DES MOINES, Iowa, April 27 (UPI) -- The Secret Service arrested a sound
engineer covering President Barack Obama's Iowa trip after marijuana was
found in his backpack, Tuesday, ABC News confirmed.
The audio engineer, whose name was not reported, was part of ABC's crew
covering the presidential visit. He was brought into the assignment by a
local cameraman hired by ABC, TVNewser report on the Web site
mediabistro.com.
The pot was discovered as the sound man and the cameraman were going
through the routine Secret Service security sweep. Federal agents turned
him over to local authorities, the report said.
"While we did not hire this soundman directly, we certainly regret that
the Secret Service and local authorities had to waste their valuable
time dealing with this matter," ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider
told TVNewser.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Santa Cruz places new restrictions on medical pot shops
SANTA CRUZ — With the blessing of Santa Cruz's two authorized
medicinal marijuana dispensaries, the City Council voted unanimously
Tuesday to require the shops to report sales figures and other financial
information in an effort to ensure they are truly operating as
nonprofits.
Leaders of Greenway Compassionate Relief and Santa Cruz Patients
Collective praised city officials for working with them to create an
ordinance that regulates medical marijuana sales without being too
cumbersome for providers to follow.
"Clear guidelines are all we were looking for," said Ken Sampson, a
representative of Santa Cruz Patients Collective.
Sampson did say the new requirements to report sales by ZIP code and
provide records about the kind of marijuana products they grow and sell
will be expensive in terms of staff time. But he said the city need not
worry about the dispensary making excessive profits.
"We've been a nonprofit from the beginning," he said.
Councilmembers Don Lane and Cynthia Mathews worked with the dispensaries
to craft the financial and statistical reporting ordinance that a
national medical marijuana group says is the most detailed in
California. The idea is not to keep the dispensaries from making a
profit, the council members said, but to ensure that they are
reinvesting profit in the organization or their customers, as defined by
nonprofit guidelines.
The new rules also require the dispensaries to provide the city copies
of tax documents, which will provide further information about revenue
and the salaries of directors.
The expanded regulation follows a March vote that limited pot shops to
the current two.
medicinal marijuana dispensaries, the City Council voted unanimously
Tuesday to require the shops to report sales figures and other financial
information in an effort to ensure they are truly operating as
nonprofits.
Leaders of Greenway Compassionate Relief and Santa Cruz Patients
Collective praised city officials for working with them to create an
ordinance that regulates medical marijuana sales without being too
cumbersome for providers to follow.
"Clear guidelines are all we were looking for," said Ken Sampson, a
representative of Santa Cruz Patients Collective.
Sampson did say the new requirements to report sales by ZIP code and
provide records about the kind of marijuana products they grow and sell
will be expensive in terms of staff time. But he said the city need not
worry about the dispensary making excessive profits.
"We've been a nonprofit from the beginning," he said.
Councilmembers Don Lane and Cynthia Mathews worked with the dispensaries
to craft the financial and statistical reporting ordinance that a
national medical marijuana group says is the most detailed in
California. The idea is not to keep the dispensaries from making a
profit, the council members said, but to ensure that they are
reinvesting profit in the organization or their customers, as defined by
nonprofit guidelines.
The new rules also require the dispensaries to provide the city copies
of tax documents, which will provide further information about revenue
and the salaries of directors.
The expanded regulation follows a March vote that limited pot shops to
the current two.
Monday, April 26, 2010
U.S. prosecutors rattle, but don't break, Mexican cartels
Reporting from Washington and San Diego
Using drug and racketeering statutes and extradition agreements, federal
prosecutors are sending a steady parade of Mexican drug lords into U.S.
prisons. Although that is having a chilling effect on the smuggling
cartels, there is no sign that the convictions are breaking the
organizations, which are growing more violent, according to U.S.
officials and other experts.
Ten cartel leaders from Mexico have been convicted in U.S. courts in the
last two years, while three in Chicago and a fourth in Brooklyn, N.Y.,
have been indicted in major drug racketeering operations involving tons
of heroin, cocaine and marijuana.
In the last few weeks in San Diego alone, four cartel figures were
convicted of leading organizations that smuggled tons of the drugs into
the U.S., carried out assassinations and spent millions of dollars
bribing Mexican authorities. The men were given sentences ranging from
30 years to life in prison with no chance of parole.
