For years, Richard Manning knew what he needed to cope with his physical pain, rage and PTSD - much of which he traced to a career-ending knee injury he suffered while on a domestic security detail with the Marines. Cannabis may not have been a cure-all, but it was the closest thing he'd ever had to one. Manning, a resident of Elk Grove, Calif., didn't have enough money to buy the daily amount of cannabis he needed, but he was able to get it through a network of charitable donors spawned by the Compassionate Use Act, a 1996 California law that allowed marijuana to be used for medical purposes. [continues 992 words]
If California legalizes marijuana next year, it remains to be seen whether San Francisco will be prepared. However, a 22-member task force is in the works to formulate The City's strategy, as state voters next year will consider legalizing recreational use of the drug. The Board of Supervisors is expected to vote in support of the task force during a meeting next week. "If we don't formulate policies in advance of legalization, we are going to end up having a chaotic fire drill," said Supervisor Scott Wiener, who proposed the task force. [continues 403 words]
Senate Bill 1262 was introduced to the state Senate on Feb. 21 by veteran legislator Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana. It is a medical marijuana bill designed to regulate physicians, dispensaries and cultivation sites via rigid government oversight. Sponsored by the California Police Chiefs Association, SB 1262 promises to "provide a clear road map for the responsible implementation of Proposition 215 in California since voters approved it in 1996." The Compassionate Use Act of 1996 (Health and Safety Code 11362.5) ensures that seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes when the use is deemed appropriate and recommended by a physician. [continues 751 words]
The Police Department was "shaken" Thursday by indictments unveiled against five current officers and one former officer for a host of federal charges, including constitutional-rights violations, extortion, lying in court and on police reports, and dealing drugs. "Our department is shaken," said a visibly upset Police Chief Greg Suhr. "I don't know that it gets worse than this, other than an officer-involved serious injury or death, when the public trust is betrayed by sitting San Francisco police officers." [continues 1218 words]
Children as young as a year old are receiving a marijuana-derived drug at UC San Francisco, where over the next year researchers will conduct the world's first study of the banned plant's ability to treat severe forms of epilepsy. The children enrolled in the study all suffer from epilepsy so severe that traditional drugs have little or no effect. Some suffer up to 90 seizures a day, which if left uncontrolled can lead to brain damage. Last month, they began receiving doses of a liquid-based drug derived from the cannabis plant called Epidiolex. Manufactured by U.K.-based drug company GW Pharmaceuticals, the drug contains no THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive compound in marijuana. [continues 283 words]
Medical marijuana businesses obeying California law will continue to face U.S. Justice Department pressure after a last-minute effort to regulate the cannabis industry at the state level died last week. A bill authored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, would have created a new wing of the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to license and oversee the medical marijuana industry, which nets more than $1.3 billion in annual revenue. Earlier Ammiano efforts to pass statewide regulations - California law gives regulatory responsibility to cities and counties, some of which have permitted medical marijuana businesses while others have banned them - failed in May and in 2012. But a last-minute push materialized following an Aug. 29 memo from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's top lieutenant. [continues 544 words]
San Francisco Supervisors, Oaksterdam official speak at medical marijuana rally at City Hall Inspired by a federal Justice Department memo, a long-stymied effort to regulate medical cannabis at the state level in California was revived Monday. But in order for the Medical Cannabis Regulation and Control Act from Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, to become law, a months-long legislative process will need to be completed by Friday - and will need to overcome the resistance from law enforcement lobbies and Sacramento Republicans, which foiled similar attempts at reform over the past year. [continues 392 words]
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement that the federal government is shifting its tactics in charging low-level drug offenders is a long-overdue reassessment of a failed policy that has unduly filled U.S. prisons since the 1980s. But federal and state laws should be altered to codify these reforms. Holder, speaking at an American Bar Association convention in San Francisco on Monday, said that he has sent a three-page memo to the nation's 94 U.S. Attorneys' offices, instructing them to stop charging many nonviolent drug defendants with crimes that carry mandatory minimum sentences. He said the reform is meant to stop filling prisons with such offenders and instead steer them to drug-treatment programs and community-service programs. [continues 402 words]
On his way out of City Hall on a recent evening, Police Chief Greg Suhr encountered a crime in progress - a man sitting on the steps of a basement entrance, syringe in hand. Suhr said he handled it in the way the Police Department currently deals with drug crimes. "We disposed of the narcotics, and we had [the man] safely dispose of the syringe," the chief recalled Monday. In other words, nobody was arrested and nobody went to jail for a nonviolent, low-level drug offense - the types of crimes increasingly seen as low-priority for law enforcement, by both the public and police. [continues 397 words]
Avalos Wants to Stop Dispensary Clustering, Faults 2005 Guidelines Medical marijuana dispensaries are limited to certain areas of The City under a 2005 law. The opening of three clubs in one Outer Mission neighborhood this year got the attention of Supervisor John Avalos. Medical marijuana dispensaries could soon open in more than just a few San Francisco neighborhoods after the clustering of these businesses stoked political tensions and prompted calls for rule changes before the end of the year. The proposed review of the 2005 land-use controls for dispensaries was somewhat forced upon city officials earlier this year. Supervisor John Avalos sought to prevent a clustering effect of shops after three were permitted to open in close proximity to one another - two on one block - - in the Outer Mission neighborhood he represents. [continues 309 words]
