The City Is Targeting Nine Stores That Are Within 600 Schools, Persues Penalties Los Angeles has sued nine medical marijuana dispensaries to force them to close immediately and permanently, even as more boldly open throughout the city, often in prominent locations. With hundreds of dispensaries in L.A., City Atty. Carmen Trutanich decided to target those within 600 feet of a school, a violation of state law. The city is seeking civil penalties of up to $5,000 a day if the dispensaries defy the lawsuits and remain open. [continues 383 words]
Legal Challenges Are Aimed at Halting the Closure of Dispensaries in California Medical marijuana advocates have filed lawsuits in California's four federal judicial districts aimed at quickly winning court orders to halt the U.S. attorneys from closing dispensaries. The lawsuits are the second legal challenge to the stepped-up enforcement efforts that the four prosecutors announced last month at a high-profile joint news conference in Sacramento. Matt Kumin, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuits, said that Tuesday the plaintiffs plan to ask the judges assigned to the cases for temporary restraining orders halting the crackdown. [continues 524 words]
A Controversial Study That Linked Outlets to a Drop in Crime Rates Was Deleted From the Think Tank's Website After Sharp Criticism. Rand Corp.'s website has removed a controversial study that suggested medical marijuana dispensaries may help reduce crime in their neighborhoods, a decision that came almost three weeks after enraged Los Angeles city attorneys slammed the report and demanded an immediate retraction. Warren Robak, a spokesman for the Santa Monica-based think tank, said Tuesday, "As we've begun to take a look at the report, we decided it's best to remove it from circulation until that review is complete." [continues 500 words]
LOS ANGELES -- Marijuana has been approved by California, many other states and the nation's capital to treat a range of illnesses, but in a decision announced Friday the federal government ruled that it has no accepted medical use and should remain classified as a highly dangerous drug like heroin. The decision comes almost nine years after medical marijuana supporters asked the government to reclassify cannabis to take into account a growing body of worldwide research that shows its effectiveness in treating certain diseases, such as glaucoma and multiple sclerosis. [continues 727 words]
Marijuana Activists, Angry Over L.A.'s Attempts to Limit Dispensaries, Are Opposing Measure M. When Oakland's voters slapped the nation's first tax on marijuana sales a year and a half ago, the city's dispensaries backed the ballot measure, pushing it as a way to be seen as legitimate businesses. And when voters in 10 California cities decided on pot taxes in November, the elections were largely uncontroversial. The taxes all passed by more than two-thirds. But in Los Angeles, where voters decide Tuesday whether to create a pot tax, medical marijuana activists who once urged City Hall to tax and regulate them are hoping to defeat the proposal, angered by the council's decision to limit the number of dispensaries to 100 and choose them by lottery. [continues 1115 words]
Prop. 19 Lost Support of Some Pro-Marijuana Groups. Its Backers Aim to Write an Initiative With Wider Appeal. The drive to put another marijuana legalization initiative on the California ballot took a step forward Saturday when activists from across the state squeezed into a crowded conference center here to launch the debate over writing the next ballot measure. The campaign for Proposition 19, which lost 54% to 46% in November, wants to start drafting a new initiative in the spring and to complete it by July, turning then to the expensive and time-consuming task of building support and qualifying it for the November 2012 ballot. [continues 734 words]
City Officials Decide to Use a Lottery to Limit the Number of Dispensaries to 100. The Los Angeles City Council, fearing that it risked a return to the days when medical marijuana dispensaries were opening at an astonishing clip, amended its medical marijuana ordinance Friday to alter key provisions that a judge declared unconstitutional last month. In a significant change, the ordinance sets up a different process to limit the number of dispensaries. A lottery will choose 100 from among those dispensaries that can prove they were in existence on Sept. 14, 2007, the date the city's moratorium on new stores took effect. [continues 649 words]
L.A. Sought the Action As the Council Works on Amending Law to Determine Which Sites Can Sell Marijuana. The judge who declared that key parts of Los Angeles' medical marijuana ordinance are unconstitutional refused to stay his injunction Friday as the City Council works on an amended version, and he rebuffed the city's request for advice on how to rewrite the law. "I don't want to legislate. I'm not the City Council," Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mohr said at a hearing. "I really think I'm going to decline that invitation." [continues 507 words]
City Officials Race to Fix Legal Flaws Before New Marijuana Dispensaries Can Open. A judge handed Los Angeles a setback in its faltering drive to limit the number of medical marijuana dispensaries, granting a preliminary injunction on Friday that bars the city from enforcing key provisions in its controversial six-month-old ordinance. The decision, issued by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mohr, leaves the city with limited power to control pot stores, which opened by the hundreds, angering neighborhood activists when city officials failed to enforce a 2007 moratorium. [continues 724 words]
LOS ANGELES - Despite Proposition 19's loss at the polls this month, marijuana-legalization advocates in California are already working on their comeback plan for 2012 and are almost giddy about their prospects. They see the election as a trial run that could lead to a campaign with a better message, a tighter measure and more money. Both the winning and losing sides say California's voters rejected this specific initiative but remain open to legalizing the easily obtainable drug. The proponents have a huge head start compared with where they were two years ago. At that time, regulating and taxing marijuana was the dream of a handful of Oakland activists. [continues 941 words]