It was hoped that the prospect of U.S. prison time would begin deterring
drug violence along the border. U.S. officials say it is having some
effect, citing drug lords still at large who admit to being frightened
at the prospect of extradition to the U.S. They also say the tactic
disrupts the cartels' activities.
But authorities on both sides of the border acknowledge that the cartels
have simply promoted lieutenants to the vacant leadership positions and
that the violence, especially in the last two years, has turned uglier
— in the streets and within the cartels, where junior members are
fighting one another for control.
"In Mexico, there are hundreds of thousands of young men who are in
organized crime and are … ready to step up when a leader at any
level is captured and taken prisoner," said Tony Payan, a political
science professor at the University of Texas-El Paso, who for a decade
has studied border violence.
"While it is good to catch one of these guys, in the end it's a little
like winning a battle even if you're losing the war. To me it's a little
bit like tilting at windmills."
R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy, agreed in a separate interview that the convictions were
not breaking the cartels. "I don't think there's any doubt there are
people who will replace those folks," he said. "But it is the disruption
of the cartels that is helpful, and the chilling effect it causes."
Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said the convictions had
helped federal agents and prosecutors gather valuable intelligence on
the inner workings of the cartels. She added, "The strongest message we
send is the one sent jointly by Mexico and the United States each and
every time an individual is extradited to either country to face
justice, leaving no safe haven on either side of our border."
The U.S. prosecutions are having some effect. This month, Ismael
Zambada, known as "El Mayo," a leader in the Sinaloa cartel, told a
Mexican journalist he was worried about his son Vicente Zambada, who was
extradited to Chicago in February in the racketeering case there.
Ismael Zambada has been indicted in that case too. He conceded that he
might be arrested "at any moment, or never." He would consider suicide
over the rest of his life in a U.S. prison. "I don't know if I would
have the guts to kill myself," he said. "I want to think that yes, I
would."
U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns in San Diego has handed down stiff
sentences. Once these prisoners were millionaires and lived in fortified
Mexican villas. Now they come into his courtroom in orange jail
jumpsuits and are marched away in handcuffs.
In November 2007, Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, one of the leaders of
the Arellano Felix drug trafficking organization, who pleaded guilty to
money laundering and running a criminal enterprise, asked for
"forgiveness from all those people on both sides of the border who I
have affected by my wrongful decisions and criminal conduct. Please
forgive me."
"If I had the power to change and undo the things that I have done," he
said in a letter written in Spanish and translated by his attorney, "I
would."
Burns was not in the least moved. "Your name will live in infamy
associated with all these terrible things," he said. "It is a record of
callousness. It's a record of cruelty. … All of the mayhem and the
murder and the intimidation, all of that has happened, and today is the
day of accounting."
He gave the 37-year-old life in prison, and then tacked on another 20
years.
Jorge Aureliano Felix (unrelated to Arellano), 57, a former Mexican
police official who provided security for drug loads to pass through
Baja California, had spent 41/2 years in a Mexican prison before being
extradited to face charges of racketeering and drug smuggling in Burns'
courtroom. On March 29, as he heard Burns describe allegations of
"torture and murder," he suddenly had to be escorted out of the
courtroom so he could vomit. When he was returned, Burns sentenced him
to 30 years in prison, followed by deportation to Mexico if he lived
that long.
In Houston in February, Osiel Cardenas Guillen, head of the Gulf cartel
that pushes cocaine up through south Texas, was sentenced behind locked
doors, with armed guards circling the courtroom of U.S. District Judge
Hilda G. Tagle. Guillen had been convicted of drug dealing, money
laundering, murder and assault.
"I apologize to my country, Mexico, to the United States of America, my
family, to my wife especially, my children, for all the mistakes I
made," he told the judge.
She gave Cardenas, 42, who reportedly is cooperating with U.S. law
enforcement officials, 25 years in prison and ordered him to forfeit $50
million in assets. He already had served eight years in Mexico since his
capture for running cocaine through his home state of Tamaulipas.
"Innocence lost — that is your legacy to your country, to our
communities on both sides of the border and to society," the judge told
him.
Next up is Efrain Perez, who appears before Burns on May 3 in San Diego.
