As Secure As San Quentin Seems, Contraband Slips In

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. - Condemned murderer Michael Jones was acting strangely and profusely sweating when guards escorted him in chains to the San Quentin medical unit that doubles as the psych ward on death row.

"Doggone, I don't think you're ever going to see me again," he told a fellow inmate, Clifton Perry.

Hours later, Jones was dead.

Toxicology tests later found that he had toxic levels of methamphetamine in his blood.

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This week's Republican National Convention was marked by the appearance of 100 naked women holding mirrors, a photography project by Spencer Tunick. Tunick has positioned the naked bodies of people in 70 different photoshoots across the world.

In a statement prior to the RNC, Tunick said, "By holding mirrors, we hope to suggest that women are a reflection and embodiment of nature, the sun, the sky and the land."

I mention Tunick's project not just to explain to the Journal's beleaguered I.T. team what the heck is going on with my browser history (for those not afraid of rippling, dimpled white flesh and ungroomed pubic thatches, Tunick's photos are actually pretty amazing) but to juxtapose this political statement against one rolling (sorry) toward Philadelphia next week: a 51-foot joint to be held aloft by cannabis lovers outside the Democratic National Convention.

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New proposed rules for medical marijuana grows led to anger on Tuesday as some medicinal cannabis proponents said they couldn't support the new recommendations while urging supervisors to compromise.

County officials, however, said they had to consider environmental concerns and secure four out of five supervisor votes on July 26 to pass interim grow rules and repeal the existing outdoor grow ban.

An ad hoc marijuana grow committee met Tuesday for the third time in its attempts to craft an interim grow ordinance in the wake of Measure W's failure. An advisory committee is expected to help write a permanent ordinance over the following months.

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Bottom-Up Enforcement, Lack of Drug Treatment Preceded Sacramento's Deadly Outbreak

Counterfeit pain pills recovered by federal drug authorities and masking dangerous amounts of fentanyl bear close resemblance to a milder medication.

In February, when Sacramento County started its new opioid task force to address an emerging public health crisis gaining traction here, the deadly fentanyl outbreak that would eventually kill a dozen locally wasn't yet on the radar.

The group's second meeting, on March 21, presented physicians with safe prescription tips for opioids, a constantly expanding class of pain-relieving medications all derived in some way from the highly addictive opium poppy. The well-attended meeting focused on the potential threat of these legal medications, which many say are dreamed up by profit-minded pharmaceutical companies, overprescribed by doctors and blamed for introducing a generation of suburbanites to the transfixing lure of a chemical high.

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At a recent meeting, the Brea City Council spent about an hour on the importance of passing a land-zoning ordinance amendment to prohibit the cultivation and delivery of medical marijuana in Brea.

The premise behind the move, they said, was to protect local control and close gaps in the present ordinance that were not specific enough regarding cannabis and not because one of the initiatives expected on our November ballot proposes to legalize the marijuana cultivation and sale to adults California. But I think that had a lot to do with it.

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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.

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Yuba County Supervisor Mary Jane Griego said this week the county may eventually revisit its marijuana growing regulations to address the needs of patients who legitimately need cannabis for medicinal reasons.

But the Olivehurst supervisor, who is chairwoman of the board, emphasized there is no going back to the ordinance in place before action last spring to dramatically tighten regulations.

"It's clear people don't want to follow the rules," Griego said during a presentation on cultivation statistics.

Griego said the number of "profiteers" that grew from the previous, less restrictive ordinance "is not acceptable." However, she also said there may be room for a review to make allowances to help those who legitimately use cannabis for medical reasons.

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It is apparent with the number of letters to this and other local publications, marijuana is a hot topic, with Yuba County being a breeding ground for the infestation of undesirable elements of drug use.

The recall of Supervisor Andy Vasquez was initiated by marijuana supporters; the question is: How could the letter written by Gary Simpson not be construed as a simple attempt to identify?

I recall someone knocking on my door and wanting me to sign the recall petition, I asked the individual who was the sponsor of the recall effort and the person said he was a neutral party and did not know who the sponsor was. Knowing that, one could assume being deceitful about the sponsors of the recall should be a violation of election law.

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Three Initiatives and One Recall

Yuba County voters are already being asked to sign three petitions that could lead to separate special elections. Now they'll have the chance to sign a fourth, this one to allow medical marijuana dispensaries.

County election officials last week gave the go-ahead to dispensary supporters to begin gathering signatures of registered voters to place the matter on a special election ballot.