Paul Koretz Backs a 180-Day Delay for Dispensaries to Comply With Rules. With its medical marijuana ordinance snared in prolonged court proceedings, the Los Angeles City Council is moving to extend the amount of time dispensaries will have to comply with it and to change a controversial provision that would have required all but 41 to close down. Since the city realized that hundreds of dispensaries had opened despite a moratorium adopted in 2007, it has struggled to regain control. Scores of dispensaries have sued to invalidate the ordinance, and a Superior Court judge is expected to issue a ruling early next month on many of their claims. [continues 374 words]
Supporters of Pot Legalization See This Year's Campaign As a Trial Run That, If Retooled, Could Win Voter Approval in '12. Despite Proposition 19's loss at the polls last week, marijuana legalization advocates in California are already working on their comeback plan for 2012 and are almost giddy about their prospects. They see the election as a trial run that could lead to a campaign with a better message, a tighter measure and more money. Both the winning and losing sides say California's voters rejected this specific initiative, but remain open to legalizing the easily obtainable drug. [continues 960 words]
Groundwork Is Being Laid for Another Ballot Initiative in Two Years After 54%-46% Loss. Supporters of legalizing marijuana in California spent the day after the election laying the groundwork to rebound from their 54%-to-46% defeat and return to the ballot in two years. "We have a debate that was just heard around the world, and the conversation has only just begun," said Dale Sky Jones, a spokeswoman for the Proposition 19 campaign. Although California voters did not buy the argument that marijuana should be legalized like alcohol, many agreed that it should be taxed like it. Voters in 10 cities overwhelmingly approved taxes on sales of medical and recreational pot. On Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Council instructed the city attorney to draft a measure for the March ballot that would ask voters to approve a tax on medical marijuana. [continues 371 words]
California Would Have Become the First State to Allow Marijuana to Be Sold for Recreational Use. After taking a serious look at legalizing marijuana, Californians voted Tuesday to reject Proposition 19, which would have made the state the first to allow the drug to be sold for recreational use. The measure drew strong support from voters younger than 25, as the campaign had hoped, but those voters did not turn out in unusually high numbers, according to a state exit poll. The initiative also failed to win over the moderate voters who make up the state's decisive swing vote. [continues 713 words]
Opponents of Proposition 19, arrayed in front of the Glendale Police Department, denounced the marijuana legalization measure Friday, charging it would lead to more stoned Californians and make schools, businesses and roads less safe. "Proposition 19 is a dangerous experiment based on false arguments and fake promises," said U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), co-chairwoman of the opposition campaign who headlined the event. Feinstein, who also opposed the 1996 initiative that allowed marijuana to be used for medical reasons, said passing Proposition 19 would tell California's children there is nothing wrong with smoking marijuana. [continues 273 words]
California's marijuana legalization campaign, which has struggled to raise money despite the intense nationwide focus on the issue, was jolted Tuesday when a multibillionaire investor with a long interest in loosening drug laws endorsed Proposition 19 and donated $1 million. The contribution triples the amount of money that legalization advocates have to spend in the final week before the Nov. 2 election and dwarfs the $317,500 that the California Chamber of Commerce has spent on radio ads in Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego against the initiative. [continues 475 words]
Both Sides of the Marijuana Campaign Get New Infusions of Cash for the Final Week Before the Election. The battle over Proposition 19 has shifted to television sets and radios for the final week of the campaign, as both sides benefit from recent support from major financial backers. On Monday, George Soros, a multibillionaire investor who spent $3 million on earlier initiatives to change California's drug laws, endorsed the measure. "He plans to make a significant contribution," said Michael Vachon, an advisor to the philanthropist and hedge-fund chairman. [continues 415 words]
Proposition 19 Raises a Lot of Questions About Logistics, Legality and Tax Revenues. Vote yes on Proposition 19, the measure to legalize marijuana, and the unofficial state weed and largest cash crop will be controlled like alcohol, police will focus on serious crimes and California will get billions of dollars in new taxes. That's the pitch proponents make. "It's a jumbled legal nightmare," opponents retort, disputing those claims and insisting that the measure would lead to stoned nurses in hospitals, drugged motorists on the road and more high teenagers. [continues 1406 words]
In Other Results, Cooley and Newsom Hold Slim Leads for Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor. California's marijuana legalization ballot initiative, Proposition 19, is trailing badly, according to a new Los Angeles Times/USC poll, which found likely voters opposing it 51% to 39%. In the race for attorney general, Republican Steve Cooley holds a narrow lead over his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris. Cooley, the Los Angeles County district attorney, is aided greatly by voter support on his usually Democratic home turf. In the survey, Cooley held a 42%-33% advantage among likely voters in Los Angeles County. Statewide, he had a 40%-35% edge among likely voters over Harris, who is the San Francisco district attorney. [continues 1037 words]
U.S. Official Says Pot Legalization Is Not the Right Response to the Drug War's Failure. The nation's drug czar traveled to California to highlight his contention that legalizing marijuana is not the answer to a drug war he acknowledged has not succeeded. Instead, Gil Kerlikowske stressed what he called a middle way: increased prevention and treatment. Kerlikowske's stated reason for the drop-in visit Wednesday was an invitation from the Pasadena Recovery Center to participate in a round-table with drug treatment specialists that lasted less than half an hour. Before the event, he spoke to the media about his opposition to Proposition 19. [continues 404 words]