He pleaded guilty in October to cocaine and marijuana smuggling, and is
looking at 30 years and a $250,000 fine. His life in the cartel is over.
"This is not a business you can retire from," said Payan, the El Paso
professor. "Very few grow old in this business."
Using drug and racketeering statutes and extradition agreements, federal
prosecutors are sending a steady parade of Mexican drug lords into U.S.
prisons. Although that is having a chilling effect on the smuggling
cartels, there is no sign that the convictions are breaking the
organizations, which are growing more violent, according to U.S.
officials and other experts.
Ten cartel leaders from Mexico have been convicted in U.S. courts in the
last two years, while three in Chicago and a fourth in Brooklyn, N.Y.,
have been indicted in major drug racketeering operations involving tons
of heroin, cocaine and marijuana.
In the last few weeks in San Diego alone, four cartel figures were
convicted of leading organizations that smuggled tons of the drugs into
the U.S., carried out assassinations and spent millions of dollars
bribing Mexican authorities. The men were given sentences ranging from
30 years to life in prison with no chance of parole.
It was hoped that the prospect of U.S. prison time would begin deterring
drug violence along the border. U.S. officials say it is having some
effect, citing drug lords still at large who admit to being frightened
at the prospect of extradition to the U.S. They also say the tactic
disrupts the cartels' activities.
But authorities on both sides of the border acknowledge that the cartels
have simply promoted lieutenants to the vacant leadership positions and
that the violence, especially in the last two years, has turned uglier
— in the streets and within the cartels, where junior members are
fighting one another for control.
"In Mexico, there are hundreds of thousands of young men who are in
organized crime and are … ready to step up when a leader at any
level is captured and taken prisoner," said Tony Payan, a political
science professor at the University of Texas-El Paso, who for a decade
has studied border violence.
"While it is good to catch one of these guys, in the end it's a little
like winning a battle even if you're losing the war. To me it's a little
bit like tilting at windmills."
R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy, agreed in a separate interview that the convictions were
not breaking the cartels. "I don't think there's any doubt there are
people who will replace those folks," he said. "But it is the disruption
of the cartels that is helpful, and the chilling effect it causes."
Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said the convictions had
helped federal agents and prosecutors gather valuable intelligence on
the inner workings of the cartels. She added, "The strongest message we
send is the one sent jointly by Mexico and the United States each and
every time an individual is extradited to either country to face
justice, leaving no safe haven on either side of our border."
The U.S. prosecutions are having some effect. This month, Ismael
Zambada, known as "El Mayo," a leader in the Sinaloa cartel, told a
Mexican journalist he was worried about his son Vicente Zambada, who was
extradited to Chicago in February in the racketeering case there.
Ismael Zambada has been indicted in that case too. He conceded that he
might be arrested "at any moment, or never." He would consider suicide
over the rest of his life in a U.S. prison. "I don't know if I would
have the guts to kill myself," he said. "I want to think that yes, I
would."
U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns in San Diego has handed down stiff
sentences. Once these prisoners were millionaires and lived in fortified
Mexican villas. Now they come into his courtroom in orange jail
jumpsuits and are marched away in handcuffs.
In November 2007, Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, one of the leaders of
the Arellano Felix drug trafficking organization, who pleaded guilty to
money laundering and running a criminal enterprise, asked for
"forgiveness from all those people on both sides of the border who I
have affected by my wrongful decisions and criminal conduct. Please
forgive me."
"If I had the power to change and undo the things that I have done," he
said in a letter written in Spanish and translated by his attorney, "I
would."
Burns was not in the least moved. "Your name will live in infamy
associated with all these terrible things," he said. "It is a record of
callousness. It's a record of cruelty. … All of the mayhem and the
murder and the intimidation, all of that has happened, and today is the
day of accounting."
He gave the 37-year-old life in prison, and then tacked on another 20
years.
Jorge Aureliano Felix (unrelated to Arellano), 57, a former Mexican
police official who provided security for drug loads to pass through
Baja California, had spent 41/2 years in a Mexican prison before being
extradited to face charges of racketeering and drug smuggling in Burns'
courtroom. On March 29, as he heard Burns describe allegations of
"torture and murder," he suddenly had to be escorted out of the
courtroom so he could vomit. When he was returned, Burns sentenced him
to 30 years in prison, followed by deportation to Mexico if he lived
that long.
