SIDNEY — Richard Julien says medical marijuana gave him his life
back. Now he wants to be legal.
Julien, 41, of Rockford, who said he has hepatitis C and other
illnesses, said smoking marijuana daily has allowed him to give up four
high-powered prescription painkillers.
"When I'm medicated (with marijuana), I feel good. When I'm
not, I'm nauseated and I can't sleep," said Julien, one of
50 persons attending a meeting of the Mid Michigan Compassion Club on
Thursday.
Since he began smoking marijuana in 2004, Julien said it has helped him
cope with the side effects of the interferon he takes. It has also
helped him control his temper and lose about 100 pounds.
Since the state rules for medical marijuana were released last spring,
Julien said he has been ripped off by two persons who signed up to
become his legal caregiver.
As the father of two children with a third on the way, Julien said he is
hoping to find a reliable source who can legally supply his need for 28
grams every 10 days. Otherwise, he will grow it at home, he said.
Abraham Scharaswak said he also hopes to find a legal supply to ease his
chronic pain and muscle spasms.
In 2003, the 27-year-old Stanton resident said, he broke his neck in
four places when he was thrown out of a minivan that rolled over. He is
partially paralyzed and uses a motorized wheelchair.
Marijuana has allowed him to go from 14 prescriptions to five or six,
said Schwaraswak, who said he smokes from a pipe four or five times a
day.
"I feel great. I'm not drugged down," the father of two
said. "I'm living a life and that's something I wasn't
able to do for five years."
Toney Smith, of Six Lakes, said marijuana has allowed him to reduce his
intake of Vicodin and Neurontin for pain brought on by arthritis and
three "blown" discs in his back.
Smith, who said he smokes two joints every evening, recently obtained
his medical marijuana registration card.
While he may grow his own supply one day, Smith said he currently is
supplied "through people I know."
Smith, who is employed as a maintenance man at a Remus manufacturing
company, said his employer is aware of his alternative treatment. He
does not smoke before work or during the work day.
"I want to do everything legal," he said. "That's the
whole purpose."
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Sheriff is ordered to release marijuana, for patients in collective!
Court of appeals won't rule on legality of pot order to DCSO
John Sowell
The News-Review
Monday, December 21, 2009
The Oregon Court of Appeals has dismissed the Douglas County Sheriff's
Office challenge of an order forcing the agency to provide marijuana
seized in a drug raid to three patients prescribed medical marijuana.
Three years ago, police raided the Dixonville home of Dwight Ehrensing,
a designated caregiver and grower for several people who are cardholders
under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act.
They seized more than 120 pounds of processed marijuana, some of which
was processed for sale. They also seized 80 pounds of marijuana butter,
produced by slow cooking marijuana leaves with butter or margarine and
then straining out the leafy material. The butter, which contains high
levels of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, is then used as a
food spread.
The raid also yielded 45 large marijuana plants, 10 grams of hashish,
psilocybin mushrooms and more than $7,000 in cash.
Ehrensing, 64, a medical marijuana cardholder himself, was charged with
manufacture, delivery and possession of a controlled substance. He was
accused of selling pot to others who weren't medical marijuana
cardholders.
Under the law, a caregiver can have six mature plants per person and 18
immature plants and can grow for four people. The seized amount far
exceeded that, authorities alleged.
Upon motion by the defendant, Douglas County Circuit Judge William
Lasswell ordered then-Sheriff Chris Brown to return 8 ounces each of the
marijuana to the three other patients for whom Ehrensing was growing
marijuana. Brown asked for reconsideration of the order after arguing
the county could be in violation of federal laws prohibiting delivery of
a controlled substance.
Lasswell rejected that argument, saying he had empathy for the patients
and the pain they were enduring. None of the three patients was accused
of a crime.
On appeal, the county and the Oregon Department of Justice argued
Lasswell erred when he ordered the sheriff to release some of the seized
marijuana. Although that marijuana was presumably used up, the state
argued its appeal was not moot because the county still has the rest of
the seized pot that Ehrensing contended should be released.
The three-member panel of the Court of Appeals disagreed.
"Here, in light of the state's concession at oral argument that it
cannot retrieve the released marijuana, any determination about the
lawfulness of the trial court's order would have no practical effect on
the parties," Judge Robert Wollheim wrote in the 17-page decision
issued Wednesday.
