Palm Springs council votes to allow collectives to grow medical marijuana
Palm Springs City Council members voted 3-2 Wednesday to create a draft ordinance allowing medical marijuana collectives and operatives.
The law would:
Allow only two collectives in the city's industrial areas.
Prohibit the establishments within 1,000 feet of each other and within 500 feet of schools, churches, public playgrounds or parks, youth centers and residential areas.
Allow collectives and cooperatives to grow medical marijuana on the premises.
...and proceeds to shutter all existing collectives
With its vote to limit the number of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city to two, the Palm Springs City Council on Wednesday signaled it is done turning a blind eye to the businesses, some of which have been operating illegally for more than two years.
The 3-2 vote only directed staff to draft the new, more restrictive ordinance, which City Attorney Doug Holland said would likely go back to the council in early February. But Holland said Friday he also will be going to court early next month for injunctions to shut down all dispensaries in business in the city — now estimated at seven.
Medical marijuana activist sues San Bernadino county
An activist is suing San Bernardino County for refusing to issue state-mandated medical marijuana cards.
The Superior Court lawsuit filed Monday by Scott Bledsoe seeks enforcement of California's voter-approved Proposition 215, which allows physician-approved marijuana use.
The proposition collides with federal drug laws.
In 2003, the Legislature provided additional legal guidance to medical marijuana users and led to dispensaries opening in California. Counties were ordered to issue medical marijuana identification cards.
Medical marijuana activists sue Solano county
A Bay Area organization supporting medical marijuana users said it's filing suit against the Solano County Board of Supervisors and the county's Health and Social Services Department to force them to implement a state-mandated medical marijuana identification card program.
The group, Americans for Safe Access, announced Monday that it would be seeking a writ of mandate -- basically an order to comply with existing law -- from Solano County Superior Court requiring that the county comply with California's Compassionate Use Act for medical marijuana users.
Yucca Valley council exposed to hysterical reefer madness people
YUCCA VALLEY — The Town Council Thursday night approved extending a 45-day moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries or its distribution at existing businesses an extra 10 months and 15 days.
“They cannot close the dispensary because of you!” Patricia Williams shouted at the council members. “How do you know people aren’t high when they’re pulling into the parking lot? Because of you, children could get ahold of this. Because you put a moratorium in place they can stay here.” She continued by excoriating last month’s meeting attendees as Landers residents having criminal drug charges.
Parent Lori Green came armed with a bulging binder of complaints and documents about drug abuse and crimes like robberies and shootings.
Green, too, lambasted the previous meeting’s audience members as out-of-towners who don’t pay taxes in Yucca Valley but are pushing a pro-pot agenda. She also accused the council of complicity with the destruction of morals and of not taking their oaths of office seriously.
William Green asserted that even if he had cancer and lived in pain, he wouldn’t jeopardize the health and morals of the community by insisting on using medical marijuana.
He also disparaged the audience members from last month. “Look at the speakers who were here. They didn’t just start smoking medical marijuana — they’ve been smoking since they were teens! I want children to live drug free as guaranteed by the United States Constitution.”
Sacramento county accepting applications for Medical Marijuana ID cards
Medical marijuana ID cards are coming to Sacramento County.
Residents can apply for cards starting Monday.
Clinic opens in Temecula
On Oct. 11, Alternative Care Clinics (ACC), a San Diego-based medical group, opened an office on Enterprise Circle.
The clinic looks like any other medical office except for a statue of Buddha sitting on a shelf in the back of the waiting room. Magazines on alternative healing sit around the reception area.
“The doctors who work with ACC aren’t your typical doctors who want to shove pills down your throat,” said Jonathan Arbel, ACC’s director of operations, as he poured himself a cup of tea. “They try to find a more holistic approach.”
The clinic, which operates by appointment only, offers evaluations to explore whether a medical marijuana treatment plan is right for their patients.
Mendocino County discusses legal problems with marijuana production
Mendocino County medical marijuana advocates have proposed that pot production be regulated through land-use requirements in the county's general plan, saying it would legitimize growers and generate income for the county.
But Mendocino County supervisors have no intention of taking up the issue.
"I put that in the ridiculous category," Supervisor John Pinches said Thursday.
Marijuana prohibition claims another life
Police arrested a Pittsburg teenager Sunday night for allegedly gunning down a 32-year-old man because of a dispute over a $10 marijuana purchase, Pittsburg police Lt. Brian Addington said today.
Florida
Sixth grade student trading sex for marijuana?
PALM BAY, Fla. - Police said on Friday that a girl at a Palm Bay elementary school traded sex for drugs.
Palm Bay police said they want to know where the elementary school student got the marijuana she brought to school.
Yvonne Martinez of the Palm Bay Police Department said their investigation is leading to South Florida and illegal sex with a sixth-grader.