In Houston in February, Osiel Cardenas Guillen, head of the Gulf cartel
that pushes cocaine up through south Texas, was sentenced behind locked
doors, with armed guards circling the courtroom of U.S. District Judge
Hilda G. Tagle. Guillen had been convicted of drug dealing, money
laundering, murder and assault.
"I apologize to my country, Mexico, to the United States of America, my
family, to my wife especially, my children, for all the mistakes I
made," he told the judge.
She gave Cardenas, 42, who reportedly is cooperating with U.S. law
enforcement officials, 25 years in prison and ordered him to forfeit $50
million in assets. He already had served eight years in Mexico since his
capture for running cocaine through his home state of Tamaulipas.
"Innocence lost — that is your legacy to your country, to our
communities on both sides of the border and to society," the judge told
him.
Next up is Efrain Perez, who appears before Burns on May 3 in San Diego.
He pleaded guilty in October to cocaine and marijuana smuggling, and is
looking at 30 years and a $250,000 fine. His life in the cartel is over.
"This is not a business you can retire from," said Payan, the El Paso
professor. "Very few grow old in this business."
Marijuana tax: pot of gold for cities and towns?
Marijuana may turn a new shade of green if Sen. Robert J. Kane has his
way: He sees the illegal substance as a potential pot of tax money for
Connecticut's municipalities.
"This is easy money," said Kane, R-Watertown, who wants to allow towns
to collect a tax on marijuana and other controlled substances seized by
police officers.
Kane is touting the proposal as a revenue-generator for cash-strapped
towns, and at least one municipal organization is ready to sign on. But
that's why Rep. Cameron C. Staples, D-New Haven and co-chairman of the
Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee, said he plans to let the bill
die.
"Do we really want to link law enforcement to the fiscal health of our
towns? I am not comfortable letting money potentially drive police
department decisions," he said.
Connecticut State Police last fiscal year seized nearly 1,400 kilograms
of marijuana, which could have translated to $4.8 million in tax revenue
at the $3.50 per gram tax rate.
And the $4.8 million estimate does not include the currently uncounted
amount of marijuana seized by the more than 100 town police departments,
said Sgt. Shawn Corey, spokesman for the state police.
The bill also allows for a tax on other illegal substances - ranging
from $200 to $2,000.
The tax is enticing to the Connecticut Council of Small Towns, whose 139
towns would benefit significantly.
"Every penny counts," said Bart Russell, COST's executive director.
The state's Department of Revenue Services already has the authority to
tax marijuana seized from drug dealers, which is just a portion of the
total 1,400 kilograms collected by state police. Two years ago, the most
recent estimate available, the state collected just $60,000.
Kane says the state's failure to cash in on the tax has resulted in
millions of dollars going up in smoke.
"So why not allow towns to enforce the already-existing tax?" he said.
And while they're at it, Kane said the tax should not only be for a drug
dealer's stash, but also on those found in possession of illegal
substances. That means all 1,400 kilograms seized by state police would
be taxable, not just a small portion proven to come from drug dealers.
"Police are doing the arrests anyway, we might as well tax it."
Instead, local police officers are flushing these narcotics down the
toilets, said Lt. William Gyler of Farmington Police Department.
"I am not aware of a single [police] office in the state that fills out
the paperwork for this tax," he said. "It's a rather cumbersome
process."
And Gyler admits there's little for his office or town to gain from the
extra work.
Kane says his bill creates the monetary incentive needed for police
offices to fill out the extra paperwork.
But for Staples, the small fiscal relief for towns is just not worth the
tradeoff of creating an incentive to make marijuana arrests.
"It would empower municipalities to increase enforcement," Staples said.
"So many states are working towards decriminalizing marijuana. I believe
this is doing the exact opposite."
Several proposals have been made in Connecticut to both decriminalize
and permit the use of medical marijuana, none of which has made it out
of committee this legislative session.
way: He sees the illegal substance as a potential pot of tax money for
Connecticut's municipalities.
"This is easy money," said Kane, R-Watertown, who wants to allow towns
to collect a tax on marijuana and other controlled substances seized by
police officers.