The court noted that although Ehrensing could have asked that more of
the seized marijuana be distributed, no request had been made. As a
result, there weren't any grounds for a ruling, the panel concluded.
"Any dispute over the marijuana still being held by the sheriff
would therefore be based on future events of a hypothetical nature. As
such, the issue that the state raises as to the marijuana that is still
in the sheriff's possession simply is not ripe at this time,"
Wollheim wrote.
In a dissent, Judge Walter Edmonds said that by concluding the question
was moot, the Court of Appeals effectively prevented the state from
appealing.
"The majority's reasoning effectively denies the state a statutory
right to appeal because it obeyed the trial court's order," Edmonds
wrote.
Ehrensing is set to go to trial on the drug charges Jan. 27. A 12-member
jury will hear the case in Judge Joan Seitz's courtroom. She was
assigned the case after Lasswell retired earlier this year and went on
senior status.
Ehrensing has filed a motion to have the charges dismissed for lack of a
speedy trial. A hearing on that motion is scheduled for Dec. 29.
• You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at
jsowell@nrtoday.com.
John Sowell
The News-Review
Monday, December 21, 2009
The Oregon Court of Appeals has dismissed the Douglas County Sheriff's
Office challenge of an order forcing the agency to provide marijuana
seized in a drug raid to three patients prescribed medical marijuana.
Three years ago, police raided the Dixonville home of Dwight Ehrensing,
a designated caregiver and grower for several people who are cardholders
under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act.
They seized more than 120 pounds of processed marijuana, some of which
was processed for sale. They also seized 80 pounds of marijuana butter,
produced by slow cooking marijuana leaves with butter or margarine and
then straining out the leafy material. The butter, which contains high
levels of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, is then used as a
food spread.
The raid also yielded 45 large marijuana plants, 10 grams of hashish,
psilocybin mushrooms and more than $7,000 in cash.
Ehrensing, 64, a medical marijuana cardholder himself, was charged with
manufacture, delivery and possession of a controlled substance. He was
accused of selling pot to others who weren't medical marijuana
cardholders.
Under the law, a caregiver can have six mature plants per person and 18
immature plants and can grow for four people. The seized amount far
exceeded that, authorities alleged.
Upon motion by the defendant, Douglas County Circuit Judge William
Lasswell ordered then-Sheriff Chris Brown to return 8 ounces each of the
marijuana to the three other patients for whom Ehrensing was growing
marijuana. Brown asked for reconsideration of the order after arguing
the county could be in violation of federal laws prohibiting delivery of
a controlled substance.
Lasswell rejected that argument, saying he had empathy for the patients
and the pain they were enduring. None of the three patients was accused
of a crime.
On appeal, the county and the Oregon Department of Justice argued
Lasswell erred when he ordered the sheriff to release some of the seized
marijuana. Although that marijuana was presumably used up, the state
argued its appeal was not moot because the county still has the rest of
the seized pot that Ehrensing contended should be released.
The three-member panel of the Court of Appeals disagreed.
"Here, in light of the state's concession at oral argument that it
cannot retrieve the released marijuana, any determination about the
lawfulness of the trial court's order would have no practical effect on
the parties," Judge Robert Wollheim wrote in the 17-page decision
issued Wednesday.
The court noted that although Ehrensing could have asked that more of
the seized marijuana be distributed, no request had been made. As a
result, there weren't any grounds for a ruling, the panel concluded.
"Any dispute over the marijuana still being held by the sheriff
would therefore be based on future events of a hypothetical nature. As
such, the issue that the state raises as to the marijuana that is still
in the sheriff's possession simply is not ripe at this time,"
Wollheim wrote.
In a dissent, Judge Walter Edmonds said that by concluding the question
was moot, the Court of Appeals effectively prevented the state from
appealing.
"The majority's reasoning effectively denies the state a statutory
right to appeal because it obeyed the trial court's order," Edmonds
wrote.
Ehrensing is set to go to trial on the drug charges Jan. 27. A 12-member
jury will hear the case in Judge Joan Seitz's courtroom. She was
assigned the case after Lasswell retired earlier this year and went on
senior status.
Ehrensing has filed a motion to have the charges dismissed for lack of a
speedy trial. A hearing on that motion is scheduled for Dec. 29.