Stalinist tactics net arrest in Florida
MANATEE COUNTY - A Palmetto man was charged with growing marijuana in his residence after his daughter told a school resource officer about the plants, the Manatee County Sheriff's Office said.
Michigan
Even the police complain about stupid medical marijuana restrictions
A spokesman for the Michigan State Police said the department does not want the responsibility of destroying excess medical marijuana, as written in the draft rules being discussed today in Lansing.
Greg Zorotney of the State Police executive division said a better solution would be for users or caregivers to destroy excess supply or for the Michigan Department of Community Health to write rules allowing for the transfer of medical marijuana from a retired user to a new user.
"It's burdensome for law enforcement to have someone come in, asking to destroy 12 plants. Plants can grow quite big," he said to a panel of state health officials taking comments. The draft rules can be viewed at www.michigan.gov/mmp.
Testimony from advocates restricted at hearing
Attorney Dennis Hayes, a representative of medical marijuana patients, was cut off while providing testimony, apparently because his comments duplicated concerns expressed by other attendees.
The two staff members from Michigan Department of Community Health’s Bureau of Health Professions hearing testimony this morning were not introduced nor were their names provided in the hearing notice.
During the hearing’s first hour, attendees expressed concerns about:
creating inventory lists that could be used improperly by authorities;
rules that were seen as too intrusive into personal lives of patients;
poor coordination between state and federal laws could put patients at risk of prosecution under federal laws, threatening their Social Security payments since drug charges disqualify recipients for support.
A Michigan State trooper has been stationed in the hallway for the proceedings; Heywood observes that the crowd appears to be one of the tamest he’s seen.
Apparently cancer patients who need medical marijuana aren’t as violent as some might think.
Patient advocates protest bizarre conditions for patients
In addition, patients and advocates expressed concern about patients’ privacy. Rules mandate that patients identify the other patients of a caregiver licensed under the act, thus forcing caregivers to violate the confidentiality of their clients. Under the current proposal, advocates believe patients would be required to ask for patient lists from their caregivers. It would also mandate the identification of doctors who are prescribing the marijuana.
New Mexico
New Mexico first state to allow legal marijuana crop
New Mexico has become the first state in the country to license marijuana dealers. Officials say dealers are under stringent regulations.
It took about a year and half, but the New Mexico Health Department has ironed out a plan to deal with the complex and legally thorny issue of how to make and get medical marijuana to qualified patients.
"This has been the hardest piece of the program. We really needed to proceed carefully and thoughtfully because we're the only state to take this step," said Deborah Busemeyer of the Department of Health.
New Mexico is the first state to license non-profit organizations to do the growing and distribution.
State finalized new rules on medical marijuana
“We have worked hard to create a medical cannabis program that will be viable and meet the needs of patients in New Mexico,” said Health Secretary Dr. Alfredo Vigil. “Now patients can get medical cannabis for their chronic health conditions in a way that is safe and legal under state law.”
The regulations provide for two kinds of licensed producers: a qualified patient who can produce up to 4 mature plants and 12 seedlings for personal use only and a nonprofit private entity that can produce a total of 95 mature plants and seedlings and an inventory of usable marijuana that reflects current patient needs at any time.
Oklahoma
Okies remain stuck in the dark ages (another Reefer Madness moment)
Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs spokesman Mark Woodward says it's, quote, "absolutely frightening" that some people are becoming more tolerant of marijuana.
Woodward says he's seen more lives ruined by marijuana than any other drug.
US
President Electobama nominates medical marijuana ignoramus as surgeon general
While he has received criticism from some quarters for being too friendly with big pharmaceutical companies and from others for wrongly accusing filmmaker Michael Moore of falsehoods in his documentary "Sicko," it is his old-school views on marijuana that are raising hackles in drug reform circles. Most famously, in a November 2006 editorial in Time magazine, Gupta, while acknowledging marijuana's medical benefits for some patients, went on to repeat a raft of long-debunked anti-marijuana myths as reasons for opposing marijuana reform initiatives on the ballot in Nevada and Colorado that week.
World
Virginia cops bust internet based international marijuana supply project
Charlottesville Daily Progress
A 27-year-old Lake Monticello resident faces felony charges in an investigation of a “multi-national, Internet-based marijuana distribution ring,” the Fluvanna County Sheriff’s Office announced Friday.
This Week's Action:
Watch Television
January 16 (Friday) NBC Dateline (Hour long show on the death of an informer)
January 9 or 16 20/20 Charles Lynch
January 21 CNBC Marijuana Inc And also Parade magazine!
February 10 PBS Tulia Texas
This Week In Weed
www.myspace.com/thisweekinweed
http://thisweekinweed.libsyn.com/
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment