with a state of chemically induced confusion. They're the brainchild of Richard "Cheech" Marin and Tommy Chong, the up-in-smoke comedy duo who in the 1970s first captured the spacey hilarity and wild wonderment of being high on pot, stoned to the bejesus. [continues 1027 words]
Entrepreneurs Gather in San Francisco to Show Off Their Marijuana Products and Make Sales. SAN FRANCISCO - Robert Gaither is a 39-yearold former salesman, a teddy bear of a guy with a full brown beard that makes him look a little like a mountain man. He does in fact live in the mountains - Lake Arrowhead, to be exact - but right now he is standing in an exhibit space at a downtown San Francisco hotel, showing off his wares at a conference exploring the intersection of cannabis, tech, media and finance. [continues 842 words]
It's a good time to be one of California's roughly 1.1 million marijuana users. Yes, cannabis is legal for recreational purposes in Oregon, Colorado, Washington, and elsewhere - but so what? In the Golden State, weed is also widely available - and for free. For years, medical cannabis dispensaries have offered promotional gimmicks like a free joint or edible for first-time patients. This year, as the state's biggest cash crop inched towards $2 billion in legal sales at storefronts, several outfits started offering free eighths (worth about $50) - and they have gone to great lengths to make sure that patients are aware of the offer of free pot. [continues 832 words]
I have been smoking weed for years and always held my hits in as long as possible. I am now thinking that maybe I should smoke weed like a cigarette without holding it in long. Has there been any research into what's most effective and is less harmful to the lungs? - -A Reader Gone are the days when people thought you needed to hold in a hit as long as possible to let that good THC swirl around in your lungs. Giant coughing jags and teary eyes are so last century. The new way is to just take a good hit and let it out normally. You get the same high, but with no lung irritation, less coughing and less tar. If you would like to invite me over to give you some tips and pointers, let me know. [continues 355 words]
Outdoor Cultivation Ordinance Barrels Along Humboldt County's outdoor medical marijuana land use ordinance looks like it will meet its early December deadlines, though much remains to be done before it could hit the county books by the looming state-imposed deadline. The Humboldt County Planning Commission finalized its directions to county staff on Nov. 20, following dozens of hours of public comment and discussion over several weeks of meetings. Senior Planner Steve Lazar attributed the progress to the commission's "aggressive" hearing schedule, and sounded relatively confident over the phone on the Monday before Thanksgiving that a revised draft will be approved by the planning commission on or before its Dec. 3 meeting. That would give supervisors the opportunity to review the draft and, if miracles don't cease, pass the ordinance by March 1. According to the package of state laws passed earlier this year, the county will cede local control if regulations aren't passed by then. [continues 489 words]
WILLITS - Except for traffic passing through on Highway 101, this northern Mendocino County city is relatively quiet much of the year. But for three months in the fall, it gets an influx of world travelers lured by marijuana-trimming jobs, temporarily swelling the town's population of under 5,000 and instilling it with an international flavor. They're called trimmigrants and they are an integral part of the North Coast's lucrative marijuana industry, estimated to be worth billions of dollars and widely considered to be a major economic driver in Mendocino and Humboldt counties. But, like the pot industry itself, reaction to their presence is mixed. The migrant workers contribute to the economy, but many effectively are homeless. Though the growers who employ them typically provide housing or a place to camp, when not working, they camp illegally in parks, alleys and along railroad tracks and rivers. Some can't find jobs and turn to panhandling and frequenting food banks. [continues 1718 words]
Indoor growing would still be allowed The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors has moved to ban outdoor cultivation of medical marijuana, but indoor growing would still be allowed. The board voted 4-1 Tuesday on the ordinance, which is based on Shasta County's outdoor growing ban. A second reading is planned for Dec. 8. "Banning outdoor grows provides safer grows," District 3 Supervisor Michael Kobseff said. "From stories I was told, grows are a safety risk to other residents because people want to steal pot." [continues 316 words]
Supporters of allowing medical marijuana dispensaries in Yuba County have filed petitions containing more than 3,500 signatures in their effort to force a countywide vote on the issue. County election officials confirmed that the Safe Patient Access to Regulated Cannabis group submitted initiative petitions on Friday afternoon. They were filed nearly three months ahead of a Feb. 13 deadline. Election officials on Monday morning had not yet verified the number of signatures contained in the dispensary petitions, but supporters said they total 3,587. [continues 202 words]
On Jan. 11, 1964, Dr. Luther Terry, Surgeon General of the United States, took bold action and identified cigarette smoking as a public health hazard. Following this action, a broadbased anti-smoking public education program was initiated. But the big tobacco industry was not easily intimidated; they fought back with their own misleading advertising and even committed perjury in testimony before Congress. However, over a period of time, the facts and truth prevailed. In 1965, 42 percent of Americans smoked, but thanks to the Surgeon General the number has been reduced to 17%. He is responsible for saving thousands of lives. [continues 294 words]
SACRAMENTO)) California State Board of Equalization District 2 Member Fiona Ma hosted a "Cannabis Transportation Stakeholder Discussion" Friday, focusing on the challenges facing the marijuana industry related to transportation, while also considering opportunities and recommendations for the state. Ma was joined at the state capitol by BOE vice-chairman George Runner and representatives from the offices of Assembly members Rob Bonta and Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer Sr., representatives from the California Highway Patrol, along with medical marijuana delivery services organizations and protection industries. [continues 1042 words]