• You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at
jsowell@nrtoday.com.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Riverside dispensary operates even without permission
By ALICIA ROBINSON
The Press-Enterprise
Three weeks after opening, the sole medical marijuana source in the city
of Riverside has no shortage of customers.
The Inland Empire Health and Wellness Center Medical Marijuana
Collective, which opened Dec. 5 on North Main Street, requires a
doctor's recommendation for marijuana and is open only to members.
After starting with about 150 members, collective general manager
William Sump said Friday, "We'll probably hit 500 today."
Organizers describe the collective as a farmer's market in which vendors
who grow the drug can sell it to other patients. The collective takes a
small cut of the money to cover expenses.
Riverside officials have maintained that city zoning forbids medical
marijuana facilities of any kind, but Sump said city officials and law
enforcement have not contacted him since the facility opened.
Within 10 minutes of the collective's 11 a.m. opening time Friday,
nearly a dozen people crowded the lobby area, filling out paperwork to
become members or having their IDs checked if they were returning
patients. A security guard waved a metal detecting wand over members
before letting them past the front counter.
Among those waiting was David Stone, a 47-year-old Riverside resident
who arrived in a wheelchair and wearing a Santa hat.
He said he has used medical marijuana for two years to alleviate
prostate problems, lymphoma, lower back pain and other medical issues.
Of all the dispensaries he's used, "I like this facility better than all
of them."
The prices are better and the location is closer to home, he said.
"They helped me out last time I came in. I told them I'm hurting and I
didn't have a lot of money," and the vendor gave him a deal, Stone said.
For the first hour, Sump bustled around answering questions, taking
calls on his cell phone and looking for extra tables to accommodate more
vendors.
Since the first weekend -- the collective is open Friday through Sunday
-- the number of vendors has risen along with the number of patients.
Craig Crawley, 51, of Temecula said he's been selling at the collective
all three weeks and saw vendors increase from about five the first day
to 15 last Friday.
Crawley has been cultivating marijuana for 36 years. He also works with
dispensaries where he drops off his product and someone sells it for
him, he said, so he's excited about being able to interact directly with
patients at the collective.
"The goal here is to get affordable medicine to patients," he said.
The city has said the collective isn't allowed and the Riverside County
district attorney's position is that such facilities generally are
illegal, but whether enforcement is planned is unknown.
"If there's going to be a city action, it would be on the legal front
through the police department," City Councilman Mike Gardner said. "I
don't know whether there is a plan to do that or not."
District attorney's spokesman John Hall on Friday would not confirm or
deny any investigation into the Riverside facility.
The Press-Enterprise
Three weeks after opening, the sole medical marijuana source in the city
of Riverside has no shortage of customers.
The Inland Empire Health and Wellness Center Medical Marijuana
Collective, which opened Dec. 5 on North Main Street, requires a
doctor's recommendation for marijuana and is open only to members.
After starting with about 150 members, collective general manager
William Sump said Friday, "We'll probably hit 500 today."
Organizers describe the collective as a farmer's market in which vendors
who grow the drug can sell it to other patients. The collective takes a
small cut of the money to cover expenses.
Riverside officials have maintained that city zoning forbids medical
marijuana facilities of any kind, but Sump said city officials and law
enforcement have not contacted him since the facility opened.
Within 10 minutes of the collective's 11 a.m. opening time Friday,
nearly a dozen people crowded the lobby area, filling out paperwork to
become members or having their IDs checked if they were returning
patients. A security guard waved a metal detecting wand over members
before letting them past the front counter.
Among those waiting was David Stone, a 47-year-old Riverside resident
who arrived in a wheelchair and wearing a Santa hat.
He said he has used medical marijuana for two years to alleviate
prostate problems, lymphoma, lower back pain and other medical issues.
Of all the dispensaries he's used, "I like this facility better than all
of them."
The prices are better and the location is closer to home, he said.
"They helped me out last time I came in. I told them I'm hurting and I
didn't have a lot of money," and the vendor gave him a deal, Stone said.
For the first hour, Sump bustled around answering questions, taking
calls on his cell phone and looking for extra tables to accommodate more
vendors.
Since the first weekend -- the collective is open Friday through Sunday
-- the number of vendors has risen along with the number of patients.
Craig Crawley, 51, of Temecula said he's been selling at the collective
all three weeks and saw vendors increase from about five the first day
to 15 last Friday.
