Legalizing marijuana use for medical reasons was easy for California voters nearly a decade ago, but putting the law into practice has been anything but simple for state and local officials struggling to identify bona fide pot patients. Consider two counties at opposite ends of the political spectrum. In conservative San Diego, supervisors opposed to marijuana use voted this month to sue rather than offer state-ordered ID cards. In liberal San Francisco, officials postponed issuing the cards over concerns records could expose patients to federal drug charges. [continues 362 words]
San Francisco is in a position to keep much closer watch over The City's medical marijuana dispensaries, thanks to a new set of regulations passed by the Board of Supervisors Tuesday. Among other rules, under the regulations new pot clubs must keep at least 1,000 feet away from schools and clubs may sell up to 1 ounce of medical cannabis at a time. Perhaps most significantly for neighborhood residents who often found out about dispensaries only after they had already opened, the rules provide for the Planning Commission to hold hearings on the location of clubs, when residents may give their opinions. [continues 87 words]
After months of contentiousness and compromise, supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to impose a newly modified set of regulations for medicinal marijuana clubs that allows most existing operations to stay open under much closer oversight. The latest incarnation, a set of sweeping amendments proposed by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, means clubs could only sell 1 ounce of cannabis at a time and all new clubs must be kept at least 1,000 feet from schools. But it also gets rid of proposed record-keeping requirements that some medical pot advocates feared could be subpoenaed by federal prosecutors who are not swayed by California state law allowing patients to use the substance with their doctor's permission. [continues 192 words]
Around City Hall Medical Pot, Pit Bulls On Agenda After months of studies, hearings and negotiations, regulations to control The City's medical marijuana clubs will be considered Tuesday. Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi's proposal would charge license fees, prohibit sale of alcohol at the clubs, and require notification of neighbors within 300 feet. Also, an ordinance that would require pit bull owners to register their dogs with a permanent microchip and another that would require every pit bull to be spayed or neutered will be considered. The Board of Supervisors will meet in the Legislative Chamber, City Hall at 2 p.m. [continues 179 words]
Project Read Aids 150 People Every Year SAN MATEO - Alonso McConnell had a long way to travel to get sober from heroin, but until recently he couldn't read the road signs. Literally. McConnell, 63, was nearly illiterate four years ago, limited to reading words of four to five letters. But since 2002, the nonprofit program aide, former roofer and father of 12 has been reading and improving his life through the San Mateo Public Library's Project Read program. The program turns 20 this month. McConnell is celebrating, too: After 32 years as an on-again, off-again prisoner of the California Department of Corrections, he's off parole this week and can register to vote. "About 37 percent of San Mateo County residents are in the lowest two of five levels of literacy," according to a 1992 survey, Caroline Beverstock said. New survey data is due to be released this year. [end]
Two of San Francisco's better-known medical pot clubs have been put on notice by The City as officials grapple with the burgeoning industry amidst growing neighborhood protests. The Green Cross in the Mission must make major changes to regain its permit and the Mendo Healing clinic may not relocate to Potrero Avenue while The City's current moratorium is in effect, city planning officials have ruled. In April, the Board of Supervisors imposed a 45-day moratorium -- that has since been extended -- as it began to sort out how to regulate The City's medical marijuana business that functions with little legal supervision. Three pieces of legislation are currently being floated detailing health and safety rules for 40-plus medicinal marijuana facilities, which include permit requirements. Although both of these clubs had taken out business permits, many others have not. [continues 285 words]
Federal Grant Will Aid Clinic In Half Moon Bay San Mateo County won a major federal grant to fight methamphetamine use in its rural coastside communities, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced this week. It was one of 11 counties nationwide chosen for the grants. "Methamphetamine is a powerful and dangerous stimulant drug that physically destroys addicts and tears apart families," said Kathryn Jett, director of California's Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs. The three-year, $1.1 million grant to the San Mateo County Human Services Agency will fund the treatment of 57 more meth and stimulant addicts per year and the expansion of outpatient services at El Centro de Libertad's Half Moon Bay clinic. The county contracts with the nonprofit El Centro, which served 223 meth-addict clients in 2003 and 155 in 2004, El Centro's program coordinator Robin Tomlinson said. [continues 265 words]
Ronald Fraser makes a number of worthwhile points about our government's fruitless war on marijuana ["Time for a marijuana sales tax," July 20]. In fact, the U.S. Department of Justice has effectively acknowledged that this war has failed. In its just-released "Drug Threat Assessment 2005," the department notes that despite the eradication of 3.5 million marijuana plants last year, it could find "no reports of a trend toward decreased availability" of marijuana anywhere in the country. "Indeed," the report continues, "reporting from some areas has suggested that marijuana is easier for youths to obtain than alcohol or cigarettes." [continues 65 words]
In a wide-ranging speech on medical marijuana, Mayor Gavin Newsom said Tuesday night that he supports recent efforts to better regulate the industry but suggested he would not favor a hard limit to the number of pot dispensaries operating in The City. In his remarks, made during a Drug Policy Alliance-sponsored forum at the Jewish Community Center, Newsom lamented the recent spate of controversies surrounding pot clubs, saying he would like to see the issue "out of the headlines and back where it belongs in the hands of the health community." [continues 279 words]