Kane is touting the proposal as a revenue-generator for cash-strapped
towns, and at least one municipal organization is ready to sign on. But
that's why Rep. Cameron C. Staples, D-New Haven and co-chairman of the
Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee, said he plans to let the bill
die.
"Do we really want to link law enforcement to the fiscal health of our
towns? I am not comfortable letting money potentially drive police
department decisions," he said.
Connecticut State Police last fiscal year seized nearly 1,400 kilograms
of marijuana, which could have translated to $4.8 million in tax revenue
at the $3.50 per gram tax rate.
And the $4.8 million estimate does not include the currently uncounted
amount of marijuana seized by the more than 100 town police departments,
said Sgt. Shawn Corey, spokesman for the state police.
The bill also allows for a tax on other illegal substances - ranging
from $200 to $2,000.
The tax is enticing to the Connecticut Council of Small Towns, whose 139
towns would benefit significantly.
"Every penny counts," said Bart Russell, COST's executive director.
The state's Department of Revenue Services already has the authority to
tax marijuana seized from drug dealers, which is just a portion of the
total 1,400 kilograms collected by state police. Two years ago, the most
recent estimate available, the state collected just $60,000.
Kane says the state's failure to cash in on the tax has resulted in
millions of dollars going up in smoke.
"So why not allow towns to enforce the already-existing tax?" he said.
And while they're at it, Kane said the tax should not only be for a drug
dealer's stash, but also on those found in possession of illegal
substances. That means all 1,400 kilograms seized by state police would
be taxable, not just a small portion proven to come from drug dealers.
"Police are doing the arrests anyway, we might as well tax it."
Instead, local police officers are flushing these narcotics down the
toilets, said Lt. William Gyler of Farmington Police Department.
"I am not aware of a single [police] office in the state that fills out
the paperwork for this tax," he said. "It's a rather cumbersome
process."
And Gyler admits there's little for his office or town to gain from the
extra work.
Kane says his bill creates the monetary incentive needed for police
offices to fill out the extra paperwork.
But for Staples, the small fiscal relief for towns is just not worth the
tradeoff of creating an incentive to make marijuana arrests.
"It would empower municipalities to increase enforcement," Staples said.
"So many states are working towards decriminalizing marijuana. I believe
this is doing the exact opposite."
Several proposals have been made in Connecticut to both decriminalize
and permit the use of medical marijuana, none of which has made it out
of committee this legislative session.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Licensed grower faces drug charges
By Gregory Smith
Journal Staff Writer
http://www.projo.com/news/courts/content/Providence_Intruder_Shooter_04-\
23-10_45I7A8M_v49.3b368ed.html
PROVIDENCE — A man who is licensed by the state to grow and smoke
marijuana for his hypertension shot and killed a masked thief in his
apartment last week.
He was in District Court on Thursday — but not because of the fatal
shooting.
The attorney general's office is prosecuting the man, Matthew A.
Salvato, 22, of 902 Chalkstone Ave., over the scale and legality of his
marijuana growing, not because of the shooting. The police are calling
the shooting an apparent case of self-defense and justifiable homicide.
A spokesman for the attorney general's office, Michael J. Healey,
said all aspects of the incident remain under investigation.
Salvato killed Alex Delasnueces, 26, also of Providence, in his
apartment when Salvato interrupted a break-in by the victim, according
to the police. Officers found marijuana plants in the house, as well as
Delasnueces, who had been shot through the heart.
The police apparently seized all the marijuana, and they charged Salvato
with the manufacture of marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent
to deliver and two counts of having a firearm in the furtherance of drug
offenses. At his arraignment April 16, he was ordered held without bail.
J. Patrick O'Neill, Salvato's lawyer, asked Judge Elaine Bucci
at a bail hearing Thursday to release his client on bail with a
restriction such as home confinement. But Assistant Attorney General
Pamela E. Chin objected — Healey said Salvato is a danger to the
community — and Bucci ordered that Salvato continue to be held for
now.
Both Salvato and his unnamed downstairs neighbor hold licenses under
Rhode Island's new medical-marijuana law and were cultivating crops,
according to O'Neill. Their crops were consolidated illegally, the
police allege, and the issue is how many plants and seedlings Salvato
had. The neighbor has not been charged.
"When you're talking about the medical-marijuana law, math is
very important," Healey said.