Crawley has been cultivating marijuana for 36 years. He also works with
dispensaries where he drops off his product and someone sells it for
him, he said, so he's excited about being able to interact directly with
patients at the collective.
"The goal here is to get affordable medicine to patients," he said.
The city has said the collective isn't allowed and the Riverside County
district attorney's position is that such facilities generally are
illegal, but whether enforcement is planned is unknown.
"If there's going to be a city action, it would be on the legal front
through the police department," City Councilman Mike Gardner said. "I
don't know whether there is a plan to do that or not."
District attorney's spokesman John Hall on Friday would not confirm or
deny any investigation into the Riverside facility.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Colorado begins to see Medical marijauna rise in major cities
By Jessica Fender
The Denver Post
Posted: 12/18/2009 01:00:00 AM MST
Updated: 12/18/2009 01:51:24 AM MST
State leaders have unveiled figures showing a large portion of
medical-marijuana recommendations are written by doctors who are barred
from writing other prescriptions.
As of mid-August, three quarters of pot recommendations came from 15
doctors, half of whom operated on restricted licenses, a spokesman for
Gov. Bill Ritter said. The number of medical- marijuana patients has
tripled since that time to about 30,000 statewide, according to health
department figures.
More strictly defining the relationship between physicians and their
cannabis-seeking patients has emerged as the one patch of common ground
in the battle over medical marijuana that will be waged in the 2010
legislative session.
Doctors would have to perform physical examinations, provide follow-up
consultation and would have to possess a valid, unrestricted medical
license, in a proposal Ritter has circulated.
But the governor has not yet said whether he favors the storefront pot
dispensary model or limiting pot providers to a handful of patients, the
most heated of the medical-marijuana debates.
"We're working with lawmakers and law enforcement on a plan to respect
the will of the voters, provide some guidelines on how those
legitimately entitled to medical marijuana obtain it, and rein in
serious abuses," Ritter spokesman George Merritt said.
Even in the face of mounting controversy — the anecdotal spikes in
crime, the anger over storefront dispensaries close to schools and the
concerns of businesspeople facing potentially onerous regulations —
House Speaker Terrance Carroll said he hopes the pot debate won't
distract lawmakers in 2010.
"I'm hoping we'll deal with the medical-marijuana issue efficiently,
with very little fanfare and maintain focus on issues at hand," Carroll,
D-Denver, said.
But the state's attorney general predicts "a war," and the senator
backing the single regulatory bill filed so far likens the legislation's
pro-pot backers to the ragtag but spirited band of soldiers at Valley
Forge.
Lawmakers will build from scratch regulations for a fledgling industry
while they grapple with a more than $1.5 billion budget gap and search
for ways to create jobs in Colorado, top priorities in the four-month
legislative session.
"It's going to be very time consuming," said Ted Tow, executive director
of the Colorado District Attorney's Council. "There are multiple
different approaches to fixing the problem that have to be hashed out.
The dispensaries are organizing and have money."
His group is part of a coalition of law enforcement, local government
and medical groups that have helped draft an anti-dispensary proposal,
though it is unclear whether a bill will be filed and who would support
it. The district attorneys' group has not yet decided to support the law
enforcement plan.
In the meantime, the medical-marijuana industry has become a sizable
political force by enlisting communications firms, conducting polls and
seeking assistance from big-name lobbyists and a former lawmaker.
Former Sen. Bob Hagedorn, who once chaired his chamber's health care
committee, is careful to say he's not lobbying for the newly minted
Colorado Wellness Association. To do so would violate revolving door
laws.
But he is educating his former colleagues on the topic on behalf of the
dispensary trade association and enjoys access to the Senate and House
floors, which lobbyists do not.
At least a half-dozen new medical-marijuana advocacy and trade groups
have recently hung shingles.
The Denver Post
Posted: 12/18/2009 01:00:00 AM MST
Updated: 12/18/2009 01:51:24 AM MST
State leaders have unveiled figures showing a large portion of
medical-marijuana recommendations are written by doctors who are barred
from writing other prescriptions.
As of mid-August, three quarters of pot recommendations came from 15
doctors, half of whom operated on restricted licenses, a spokesman for
Gov. Bill Ritter said. The number of medical- marijuana patients has
tripled since that time to about 30,000 statewide, according to health
department figures.