Californians spend about $981 million each year to enforce state and local marijuana laws. What are these taxpayers getting for their money? Not much, according to a recent study. Jon B. Gettman, a senior fellow at George Mason University's School of Public Policy, prepared the study, titled "Crimes of Indiscretion: Marijuana Arrests in the United States," for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "Marijuana arrests," says Gettman, "are instruments of a supply-reduction policy. But, he adds, "The doubling of marijuana arrests in the 1990s has produced the opposite of the intended effect in every major indicator. An increase in arrests should produce a reduction in use and the availability of marijuana. However, during the 1990s both use and availability of marijuana increased." [continues 494 words]
A plan by the state to stop issuing identification cards for medical marijuana users should not affect patients using the drug in San Francisco, a city supervisor said. After reviewing the recent Supreme Court decision that reaffirmed the federal government could prosecute people for using medical marijuana, California Department of Health Services officials became concerned that they could be aiding and abetting a federal crime by issuing cards and therefore be open to prosecution. "In light of a recent Supreme Court decision, I am concerned about unintended potential consequences of issuing medical marijuana ID cards that could affect medical marijuana users, their families and staff of the California Department of Health Services," state Health Director Sandra Shewry said Friday. Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi said San Francisco patients would not see much difference since the state program was experimental and The City issues its own ID cards. [end]
If some folks think that the governor's decision to suspend the state medical marijuana ID card program doesn't concern them, they should think again. Schwarzenegger's decision to suspend this card until the attorney general investigates whether it would break federal law proves that Arnold is more interested in the federal government than serving the people of the state of California. Could it be that he still has his eye on the presidency? This is not a medical marijuana issue; this is a states' rights issue, and it looks like our governor is not interested in our state's rights. The sooner we get a governor elected who really does care about our state, the better. Terrie Frye The City [end]
Chalk up a victory for the Tenacious Mom of Tehama Street. South of Market resident Laura Weil celebrated with neighbors Wednesday after Superior Court Judge Ronald Quidachay ordered a medical marijuana dispensary abutting her property to close its doors. Weil and her neighbor, Aysu Zeidman, complained that the back door of Health & Wellness Alternatives, a pot dispensary at 935 Howard St., opened onto the heart of their residential block and that the odor of marijuana wafted up to their windows, where they and their children could smell it. They also worried about the patrons driving in the alley while stoned and complained there was a lack of security at the club. [continues 359 words]
A wave of fear rippled through San Francisco's medical marijuana community Monday as some activists, doctors and politicians said they feared the U.S. Supreme Court ruling might open the door to a new round of federal raids on The City's pot clubs, push them further underground and stymie an attempt to regulate them. "This case was one of the reasons there was less of a crackdown on medical marijuana. Now that this case has been decided, The Bush administration may feel it needs to show California who's boss," said Steve Fox, a director for the Medical Marijuana Policy Project. [continues 416 words]
New medical marijuana dispensaries will have to wait at least six months before opening after the Board of Supervisors extended a moratorium on the clubs Tuesday. The Board of Supervisors wants more time to craft wide-ranging legislation to regulate the clubs, which have come under close scrutiny as they have proliferated around The City. The City's 43 dispensaries currently face few restrictions on location, operation or the quality of marijuana. Meanwhile, the number of registered medical marijuana users has jumped from about 2,200 in 2002 to more than 7,000 today, according to the San Francisco Department of Health. [continues 184 words]
Supervisors to Consider Zoning Issues Today South of Market residents packed a meeting Monday night to air their complaints about medicinal marijuana clubs in the area, just before the Board of Supervisors considers a zoning moratorium on new clubs at its meeting today. The neighborhood meeting, organized by the Southern District police station, attracted more than 50 people and included representatives from the office of Supervisor Chris Daly, the City Attorney's Office, the Planning Department and the Police Department's Narcotics Unit. [continues 289 words]
As a shining light of The City's new Care Not Cash program, the All-Star Hotel has become a welcome home for dozens of hardened transients escaping drug-infested shelters and street corners. So it was a shock this week when residents of the Mission District facility, many of whom are recovering drug addicts, learned exactly what kind of "health clinic" would be opening in a retail space downstairs - a medical marijuana clinic. [continues 448 words]
Proposal Would Regulate Growing S.F. Industry. Two years after local voters passed a pro-medical marijuana measure, San Francisco may finally update its "see no evil" policy and begin regulating its dozens of dispensaries. The City has seen "an explosion of new medical marijuana clubs," according to Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, a Green Party member who plans a public hearing on an estimated 34 clubs. Health Department records show that from 2003 to 2004, the number of patients requesting medical marijuana ID cards doubled to more than 7,000. [continues 341 words]
With the federal government and gun-toting robbers after him, medical marijuana club owner Jason Beck has a tricky problem: He needs a nice, safe place to keep his pot. For the second time in six months, the easygoing Beck was robbed at gunpoint late Thursday night, after a pair of masked, armed men kicked in the front door of his Russia Avenue home in the Excelsior District as he relaxed on the couch. One of the robbers pushed Beck face down into his couch and jammed a gray handgun into the back of his head, asking him, "Where's the money and weed?" The other marched straight into the master bedroom, where he found $16,000 worth of marijuana, two gold chains, keys to Beck's pot club and a $1,500 Versace suit, according to police. [continues 226 words]
Perhaps only someone as audacious as the "Guru of Ganja" Ed Rosenthal would file a small-claims lawsuit over a pot deal gone awry -- and maybe only in San Francisco could he win such a case. On Friday, San Francisco Superior Court Commissioner Catherine Lyons ruled that pot club owner Bob Martin must pay Rosenthal $4,500 for medical marijuana plants confiscated by the federal government in February, 2002 during a Drug Enforcement Administration raid at a Sixth Street medical pot club. [continues 479 words]
