Three Santa Ana police officers were charged with stealing protein bars and cookies from a medical marijuana dispensary during a 2015 raid, prosecutors said Monday. Brandon Matthew Sontag, 31, Nicole Lynn Quijas, 37, and Jorge Arroyo, 32, were each charged with one misdemeanor count of theft for their roles in the May 2015 search at Sky High Holistic on 17th Street in Santa Ana, according to a statement by the Orange County district attorney's office. Sontag was also charged with vandalism in connection with the smashing of security cameras inside the facility, prosecutors said. [continues 141 words]
Outdated drug policies around the world have resulted in soaring drug- related violence, overstretched criminal justice systems, runaway corruption and mangled democratic institutions. After reviewing the evidence, consulting drug policy experts and examining our own failures on this front while in office, we came to an unavoidable conclusion: The "war on drugs" is an unmitigated disaster. For nearly a decade, we have urged governments and international bodies to promote a more humane, informed and effective approach to dealing with "illegal" drugs. We saw a major breakthrough a few years ago, when the United Nations agreed to convene a special session of the General Assembly to review global drug policy. It is scheduled to begin April 19. [continues 621 words]
Anti- Drug Campaign Was Praised by Some, Dismissed by Others Drugs already had a strong grip in Compton High School when Maple Cornwell became assistant principal in 1983. Crack cocaine was just making its debut. Educators had few tools to fight what would quickly turn into an epidemic. Into this void came the voice of Nancy Reagan, with a message for children around the nation: "Just Say No." The campaign against drugs became Reagan's most memorable achievement - - lauded by some for showing the destruction addiction wrought, condemned by others who say it helped lead to mass incarceration and demonized black communities, and shrugged off by many who thought the message was naively simplistic and ineffectual. [continues 844 words]
Workers will receive a minimum of $ 13.50 an hour, medical benefits under pact that goes into effect Monday. Orange County's f irst licensed medical marijuana dispensary now has an additional distinction: f irst medical cannabis shop in the county to unionize. South Coast Safe Access has signed a collective bargaining agreement with United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 324 covering the Santa Ana shop's 20 employees. The contract will go into effect Monday. Workers will be paid at least $ 13.50 an hour and receive employer- paid medical benefits and employer contributions to a retirement pension, said Rick Eiden, executive vice president of UFCW Local 324. The state's minimum wage is $ 10 an hour. [continues 143 words]
The Volunteer- Run Nonprofit, Started by Uci Medical Students, Aims to Lower Addicts' Exposure to Infections. A year ago, a group of UC Irvine medical students realized that Orange County was missing what they considered an important public health service that every major city in California had access to: a clean- needle exchange program. So they decided to do something about it. The students organized with partners across the region and submitted a plan to the California Department of Public Health. The agency rejected the plan last summer, noting a lack of community support and funding for a program. [continues 544 words]
Up Against Billionaire-Funded Bid, Grass-Roots Groups Stand Down. SACRAMENTO - Devout cannabis advocates and social justice reformers believe this may finally be the year California voters legalize marijuana, and that optimism has led to a mashup of proposed statewide ballot measures - more than 20 filed so far. They vary from a one sentence constitutional amendment that simply declares California adults are free to "grow, own [ and] purchase" marijuana to a 62-page treatise on how to best regulate and tax legal pot. [continues 1272 words]
The Los Angeles city attorney's office has sued to stop a popular marijuana delivery service from operating in the city, according to court records. Cosmic Mind, a corporation doing business as Speed Weed since 2014, delivers marijuana to an estimated 25,000 customers and has violated the restrictions of Proposition D, the lawsuit alleges. Under the measure passed in 2013, dispensaries and their landlords can be prosecuted if the shops aren't properly registered or if they fail to operate a legal distance from public parks, schools, child-care centers and other facilities. [continues 281 words]
Call it "Potlight." Chronicling Ricardo Baca's first year as the Denver Post's inaugural marijuana editor, "Rolling Papers" takes an appropriately buzzworthy snapshot of Colorado's legalized cannabis culture. Baca, deemed the right man for the job thanks to a previous stint as the newspaper's music critic, is shown taking his new beat seriously. He created "The Cannabist" website, which features reviews assessing the subtle differences between "Ghost Train Haze" and "Death Panda" strains of mariuana, as well as recipes for edibles and even a pot and parenting column. [continues 108 words]
MORELIA, Mexico - Alma Martinez got a call last year that made her whole body go cold. Her mom's voice sounded shaky and harsh: "They have him," she said, referring to Martinez's uncle. "But who has him?" Martinez asked. "Los narcos," her mother said. The narco traffickers. Martinez, 17, traveled miles Tuesday to see and hear Pope Francis, hoping his message would bring comfort to the thousands of victims of drug-gang violence like her and her family. "Something like that really hits you, you know?" she said, speaking of her uncle's kidnapping and eventual freedom, after the family paid a ransom. "And it's not just us - it happens to a lot of families here in Michoacan." [continues 1036 words]
Costa Mesa police say there was nothing to indicate that mall storefront was Native American sanctuary. Police officers who thought they were shutting down a marijuana dispensary in Costa Mesa last month were in fact raiding a Native American church that uses cannabis and other controlled substances in its spiritual ceremonies, according to a lawyer representing the organization's founders. Attorney Matthew Pappas said Oklevueha Native American Church was opening a branch in Costa Mesa when police stormed the Harbor Boulevard location. [continues 489 words]