More strictly defining the relationship between physicians and their
cannabis-seeking patients has emerged as the one patch of common ground
in the battle over medical marijuana that will be waged in the 2010
legislative session.
Doctors would have to perform physical examinations, provide follow-up
consultation and would have to possess a valid, unrestricted medical
license, in a proposal Ritter has circulated.
But the governor has not yet said whether he favors the storefront pot
dispensary model or limiting pot providers to a handful of patients, the
most heated of the medical-marijuana debates.
"We're working with lawmakers and law enforcement on a plan to respect
the will of the voters, provide some guidelines on how those
legitimately entitled to medical marijuana obtain it, and rein in
serious abuses," Ritter spokesman George Merritt said.
Even in the face of mounting controversy — the anecdotal spikes in
crime, the anger over storefront dispensaries close to schools and the
concerns of businesspeople facing potentially onerous regulations —
House Speaker Terrance Carroll said he hopes the pot debate won't
distract lawmakers in 2010.
"I'm hoping we'll deal with the medical-marijuana issue efficiently,
with very little fanfare and maintain focus on issues at hand," Carroll,
D-Denver, said.
But the state's attorney general predicts "a war," and the senator
backing the single regulatory bill filed so far likens the legislation's
pro-pot backers to the ragtag but spirited band of soldiers at Valley
Forge.
Lawmakers will build from scratch regulations for a fledgling industry
while they grapple with a more than $1.5 billion budget gap and search
for ways to create jobs in Colorado, top priorities in the four-month
legislative session.
"It's going to be very time consuming," said Ted Tow, executive director
of the Colorado District Attorney's Council. "There are multiple
different approaches to fixing the problem that have to be hashed out.
The dispensaries are organizing and have money."
His group is part of a coalition of law enforcement, local government
and medical groups that have helped draft an anti-dispensary proposal,
though it is unclear whether a bill will be filed and who would support
it. The district attorneys' group has not yet decided to support the law
enforcement plan.
In the meantime, the medical-marijuana industry has become a sizable
political force by enlisting communications firms, conducting polls and
seeking assistance from big-name lobbyists and a former lawmaker.
Former Sen. Bob Hagedorn, who once chaired his chamber's health care
committee, is careful to say he's not lobbying for the newly minted
Colorado Wellness Association. To do so would violate revolving door
laws.
But he is educating his former colleagues on the topic on behalf of the
dispensary trade association and enjoys access to the Senate and House
floors, which lobbyists do not.
At least a half-dozen new medical-marijuana advocacy and trade groups
have recently hung shingles.
OC police raid locations in Orange County and Long Beach!!!
Police raid four O.C. locations over illegal pot sales
By DEEPA BHARATH
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
December 18, 2009 12:55 PM
Long Beach police officials have served a series of search warrants at
several marijuana dispensaries for illegal sales of drugs, including
four in Orange County.
The raids, which were carried out Thursday with the help of the Los
Angeles County District Attorney's Office, included Tangent Retail, a
medical marijuana clinic in Garden Grove also known as Unit D and three
locations that were not clinics in Fullerton, Anaheim and Westminster,
Long Beach Police Cmdr. Laura Farinella said today.
The raids resulted in the confiscation of "a large quantity of
marijuana" from the 17 locations in Long Beach and Orange County, and a
total of 15 people were arrested, Farinella said. She declined to
identify the locations, saying investigations are still ongoing. She
said she did not have the names of those arrested in the raids.
The enforcement was brought about as a result of complaints from Long
Beach residents about illegal marijuana sales in their neighborhoods,
Farinella said.
The search warrants were not served at medical marijuana clinics that
were operating legally, but only at residences and clinics that were
dispensing marijuana over-the-counter illegally, she said.
"We don't want anyone to think we're taking people's medicine away," she
said.
The clinic in Garden Grove, as well as the other three locations in
Orange County, had ties to illegal marijuana sales in Long Beach, which
is why the enforcement was extended to Orange County, Farinella said.
"Crime does not know boundaries," she said.
The department kept local agencies informed and worked together to help
serve the search warrants, Farinella said.
Garden Grove police Lt. Travis Whitman said today he did not know if any
of his department's officers went out to Unit D. He said the
investigation and enforcement were carried out entirely by Long Beach
police.
The Garden Grove City Council in September passed an ordinance banning
medical marijuana dispensaries in the city. But Unit D continued
operating and the city or its police department has not taken any action
so far.