As California prepares to bring in the $1 billion medical marijuana industry from the legal shadows, growers and marketers on the pot-rich North Coast are waiting to see how much the massive regulatory structure will cost them and whether to stick instead with the prosperous but risky outlaw status they have lived with for nearly two decades. The regulatory scheme, which will cost up to $50 million, must be funded entirely by license fees paid by the industry, while new taxes on the cannabis trade - which some advocates say is one of Sonoma County's major industries - offer the prospect of millions of dollars to help pay for paving roads, hiring police and other public services. [continues 1622 words]
Re "Weed law will not protect kids" (The Conversation, Letters, Nov. 15): We need draconian laws against illegal parking! Stiff fines, jail terms, confiscate the cars. Why, you ask? All reckless drivers have dabbled in illegal parking at some point. Ridiculous? This argument works for pot, why not illegal parking? The same argument implies that mother's milk and alcohol and tobacco lead to drug addiction. Doris Concklin wrote that "it is without question an entry drug for those who will come to embrace a drug culture." Actually there is a lot to question here. She says that all mothers who began with marijuana moved on to meth, heroin and cocaine. [continues 54 words]
Fewer felony cases and fewer jail inmates should translate into funding for other programs. Thousands of felony cases that would have been prosecuted by the office of Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey became misdemeanors late last year because of Proposition 47. Lacey's caseload dropped precipitously - first, because police were making far fewer arrests for drug crimes and theft, so they were bringing in far fewer cases; and second, because so many of the cases they did bring in were now misdemeanors that went to L.A. City Atty. Mike Feuer and his counterparts in a handful of other cities - Pasadena, Long Beach, Santa Monica, even Hawthorne. [continues 839 words]
The new Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act will legalize commercial medical marijuana sales in California beginning in 2016, but for existing businesses hoping to become compliant, demonstrating a history of established business practices or establishing a new legal business entity will be an important step in transitioning to the new regulations. The first step in compliance with new laws is for businesses to ensure they have established the legal steps to operating as a commercial entity. The new laws create a system of dual state and local licenses, and require applicants to work with a variety of agencies depending on business type: cultivators will be regulated as agriculture under the Department of Food and Agriculture, the Department of Consumer Affairs will oversee the licensing system, and new standards for processing, product testing and labor regulations for employees will also become applicable over the next two years. [continues 988 words]
SAN FRANCISCO - Carlos and I are bombing around San Francisco in his 1999 Maxima, delivering marijuana to people who have ordered it from Eaze, a company that many have called the "Uber of cannabis." I had forgotten how fast 25-year-old guys like to drive. But this is good, because Eaze boldly promises customers, all of whom must have medical marijuana cards, that they will receive their weed in 15 minutes or less. Our first delivery of the afternoon, about $200 worth of sweet-looking bud, goes to a woman who lives in the Mission. She comes out to the sidewalk to meet us. She looks as if she's in her early 30s, is in the retail wine business, and does not want to give her name. [continues 834 words]
SANTA ANA - A group of marijuana advocates upset with Santa Ana's pot laws and their enforcement said Thursday that they're planning an effort to recall Mayor Miguel Pulido. Outside the shuttered Sky High medical marijuana dispensary, none of the advocates or their representatives showed up until 15 minutes after the announced 4:20 p.m. start time for the press conference to announce the recall effort. Campaign consultant Jason Aula said the voter-approved law allowing no more than 20 dispensaries in the city and police efforts that have repeatedly shut down the unlicensed Sky High shop were key motivations for seeking a recall. [continues 152 words]
At 17 I went to work in a bakery, having no idea that flour could be detrimental to my health. Within two years I had a lung collapse, off work for a month. Returned to my same bakery job and within five weeks it happened again. The doctor said the flour I was just naturally exposed to was not healthy for me, never a smoker of anything. My considered opinion is if flour can cause lung damage maybe we should "Just say no to marijuana." Good health is a true blessing but we need to do our best to stay healthy. Barbara Todd San Diego [end]
The federal government has awarded a $1.6 million grant to scientists at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla for preclinical studies of a potential vaccine against heroin. The two-year grant from the National Institutes on Drug Abuse will fund advanced work on the experimental vaccine, Kim Janda, leader of the project, said Thursday. The vaccine was first developed by Janda and some colleagues at the institute in 2013. The vaccine has been demonstrated in mouse models to be safe and effective, Janda said. [continues 250 words]
There might be no better example of the malevolent power of money in politics than the marijuana pro-legalization movement. Funded by billionaires who get their way by spending so heavily they drown out other voices, it wields the sort of unfair influence Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was speaking of on "Face the Nation" when he said, "The power of money over the political process is horrendous." However, Sanders said that in September and now supports the legalization of marijuana, which means he's siding with one of the moneyed interests he excoriates. [continues 389 words]
Inside California
