You've seen fire sales. They happen when goods or real estate are discounted sharply after fire damages a store or a building. But the term has new meaning in rural Calaveras County, where the devastating Butte Fire swept through thousands of acres last year, the seventh-worst wildfire in recorded California history.

It's just possible that what's happening near towns like Mountain Ranch, Murphys and San Andreas could foretell at least one aspect of life in fertile parts of California if Proposition 64 passes this fall and legalizes recreational use of marijuana.

[continues 662 words]

Santa Rosa is poised to welcome more marijuana businesses to the city, and to encourage those already here to step out of the shadows.

The City Council today will consider allowing medical cannabis support businesses that provide lab testing, oil production and transportation services to set up shop in specific nonresidential areas of the city while it works on a comprehensive set of regulations for the industry.

"What we're trying to do is say these uses are OK, but they're only going to be OK in these areas," said David Guhin, director of the city's Planning and Economic Development department.

[continues 723 words]

A bedridden man facing fines of $1,000 per day for allegedly violating a marijuana ordinance is suing Sutter County.

Roy Setzer filed his case this week in Sutter County Superior Court, trying to overturn the penalty imposed by a county hearing officer.

His attorney, Charnel James, said a court hearing is scheduled for Monday.

"We're not trying to disrespect the Board of Supervisors, but the county has to adhere to its own regulations as well," James said Wednesday. "That's what this is about. If they want to take away property rights and limit what people can do on their property, they have to follow their own rules to get to that point."

[continues 338 words]

Coalition Will Use Big Portion of $2 Million to Target California's Ballot Measure to Legalize Cannabis.

SACRAMENTO - Facing well-financed campaigns to legalize recreational pot, a national coalition that includes former Rep. Patrick Kennedy has raised more than $2 million to fight initiatives in five states this year, including a November ballot measure in California.

The money is being put up by the political arm of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, an anti-legalization group founded by Kennedy; David Frum, a senior editor of the Atlantic; and Kevin Sabet, a former drug policy advisor to the Obama administration.

[continues 574 words]

As they come of age and register to vote, Millennials-that enormous generation born since 1981 - are surging so fast they're on the verge of overtaking the Baby Boomer behemoth as a share of the California electorate. And new evidence confirms that, so far at least, the GOP is losing them.

Fewer than 1 out of every 5 Millennial voters in California is registered as a Republican. Not that the Republicans' loss is the Democrats' gain. Recent voter data shows that Millennials are the driving force behind the huge growth in Californians registering with no party affiliation at all. They're also more optimistic than other generations - the latest polls show them more approving than their elders of the job the Legislature is doing, and far more supportive of the direction in which California is headed.

[continues 670 words]

A growing number of Southern California law enforcement organizations and leaders are voicing objections to a state ballot measure that would legalize recreational marijuana, saying it would make the state less safe.

"I'm vehemently opposed to it," Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said. "I think that it would be a terrible move for California to make."

San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos said the initiative to legalize marijuana "will do nothing to curb black-market activity in California." He is one of several police officials who is actively opposing the measure, a group that includes the Riverside Sheriffs' Association, the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs and the California Police Chiefs Association.

[continues 1296 words]

Police Lack Test to Identify Those Too High to Drive

There are certain telltale signs that a person is stoned: bloodshot eyes, forgetfulness, ravenous late-night cravings.

But the November ballot measure that would legalize recreational pot in California says nothing about how police should detect tokers who climb behind the wheel. There's no marijuana equivalent to the famed bloodalcohol content tests - taken by breath, blood or urine - that have planted .08 into the American consciousness.

It's not a pressing concern for marijuana advocates, even as entrepreneurs try to develop a better sobriety test for dope smokers. But it's a big quandary for California law enforcement officers, who are facing a question that has vexed several other states where recreational pot is legal.

[continues 1255 words]

KELSEYVILLE - This was far from the cocktail-hour networking meetings for cannabis companies, worlds away from sterile laboratories measuring THC levels and the marketing teams channeling a great entrepreneurial push fueled by California's recent embrace of the medical marijuana industry.

This was the Lake County wilderness, where an orange peel, a crushed Coca-Cola can and a cairn of rocks marked a footpath leading into the chaparral-covered hills southwest of Kelseyville.

A sheriff's detective in camouflage gear pushed through a dense thicket until the underbrush lightened between manzanita trunks. He stepped into a clearing and onto a line of black quarter-inch hose, something that's become as ubiquitous in North Coast backcountry areas as poison oak.

[continues 527 words]

Editor,

Fred Gardner's piece, "Honest Abe Didn't Smoke Hemp," was persuasive (AVA 7/6/16). Fred critiqued the Cannabis Card, featuring Fred Sternkopf's graphic of Lincoln toking on a corned cob pipe, along with an unsourced Abe Lincoln quote: "Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe of sweet hemp and playing my Hohner harmonica."

The Cannabis Card summarizes Lincoln's hemp connections. He stepped into the Illinois Legislature wearing hemp pants, woven & grown on his family farm. He is reputed to have used hemp oil for light to read by, including his law books.

[continues 398 words]

Abraham Lincoln said, according to many sources, including the Cannabis Card produced by Pebbles Trippet and drawn by Fred Sternkopf, "Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe of sweet hemp and playing my Hohner harmonica." But no one ever provides a reference to when and where Honest Abe said or wrote the legendary line.