In fact, the clinic renewed its business license after the passage of
the ordinance.
By DEEPA BHARATH
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
December 18, 2009 12:55 PM
Long Beach police officials have served a series of search warrants at
several marijuana dispensaries for illegal sales of drugs, including
four in Orange County.
The raids, which were carried out Thursday with the help of the Los
Angeles County District Attorney's Office, included Tangent Retail, a
medical marijuana clinic in Garden Grove also known as Unit D and three
locations that were not clinics in Fullerton, Anaheim and Westminster,
Long Beach Police Cmdr. Laura Farinella said today.
The raids resulted in the confiscation of "a large quantity of
marijuana" from the 17 locations in Long Beach and Orange County, and a
total of 15 people were arrested, Farinella said. She declined to
identify the locations, saying investigations are still ongoing. She
said she did not have the names of those arrested in the raids.
The enforcement was brought about as a result of complaints from Long
Beach residents about illegal marijuana sales in their neighborhoods,
Farinella said.
The search warrants were not served at medical marijuana clinics that
were operating legally, but only at residences and clinics that were
dispensing marijuana over-the-counter illegally, she said.
"We don't want anyone to think we're taking people's medicine away," she
said.
The clinic in Garden Grove, as well as the other three locations in
Orange County, had ties to illegal marijuana sales in Long Beach, which
is why the enforcement was extended to Orange County, Farinella said.
"Crime does not know boundaries," she said.
The department kept local agencies informed and worked together to help
serve the search warrants, Farinella said.
Garden Grove police Lt. Travis Whitman said today he did not know if any
of his department's officers went out to Unit D. He said the
investigation and enforcement were carried out entirely by Long Beach
police.
The Garden Grove City Council in September passed an ordinance banning
medical marijuana dispensaries in the city. But Unit D continued
operating and the city or its police department has not taken any action
so far.
In fact, the clinic renewed its business license after the passage of
the ordinance.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Los Angeles still has not decided on new regulations and ordinances
City of Angles
Medical Pot Issue Stretches Into 2010
By Brian Doherty
December 16, 2009 8:57 PM
KCET
The L.A. City Council failed again Wednesday to vote on new regulations
for medical pot dispensaries, after many weeks of lengthy debate largely
over questions of how many will be allowed and where.
New ideas to amend and adjust the buffer zones between residential
buildings, "sensitive uses" (including schools, parks, youth centers,
libraries and churches), and dispensaries were still being bandied about
at Wednesday's City Council meeting.
Councilwoman Jan Perry suggested that each council district get to have
its councilperson choose its own buffer zone, and councilman Richard
Alarcon, openly annoyed with the whole process, called for a prompt vote
rather than letting the council members contemplate a new set of maps
from the city planning department that define the (quite limited)
acreage of the city in which medical pot dispensaries could actually
exist under varied definitions of the buffer zone.
The L.A. Weekly reported on today's meeting, stressing the map issue:
This was the first time, five years after the council decided it
needed to adopt local regulations for selling medical weed, that the
City Council has ever seen a zoning map showing where pot shops would be
located or be banned under a typical "buffer zone" approach used in many
California cities....
The Planning Department found that if pot shops were limited to a
500-foot buffer zone around sensitive uses, they could open in 31
percent of the city's commercial and industrial areas -- but only five
percent of those areas would be commercial spots such as business
districts. The rest would be industrially zoned.
If the city decides on a 1,000-foot buffer from sensitive uses, no
pot shops would be able to open, said [planner Alan] Bell.
The Weekly's extensive, and generally negative, coverage of medical pot
in L.A. created its own controversy, with Vince Beiser over at
Huffington Post attacking their recent cover story on the topic. Beiser
notes that:
We are told that there is "rising crime in and around them," that
"20 unregulated pot dispensaries (are) attracting crime in ... Eagle
Rock", and that LAPD Chief Charlie Beck says, "They are the hub of crime
... A lot of nighttime break-ins and robberies."
Not one of these scary-sounding claims is backed up with a single
statistic. Crime stats are easy to gather -- you can find them mapped
block-by-block on the LAPD's website. But Pelisek and MacDonald seem not
to have bothered to see whether there's any basis for the complaints of
cops and neighborhood gadflies. If they had, their story might have lost
a lot of its urgency. In Hollywood, for instance, an area which the
reporters rightly note is chock-a-block with marijuana dispensaries,
crime hasn't risen -- it's dropped by 12 percent in the last two years.