Observers said they could not remember when there have been as many petitions eligible to be circulated at the same time.

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There's not a multi-celled organism on earth that could evolve much in 25 years. But perhaps there's an argument that the cannabis plant, through its symbiosis with humans, has changed as much in the last two and a half decades as any species could. Well, except the ones that have gone extinct.

Aiding that shift is our endless fascination with and reverence for the plant, and few places harbor such a deep knowledge network about weed than Humboldt County. So what's changed?

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Petitions supporting a ballot measure to overturn Yuba County's medical marijuana cultivation ordinance have been cleared by election officials for circulation.

Supporters of the initiative proposed by the Progressive Business Alliance have until Jan. 19 to gather 2,483 signatures of registered voters in the county to force a special election. That amount represents 20 percent of county votes cast in the November 2014 election.

It is the third set of petitions Yuba County election officials have cleared in recent months, and it creates the possibility of three separate special elections prior to next June's primary. A fourth initiative seeking to allow marijuana dispensaries in the county is also awaiting approval for signature gathering.

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As the dust surrounding Yuba County's controversial marijuana ordinance settles, it can be easy to forget Sutter County passed a similar ordinance late in 2013.

While it wasn't accompanied by prolonged public meetings filled with passionate public comment or recall notices of county supervisors, the ordinance did elicit concern from medical marijuana patients that the ordinance eliminated their ability to grow the medicine they claimed to need.

The ordinance prohibits marijuana cultivation within 2,000 feet of schools, churches, parks and child care centers and establishes setback requirements from property lines for crops to mitigate the plant's odor.

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Butte County voters got it right during the November 2014 election. That's the obvious conclusion after the first number crunching occurred related to Measure A.

The review showed that 512 cases came to light in the first six months of the new ordinance. By Butte County's count, about 40 to 50 new cases come in weekly, and the county is expecting that rate to increase as the year goes on.

Approved by Butte County citizens with 60 percent voting yes, Measure A outlines regulations about the size of medical marijuana grows.

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Legislation recently passed by the Assembly would give the state more control over regulating medical marijuana how much that would affect the fight over Yuba County's tighter cultivation ordinance remains unclear.

"I don't think it would affect it immediately," said area Assemblyman James Gallagher, who cast one of only five votes against the bill. "But in the long-term it could."

AB 266, passed by the Assembly last week, would create the Office of Marijuana Regulation within the governor's office, with assistance from the departments of Public Health, Food and Agriculture and the Board of Equalization. It calls for criminal background checks by the state Department of Justice and a review on whether wastewater standards are being met by the State Water Resources Control Board.

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Medical marijuana dispensaries in Yuba County would allow patients to buy their medicine locally and bring tax revenues to the county, a cannabis advocate told county supervisors.

"Thousands of people in your district are having to drive to Sacramento to get their cannabis to feel better," said Mickey Martin of the Committee for Safe Patient Access to Regulated Cannabis (CSPARC).

Martin made a pitch to supervisors Tuesday evening to work with his group to develop a new ordinance that would allow the placement of dispensaries in the county. Currently, there are no land-use provisions under which an application could be submitted to locate a cannabis dispensary in the county.

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In an effort to curtail the marijuana abuse by growers, and the so-called medical marijuana patients of Yuba County, the Board of Supervisors voted to restrict marijuana grows in the county.

While attending the supervisors' meetings and observing the growers give public input, many of the growers were insulting, abusive, threatening and exhibited a complete lack of respect for the Board of Supervisors. They even went to the extent of calling the board a death squad.

The new marijuana ordinance allows medical marijuana users to grow a limited number of plants to serve their personal needs. If the patients cannot afford to meet the requirements of the ordinance, they also have access to many marijuana dispensaries in the Sacramento area.

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Now that Yuba County's marijuana cultivation ordinance - at least for now - has moved from public hearings to the courtroom, its fate will rest more on judges than county supervisors.

There still is a possible third front in the opponents' fight - that being voting booths. The process has already started for a would-be recall election against Supervisor Andy Vasquez, there have been threats against others and opponents still have the option of trying to place an initiative on the ballot.

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Now that Yuba County supervisors have approved tighter restrictions for cultivating marijuana, opponents are deciding how to respond.

Supervisors took the expected action of approving the ordinance that bans outdoor grows and limits residents in the unincorporated county to 12 plants inside an accessory building. What wasn't expected was the unanimous vote Tuesday to designate the new law as an urgency ordinance - making it effective immediately rather than in the usual 30 days. That action precludes opponents plans to seek a voter referendum, since the 30-day waiting period would have been used to gather signatures.

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Whatever supervisors do to change Yuba County's medical marijuana cultivation ordinance, an estimated $1 million would be needed to boost enforcement, the county's top administrator said.

County Administrator Robert Bendorf provided the informal cost estimate during the latest discussion before county supervisors on tightening up the ordinance. Supervisors have emphasized that increased enforcement needs to go hand-in-hand with a more restrictive marijuana growing ordinance.

"Unfortunately, using that much for enforcement will have to come from somewhere else," Bendorf said. "There is a very limited pot we can draw from without it having an effect elsewhere."

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It's the silly season of the election. It's the season of the slate mailers, which we're still amazed is an industry that survives. They're so close to fraud, but those rules are set aside when politics are in play.

Slate mailers are mass mailings, sent out by for-profit companies, that seem to link local candidates and issues to better known candidates and on-paper institutions that seem to be established political organizations

Thing is, you can buy a spot on a slate mailer. In Chico, Larry Wahl could buy a slot on a mailer that would suggest Jane Dolan supports him. In Oroville Mayor Linda Dahlmeier could buy what appears to be an endorsement by her rival Cheri Bunker. There'd just be a little asterisk by Larry's and Linda's names to indicate they'd paid for that spot. Jane and Cheri wouldn't have to be consulted. And legally, it wouldn't matter if they were annoyed.

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Sonoma County supervisors rejected a proposed medical marijuana dispensary south of Santa Rosa on Tuesday, saying it was too close to a residential area and two school bus stops.

The owner of the Sonoma County Collective, the nonprofit that wanted to set up the dispensary at 4170 Santa Rosa Ave., however, said the supervisors were simply determined to use zoning rules to prevent medical marijuana businesses from opening.

"You got what you wanted; congratulations," collective founder Asa Shaeffer cried out at the supervisors after the 4-1 vote. "I am not a drug dealer."

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Jake had been clean for just a couple of weeks, and he was struggling.

Facing a possible 15-year sentence in state prison on a joint suspension for burglary and possession of heroin, it was his "last shot." He'd spent weeks between sober living facilities and jail while waiting to be admitted to a treatment program at the San Luis Obispo County Drug and Alcohol Services.

Once he was enrolled in adult drug court, he bounced back and forth between sobriety and relapse while attempting to keep up with the strict regimen and almost impossible expectations of his treatment. He was required to attend group counseling in SLO three days a week, pass all drug tests, and maintain 32 hours of employment per week-as a felon with no driver's license.

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Internal Justice Department Emails Shed New Light On Obama's Perplexing Potpocalypse

Next month, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to testify on Capitol Hill at the invitation of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) about the Obama administration's ineffable policy on medical marijuana. He'll have a lot to explain: When Obama ran for his first term as president, the former recreational pot smoker signaled he would not interfere with states such as California that allow sick residents to smoke cannabis. Yet in November 2011, the White House unleashed a major crackdown on the Golden State's biggest cash crop, threatening landlords and growers with criminal penalties and the seizure of their properties, as well as shuttering countless storefront pot dispensaries.

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It's become a daily occurrence. Customers visit Hugs Alternative Care, a medical marijuana dispensary on Stockton Boulevard, and ask for "dabs."

They are referring to butane hash oil, an especially potent form of marijuana, also known as "honey," "honey oil," "wax" or "earwax" because of its sticky, amber-colored appearance.

"We don't carry oils or waxes," Hugs manager Cathy Romer tells them.

Nevertheless, it's clear that the demand for dabs has hit Sacramento.

The marijuana industry's latest "it product," dabs has been moving from the fringe into mainstream consciousness for years, although many card-carrying medicinal marijuana users and even some law enforcement officials know little about it.

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John Melvin Walker is expected to plead guilty to drug and tax evasion charges.

The marijuana shops evoked health and homeopathic care, with names like Dana Point Safe Harbor Collective, Belmont Shore Natural Care, Alternative Herbal Care and Costa Mesa Patients Assn.

Nine dispensaries in all, they appeared to be run by different owners around Orange and Los Angeles counties, little different than any of the hundreds of dispensaries that have popped up in the last five years.

But they were secretly owned and operated by a 56 year-old convicted drug dealer from San Clemente, who used the stores to make millions.