The Move Gives Cities and Counties More Time to Develop Local Rules on the Growing of Medical Marijuana. SACRAMENTO - Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday gave cities and counties more time to develop local regulations on the commercial growing of medical marijuana amid concern that a March 1 deadline had many rushing to ban cultivation. Last year, Brown signed into law a system that will regulate, license and tax those who grow and sell medical cannabis. But a mistake in the bill's drafting set a March 1 deadline for cities to either adopt stronger rules or face living with the state restrictions that allow cultivation. [continues 174 words]
A Proposed Bill That Would Make It Harder for Registered Sex Offenders to Travel Is Vindictive and Unfair. After rousing themselves from the 30- plus-year bad trip that was the war on drugs - or rather, the war on drug users - many Americans in and out of elected office looked around for someone else to persecute. Someone, somewhere, must be so depraved and hateful that liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans could join in common cause to vilify them. They appear to have found their target: sex offenders. The current case in point is a congressional proposal to alert the nations of the world that particular U. S. citizens who have committed sex offenses against minors are planning to visit. Passports would be specially marked so that other countries could turn travelers away at the border because of old crimes for which they have already served their time in the U. S. [continues 303 words]
(AP) - The California Medical Assn., the influential trade group for the state's doctors, announced its support Monday for a high-profile initiative to legalize recreational marijuana. Dr. Steven Larson, the group's president, said in a statement that the group believes the proposed initiative is a "thoughtfully constructed measure that will allow state officials to better protect public health by ... regulating marijuana use by responsible adults." The ballot measure is backed by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and financed in part by former Facebook executive Sean Parker. [end]
Members of Stoner Jesus Bible Study Say Pot Strengthens Their Faith As Snow Began to Fall Outside, Deb Button Snuggled Up on Her Couch, Fired Up a Joint and Spoke of the Nature of Christ. "Even If Jesus Didn't Smoke Weed, He'd Still Be a Stoner," She Said, Exhaling a White Cloud. Her Kitten Sniffed the Air Curiously. "Jesus Was Peaceful and Loving. He Went From House to House and Was Always Accepted," She Explained. "Only a Stoner Could Do That." [continues 966 words]
Suddenly, heroin is hot. Or rather, talking about heroin, addiction, treatment and non-punitive responses is hot, especially among presidential candidates as they canvass for votes in New Hampshire. A standard part of this year's campaigning has been a visit with a family who lost a child to an overdose, or a confessional talk at a drug clinic. That's because the explosion in U.S. heroin use that began about six years ago has hit New England particularly hard. [continues 641 words]
It's difficult for Coloradans to imagine California's quagmire regarding medical cannabis since we completely re-legalized the plant. ("Los Angeles needs a new medical marijuana policy," editorial, Jan. 18) Colorado residents who wish to use cannabis for an array of medical and health conditions simply purchase it over the counter - without any chaos and without a doctor or a state permit, which amount to paying extortion money for protection against police. Once California also legalizes cannabis, treating it like the relatively safe, beneficial, therapeutic plant that it is, the chaos will disappear. Stan White, Dillon, Colo. [end]
Re "More chaos ahead for medical pot?," editorial, Jan. 18 Among the many pearls of wisdom in your editorial was the following sentence: "The City Council should not let marijuana businesses set city policy." By any chance is this the same city that allows policy to be set by the real estate lobby, the billboard lobby and local unions? Matt Richey Palms [end]
If L.A. Doesn't Start Rethinking Its Rules, the Cannabis Industry Could End Up Rewriting Them. In October, when Gov. Jerry Brown signed three bills establishing a statewide system to regulate medicinal cannabis, he called it a long-overdue framework that would "make sure patients have access to medical marijuana, while ensuring a robust tracking system." He should have added: "Everywhere in the state, except Los Angeles," because it turns out California's strict licensing regime won't apply to the state's largest city. What's more, under the terms of the new state law, if L.A. doesn't change its existing rules, all medicinal pot shops in the city's boundaries will be illegal in 2018. [continues 638 words]
Taboos about drugs are lying shattered across the U.S ., like broken debris after a party. But even as some states have begun to decriminalize or legalize marijuana, there is an argument that is making some Americans hesitate. They ask: Aren't many drugs, even pot, much more potent today than they were in the 1960s, when the boomers formed their views on drug use? Hasn't cannabis morphed into super skunk? Aren't people who used legal painkillers like OxyContin and Percocet sliding into heroin addiction - suggesting that legally accessible drugs are a slippery slope toward the abuse of harder drugs? [continues 610 words]
Ex- Facebook Chief Donates $ 500,000 to a Petition Drive for Marijuana Legalization. SACRAMENTO- Former Facebook President Sean Parker has contributed $ 500,000 of the $ 1.25 million raised so far for a petition drive to qualify an initiative that would legalize the recreational use of marijuana in California, according to records filed last week. Supporters need to collect 365,880 signatures of registered voters in the coming months to put the measure on the November ballot. The initiative would allow those who are at least 21 to possess and use up to an ounce of marijuana. It would also impose a15% tax on retail sales of the drug. [continues 200 words]