Robberies and burglaries, the crimes you'd most expect to see associated
with pot shops, have both fallen by double digits.
Tim Rutten in the L.A. Times (after first blithely repeating an
exaggerated figure of nearly 1,000 medical pot dispensaries in L.A. that
has been thoroughly debunked by the L.A. Weekly's diligent reporting on
that aspect of the story) notes that the City Council's fearful attitude
about medical pot isn't matched by voters:
A recent Field Poll found that 60% of Los Angeles County voters and
56% statewide favor legalizing and taxing marijuana....the council would
be well advised to ignore [D.A.] Cooley and [city attorney] Trutanich
and adopt sensible regulations that treat the dispensaries pretty much
like bars -- allowing them to operate in appropriate areas but not to
become public nuisances.
City of Angles has done much previous blogging on L.A.'s medical pot
wars, including here
(http://kcet.org/local/blogs/city_of_angles/2009/11/how-many-medical-pot\
-dispensaries-does-la-need.html) and here
(http://kcet.org/local/blogs/city_of_angles/2009/06/la-city-council-slam\
s-medical-pot-dispensaries.html).
Medical Pot Issue Stretches Into 2010
By Brian Doherty
December 16, 2009 8:57 PM
KCET
The L.A. City Council failed again Wednesday to vote on new regulations
for medical pot dispensaries, after many weeks of lengthy debate largely
over questions of how many will be allowed and where.
New ideas to amend and adjust the buffer zones between residential
buildings, "sensitive uses" (including schools, parks, youth centers,
libraries and churches), and dispensaries were still being bandied about
at Wednesday's City Council meeting.
Councilwoman Jan Perry suggested that each council district get to have
its councilperson choose its own buffer zone, and councilman Richard
Alarcon, openly annoyed with the whole process, called for a prompt vote
rather than letting the council members contemplate a new set of maps
from the city planning department that define the (quite limited)
acreage of the city in which medical pot dispensaries could actually
exist under varied definitions of the buffer zone.
The L.A. Weekly reported on today's meeting, stressing the map issue:
This was the first time, five years after the council decided it
needed to adopt local regulations for selling medical weed, that the
City Council has ever seen a zoning map showing where pot shops would be
located or be banned under a typical "buffer zone" approach used in many
California cities....
The Planning Department found that if pot shops were limited to a
500-foot buffer zone around sensitive uses, they could open in 31
percent of the city's commercial and industrial areas -- but only five
percent of those areas would be commercial spots such as business
districts. The rest would be industrially zoned.
If the city decides on a 1,000-foot buffer from sensitive uses, no
pot shops would be able to open, said [planner Alan] Bell.
The Weekly's extensive, and generally negative, coverage of medical pot
in L.A. created its own controversy, with Vince Beiser over at
Huffington Post attacking their recent cover story on the topic. Beiser
notes that:
We are told that there is "rising crime in and around them," that
"20 unregulated pot dispensaries (are) attracting crime in ... Eagle
Rock", and that LAPD Chief Charlie Beck says, "They are the hub of crime
... A lot of nighttime break-ins and robberies."
Not one of these scary-sounding claims is backed up with a single
statistic. Crime stats are easy to gather -- you can find them mapped
block-by-block on the LAPD's website. But Pelisek and MacDonald seem not
to have bothered to see whether there's any basis for the complaints of
cops and neighborhood gadflies. If they had, their story might have lost
a lot of its urgency. In Hollywood, for instance, an area which the
reporters rightly note is chock-a-block with marijuana dispensaries,
crime hasn't risen -- it's dropped by 12 percent in the last two years.
Robberies and burglaries, the crimes you'd most expect to see associated
with pot shops, have both fallen by double digits.
Tim Rutten in the L.A. Times (after first blithely repeating an
exaggerated figure of nearly 1,000 medical pot dispensaries in L.A. that
has been thoroughly debunked by the L.A. Weekly's diligent reporting on
that aspect of the story) notes that the City Council's fearful attitude
about medical pot isn't matched by voters:
A recent Field Poll found that 60% of Los Angeles County voters and
56% statewide favor legalizing and taxing marijuana....the council would
be well advised to ignore [D.A.] Cooley and [city attorney] Trutanich
and adopt sensible regulations that treat the dispensaries pretty much
like bars -- allowing them to operate in appropriate areas but not to
become public nuisances.