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Marijuana Legal Landscape Still Hazy After Legalization in Two States

President Barack Obama says he won't go after pot users in Colorado and Washington, two states that just legalized the drug for recreational use. But advocates argue the president said the same thing about medical marijuana -- and yet U.S. attorneys continue to force the closure of dispensaries across the U.S.

Earlier this month, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors unanimously extended a moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries for a second time since December 2011, after the federal government began threatening local governments -- including the cities of Eureka and Arcata -- with legal action for having marijuana-related ordinances.

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Coast Guardsman's Boat Was Rammed After He Approached Suspected Smugglers Near Santa Cruz Island.

A veteran U.S. Coast Guard chief petty officer was killed Sunday after suspected smugglers rammed his vessel near Santa Cruz Island, casting him into the ocean with a fatal head wound.

Chief Petty Officer Terrell Horne III, 34, of Redondo Beach was second in command of the Halibut, an 87-foot patrol cutter based in Marina del Rey. Authorities said they could not recall a Coast Guard chief petty officer being killed in such a manner off the California coast.

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OROVILLE - With the vote last week that voided Butte County's medical marijuana cultivation ordinance, the question is what's next.

Tuesday, Butte County voters soundly rejected Measure A, a referendum on the county's land use ordinance that put strict limitations on where medical marijuana gardens can be planted, and on how many plants can be grown on what size parcels of land.

"The ordinance that the board passed was rejected, so we do not have an ordinance (now)," according to Paul Hahn, Butte County's chief administrative officer.

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The group looking to oust three Redding City Council members for their vote to ban medical marijuana dispensaries can now begin collecting signatures on the recall petitions, the local man orchestrating the recall said Thursday.

But they'll now need to convince more than 9,000 Redding voters to sign the petitions to put the matter on a future ballot.

Rob McDonald, a 50-year-old medical marijuana patient who's been organizing the recall effort since mid-December, announced Thursday the initial petitions, precursors to a full signature drive, were certified Wednesday and are now ready for circulation.

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Thousand Oaks Teacher Suspended After Police Dogs Found Pot in His Car

When the police were leaving a Thousand Oaks high school campus after a routine search of student lockers for contraband, one of their drug-sniffing dogs paused at a vehicle in the staff parking lot.

The car belonged to a special education teacher, and police said the marijuana found inside the vehicle did too.

Since Courtney Stockton was placed on leave from his teaching duties at Westlake High School, one of his former students - a 17-year-old academic standout who took a summer school health class from the teacher - has come to his defense. Loudly.

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A medical-marijuana group seeking to recall Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko was unable to gather 20 valid signatures that would have started the process.

Cathy Darling Allen, the county's registrar of voters, said that though the group had submitted 23 signatures, she was able to confirm the legitimacy of just 14 of them.

She said the rest of the signatures either didn't belong to registered voters, were illegible or were missing an actual signature, though the person had printed a name.

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The county-wide fight between local government and medical marijuana patients intensified today as the county's top law enforcement official was handed a recall notice and a judge upheld Anderson's request to shut down its only dispensary.

Rob McDonald, a medical marijuana patient and advocate, handed Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko a recall notice after Tuesday's board of supervisors meeting, he said. The notice is a prelude to a signature-gathering campaign to qualify the recall vote for a ballot.

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Recalls are in style in Shasta County this season - as faddish as Oregon Ducks T-shirts and speculation about when Mt. Shasta might open for skiing.

But you know, for fear of minimizing the importance of college football and snowboarding weekends, our democracy is serious business. It deserves more than flavor-of-the-month treatment.

Yet that seems to be what's driving recall notices served by medical-marijuana activists against Redding City Councilors Rick Bosetti, Patrick Jones and Francie Sullivan and Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko - and reportedly in the works against county Supervisors Les Baugh and David Kehoe.

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Medical Marijuana Advocates in Redding Wait on Courts

Lindy May-Saunders is worried about her access to medical marijuana should Redding's dispensaries shut down.

"It scares the hell out of me because without medicine I die," she said.

May-Saunders, a 32-year-old Army veteran, uses medical marijuana to treat seizures caused by epilepsy. She was left with that condition after a 1999 brain injury she suffered while deployed to Thailand.

She's just one of the likely hundreds of medical marijuana patients in Redding dealing with fear, anger and confusion over the uncertain future of that access heading into the New Year.

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