To save Mexico - and the world - a simple step must be taken: Legalize drugs. And not just marijuana - all drugs. That's the message Vicente Fox brought to San Francisco on Monday, as the former Mexican president continued a string of pro-legalization appearances across the U.S. "I am all for legalizing drugs, in the same way Portugal did," said Fox, referring to that country's move in 2001 to decriminalize possession of all drugs. In that time, Portugal, which was struggling to combat high rates of HIV, "has ended a self-destructive path and found a decrease in consumption," said Fox, noting that in his country the stakes are much higher. [continues 301 words]
In San Francisco, black people are more than four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana crimes than whites, according to a new report from the American Civil Liberties Union. The arrest rate for blacks in The City is double the nationwide average - 2.2 black people are arrested for pot crimes for every white person who is arrested - and has the highest racial disparity of any county in California, according to the report, The War on Marijuana in Black and White: Billions of Dollars Wasted on Racially Biased Arrests. [continues 307 words]
The landlord's eviction proceedings against Shambhala Healing Center last year failed because the site complies with state, though not federal, laws. The U.S. Department of Justice is moving to seize a Mission district building that houses a city-licensed medical marijuana dispensary - the first time such an action has been taken in San Francisco. Melinda Haag, the U.S. attorney for Northern California, filed a forfeiture proceeding May 6 against 2441 Mission St., a commercial building between 20th and 21st streets where Shambhala Healing Center has operated on and off since early 2011. [continues 575 words]
California High Court Says Municipalities Can Ban Medical Marijuana Dispensaries The California Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that cities and counties have the right to ban medical marijuana dispensaries within their borders, despite the existence of a state law that protects patients who use the drug. The court said the scope of the voter-approved Compassionate Use Act of 1996, or Proposition 215, and a related 2003 state law is "limited and circumscribed" and does not prevent local governments from prohibiting marijuana dispensaries. [continues 84 words]
Annual 4/20 Gathering in Golden Gate Park Burns Up City Resources Every April 20 in San Francisco - at about 20 minutes past 4 p.m. - a giant cloud of smoke rises from the eastern end of Golden Gate Park, where thousands of people congregate to celebrate and consume their drug of choice. Cannabis, marijuana, weed. The unofficial, unpermitted celebration in Sharon Meadow has grown significantly in recent years, from a few hundred happy campers a decade ago to thousands of people - perhaps as many as 10,000, as there is no "official" count - swarming Stanyan Street from the Haight-Ashbury to Hippie Hill in the park, according to residents. [continues 402 words]
The nation's top drug cop advocated a "different approach" to narcotics enforcement - and stressed that there is no "war on drugs" - - but had stern words Monday for the San Francisco-bred medical marijuana movement. Drug users need treatment and education rather than jail terms, according to Gil Kerlikowske, the former Seattle police chief who now heads President Barack Obama's Office of National Drug Control Policy. Speaking at a gathering of law enforcement officers at the University of San Francisco, Kerlikowske also said that calling cannabis medicine "sends a terrible message" to the nation's teens. High school students are more likely to smoke marijuana than tobacco due to the growing "perception" that marijuana is less harmful, he said. [continues 391 words]
Regarding your editorial ("California must clarify its murky medical pot laws," May 23), Mexican drug cartels are no doubt thrilled with the Obama administration's crackdown on voter-approved medical marijuana dispensaries. So much for change and 2008 campaign promises to respect states' rights. So much for jobs. The medical marijuana industry is one of the few job creators in the current down economy. If Obama succeeds in destroying the domestic medical marijuana industry, international drug cartels will move in to meet demand and reap the profits. This is basic economics. As long as there is a demand for marijuana, there will be a supply. Replacing domestic growers with organized crime groups that also sell cocaine, meth and heroin is not necessarily a good thing. Marijuana prohibition is a gateway drug policy. Robert Sharpe Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C. [end]
The legal status of medical marijuana is an ongoing puzzle. In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215, which legalized the cultivation of medical pot by people suffering from medical ailments or their caregivers. But marijuana, legal or otherwise, is still considered illegal under federal law. As a result, federal law enforcement officials have conducted a disturbing number of raids of medical pot dispensaries around the state, arresting people and subjecting them to onerous penalties. The unnecessary federal raids are entirely due to the obstinacy and rigidity of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, as well as the willingness of the Obama administration to let these pointless raids go on. But the state of California shares some of the blame by enacting such a poorly written law. [continues 421 words]
A San Francisco medical marijuana collective plans to fight the law after receiving a shutdown notice from the U.S. Department of Justice. HopeNet Cooperative, The City's oldest continuously operating storefront dispensary, has occupied ground-floor commercial space at 223 Ninth St. in South of Market since 2004, city records show. On Feb. 21, Northern California U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag sent HopeNet's landlords a warning that the dispensary must close within 45 days or the property could be seized and the owners sentenced to prison time. [continues 336 words]
San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon disagrees with a legal brief in which his office argued that marijuana sales are illegal, and he said Wednesday that prosecuting marijuana cases will not be a priority for his administration. The brief, filed this month in the case of a woman arrested on suspicion of possessing and attempting to sell cannabis products, argued that any sale of marijuana is illegal under state law. But Wednesday, following publication of a story in The San Francisco Examiner, Gascon said the argument was made without his knowledge or approval. And he pledged that his office will no longer advance that position. [continues 201 words]