City of Angles has done much previous blogging on L.A.'s medical pot
wars, including here
(http://kcet.org/local/blogs/city_of_angles/2009/11/how-many-medical-pot\
-dispensaries-does-la-need.html) and here
(http://kcet.org/local/blogs/city_of_angles/2009/06/la-city-council-slam\
s-medical-pot-dispensaries.html).
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Tulare county medical marijuana operators face tough reality!
Pot Dealers Last Minute Plea in Tulare County
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Jessica Peres
Watch video story (2:08) - http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/video?id=7173228
Visalia, Calif. (KFSN) -- Medical marijuana distributors in Tulare
County have less than a week to shut their doors or they could face
criminal charges.
Jeff Nunes pleaded with the Tulare County Board of Supervisors Tuesday
morning to reconsider a new medical marijuana ordinance they passed
which ultimately is forcing the shutdown of medical marijuana
distributors in Tulare County.
Jeff Nunes said, "I commission more research and meetings with these
groups before we close these medical marijuana distribution centers
down."
Tulare County Sheriff's Deputies served compliance notices to seven
medical marijuana operators giving them ten days to comply with the new
ordinance.
The law essentially requires them to shutdown until there is no conflict
between state and federal regulations. Right now, medical marijuana is
allowed in California, but it violates federal law.
If the medical marijuana operations don't shut down within the ten day
period the sheriff's office says the owners could face arrest or a
possible forced shut down.
That's a risk Jeff Nunes is already preparing for.
Nunes said, "We're trying to get everything prepared especially if
there's jail time I mean there's going to be time away from my family
time away from my job."
Nunes says his operation-- Visalia Compassionate Care-- is in compliance
with state law and wants to keep it open. He says they serve more than
400 patients.
"We have AIDS, cancer glaucoma specicity there are many elements that
cannabis treats especially mental like parkinson kuntington's disease,"
said Nunes.
Captain Mike Boudreaux with the Tulare County Sheriff's Office says if
medical marijuana operations refuse to close down, they'll submit the
case to the district attorney's office, and the distributors could face
state and federal charges.
Capt. Boudreaux said, "Depending on the circumstances surrounding the
case and if the DA's office felt there was sufficient evidence to
support a prosecution there is a possibility of that yes."
Visalia compassionate care and six other medical marijuana operations
could be shut down as early as Sunday.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Jessica Peres
Watch video story (2:08) - http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/video?id=7173228
Visalia, Calif. (KFSN) -- Medical marijuana distributors in Tulare
County have less than a week to shut their doors or they could face
criminal charges.
Jeff Nunes pleaded with the Tulare County Board of Supervisors Tuesday
morning to reconsider a new medical marijuana ordinance they passed
which ultimately is forcing the shutdown of medical marijuana
distributors in Tulare County.
Jeff Nunes said, "I commission more research and meetings with these
groups before we close these medical marijuana distribution centers
down."
Tulare County Sheriff's Deputies served compliance notices to seven
medical marijuana operators giving them ten days to comply with the new
ordinance.
The law essentially requires them to shutdown until there is no conflict
between state and federal regulations. Right now, medical marijuana is
allowed in California, but it violates federal law.
If the medical marijuana operations don't shut down within the ten day
period the sheriff's office says the owners could face arrest or a
possible forced shut down.
That's a risk Jeff Nunes is already preparing for.
Nunes said, "We're trying to get everything prepared especially if
there's jail time I mean there's going to be time away from my family
time away from my job."
Nunes says his operation-- Visalia Compassionate Care-- is in compliance
with state law and wants to keep it open. He says they serve more than
400 patients.
"We have AIDS, cancer glaucoma specicity there are many elements that
cannabis treats especially mental like parkinson kuntington's disease,"
said Nunes.
Captain Mike Boudreaux with the Tulare County Sheriff's Office says if
medical marijuana operations refuse to close down, they'll submit the
case to the district attorney's office, and the distributors could face
state and federal charges.
Capt. Boudreaux said, "Depending on the circumstances surrounding the
case and if the DA's office felt there was sufficient evidence to
support a prosecution there is a possibility of that yes."
Visalia compassionate care and six other medical marijuana operations
could be shut down as early as Sunday.
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