O'Shaughnessy's asked Sidney Blumenthal, who has just published volume one of a projected four-volume biography of Lincoln, if he came across the hemp/harmonica line in his research. "Apocryphal," Blumenthal replied. He elaborated:

[continues 490 words]

Think a few votes or a few thousand voters' signatures on a petition don't matter much? Think again, because a voters' petition in Upland has blown up into a case before the California Supreme Court that could determine how taxes get raised in the state.

Not only that, but the initiative might even determine the Chargers' future in San Diego.

No one saw any of this coming when an initiative that would legalize medical marijuana sales in Upland got enough signatures to make it to an election ballot. And it took only about 6,000 verified voters' signatures to qualify.

[continues 420 words]

California's ground-breaking effort to license medical marijuana growers started with an online anonymous survey this week that got more than 1,000 responses from prospective applicants for licenses that won't be issued until 2018.

The survey, conducted by the state Department of Food and Agriculture's Medical Cannabis Cultivation Program, is intended to "help us get a sense of how many of those folks" are interested in licenses, said Jay Van Rein, an ag department spokesman.

"Word is getting around," he said, noting that grower organizations have been "supportive" of the survey, which began Monday and will continue through Aug. 12.

[continues 441 words]

Meet Javier Rodriguez. Born and raised in Columbia, Rodriguez immigrated to the United States in 1989. He set down roots in Logan Heights as the owner and manager of Restaurante Antojitos Colombiano.

Serving authentic Columbian cuisine by an attentive, knowledgeable staff, Rodriguez's restaurant soon cultivated a loyal customer following. His business thrived, until an unpermitted, unregulated marijuana outlet opened for business next door.

In no time, Rodriguez's restaurant was enveloped in a persistent, pungent cloud of marijuana smoke. As Rodriguez, his staff and patrons reeled from the fumes, a steady stream of people frequented the pot shop next door during all hours of the day and well into the night.

[continues 444 words]

It is not an opiate problem. Neither is it a cannabis, meth, tobacco, alcohol, nor addiction problem. It is a prohibition problem. We slog ahead, making steady progress on tobacco, milder progress on alcohol. Progress is possible because these substances are not treated as criminal. Imagine the attendance at AA meetings if alcohol were criminal. Legalize it all. Provide truthful education and treatment on demand. It would be far less expensive in both dollars and blood. The drug prohibition is a hangover from our racist past and should be cast off for its immoral roots and proven futility.

- - Jay Bergstrom, Forest Ranch

[end]

Oakland's new medical cannabis laws, intended to right the perceived wrongs of the U.S. war on drugs, are the focus of a fierce political fight at City Hall.

Although the City Council voted unanimously to approve the laws in May - creating a permit system that will bring Oakland in line with new requirements for regulating the state's multibillion-dollar cannabis industry - several council members say the system they created is not a done deal.

The main sticking point is a provision that reserves half the city's medical cannabis permits for residents who were jailed on marijuana convictions in Oakland within the past decade, or who have lived for at least two years within six police beats in East Oakland where pot arrests were concentrated in 2013. To obtain one of these "equity permits," an applicant must own at least a 50 percent stake in the proposed business.

[continues 1026 words]

The longer I work in media, the more tempted I am to write a guide for the general public on how media works.

And, given that I've only worked in media for a little more than a year, logic would imply that, at some point very soon, I'll succumb to temptation, leave my job at the Journal and devote a year to writing a book on how many exclamation marks press releases should include (fewer than five!!!!!), among other newsroom bugaboos.

[continues 594 words]

I am a 37-year-old mom that suffers from bipolar and major depressive disorder. I am on prescription meds but they don't always work. Sometimes the only thing that will pull me out of a deep, suicidal depression is smoking a pure sativa strain of medical marijuana. I have my recommendation from a doctor and am able to obtain it from dispensaries. However, I live in Rancho Cordova and have realized there are zero dispensaries to be found in my city. City council has deemed that medical marijuana dispensaries are "a public nuisance in that many violent crimes have been committed that can be traced back to the proliferation of marijuana dispensaries, including armed robberies and murders." I did some minor fact checking and found that this simply is not true. ... Are you able to steer me in the right direction of whom to talk to or how to go about getting a city council to change an ordinance?

[continues 369 words]

Cloverdale this week took the penultimate step to becoming the first city in Sonoma County to impose a local tax on marijuana-related businesses.

With medical marijuana becoming more regulated and with the likelihood California voters will legalize pot in November, Cloverdale is looking to capture some of the revenue to bolster its anemic budget.

The City Council on Tuesday informally agreed to place a measure on the November ballot asking voters to approve a tax on cannabis operations to benefit the city's general fund to pay for essential services such as police, streets, parks, libraries, senior and youth programs.

[continues 652 words]

In the midst of a presidential election year, Americans rightly expect to hear debates on almost every relevant topic. However, there is one topic that seems to be missing from the debate, even when it seems compellingly relevant: The "war on drugs."

When we talk about Mexican and Central American immigration, we ignore the fact that many immigrants are unaccompanied children, refugees fleeing drug war violence, while drug warriors claim to be concerned about "the children." And when the violence follows the refugees, we blame them, not the drug war.

[continues 484 words]

Nevada City - Faced with furious protests by marijuana advocates, Nevada County supervisors on Tuesday approved a restrictive plan to allow limited outdoor marijuana growing in a Sierra Nevada county long known for its cannabis culture.

In June, voters in the county of 100,000 residents roundly rejected a sweeping ban imposed by supervisors on outdoor marijuana farms and commercial cultivation. Measure W, which would have reinforced an ordinance passed by the board in June, went down by a 59 to 41 percent margin.

[continues 994 words]