The neighbor is a state-licensed caregiver, according to O'Neill,
which allows him to grow marijuana and possess plants, seedlings and
loose marijuana for licensed patients. And one of his patients is
Salvato, the lawyer acknowledged.
Salvato himself is both a licensed caregiver and a licensed patient,
O'Neill said, apparently allowing him to have even more plants,
seedlings and loose marijuana than the neighbor. Annemarie Beardsworth,
a spokeswoman for the Rhode Island Department of Health, which oversees
the medical-marijuana program, said the law allows the double licensing.
Neither the police, nor the attorney general's office will say how
many plants, seedlings and loose marijuana were seized and for what
amounts Salvato is being held responsible. Healey said those aspects
remain under investigation.
O'Neill, however, said outside court that Salvato legally had 48
mature and immature plants plus a number of seedlings and denied that
his client was either illegally possesseing and distributing marijuana.
Bucci scheduled a follow-up hearing for Thursday to thrash out the
complexities of the medical-marijuana law and to reconsider bail.
As explained by Beardsworth, the law allows a caregiver to have an
unlimited number of patients, but to grow a maximum of 24 plants, to
grow "a reasonable amount of unusable marijuana, up to 12
seedlings," and to keep a maximum of 5 ounces of usable loose
marijuana.
A patient may have a maximum of 12 plants, a maximum 12 seedlings and a
maximum 2.5 ounces of usable loose marijuana.
The incident occurred, according to the police, on the morning of April
15, when Salvato, who lived alone in an apartment that took in the
second and third floors of the house, arrived home with his girlfriend.
They noticed that some items had been gathered together on the floor, as
if they were to be stolen by a thief, and Salvato got his semiautomatic
handgun.
He went to the third floor, called out that he had a gun and, as he
related to the police, encountered Delasnueces, who wore a bandanna
across his face and also carried a handgun. Salvato fired once and
Delasnueces tumbled down the stairs and came to rest with his gun
beneath him, according to Detective Capt. James Desmarais.
Investigators said they recovered three handguns; it is unclear who owns
the third gun.
Healey said it is too early in the investigation to say whether Salvato
may face a more serious charge regarding the shooting. But he said the
vast majority of suspicious deaths are presented to a grand jury for
consideration of an indictment.
To the police, the incident is further evidence of a flawed
medical-marijuana law, which they say makes caregivers and patients
targets of crime and is overly secretive.
O'Neill said his client had a gun because he lives in a bad
neighborhood and because the neighbor had been the victim of a recent
break-in.
"He wasn't protecting his, quote, unquote stash,"
O'Neill said.
Journal Staff Writer
http://www.projo.com/news/courts/content/Providence_Intruder_Shooter_04-\
23-10_45I7A8M_v49.3b368ed.html
PROVIDENCE — A man who is licensed by the state to grow and smoke
marijuana for his hypertension shot and killed a masked thief in his
apartment last week.
He was in District Court on Thursday — but not because of the fatal
shooting.
The attorney general's office is prosecuting the man, Matthew A.
Salvato, 22, of 902 Chalkstone Ave., over the scale and legality of his
marijuana growing, not because of the shooting. The police are calling
the shooting an apparent case of self-defense and justifiable homicide.
A spokesman for the attorney general's office, Michael J. Healey,
said all aspects of the incident remain under investigation.
Salvato killed Alex Delasnueces, 26, also of Providence, in his
apartment when Salvato interrupted a break-in by the victim, according
to the police. Officers found marijuana plants in the house, as well as
Delasnueces, who had been shot through the heart.
The police apparently seized all the marijuana, and they charged Salvato
with the manufacture of marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent
to deliver and two counts of having a firearm in the furtherance of drug
offenses. At his arraignment April 16, he was ordered held without bail.
J. Patrick O'Neill, Salvato's lawyer, asked Judge Elaine Bucci
at a bail hearing Thursday to release his client on bail with a
restriction such as home confinement. But Assistant Attorney General
Pamela E. Chin objected — Healey said Salvato is a danger to the
community — and Bucci ordered that Salvato continue to be held for
now.
Both Salvato and his unnamed downstairs neighbor hold licenses under
Rhode Island's new medical-marijuana law and were cultivating crops,
according to O'Neill. Their crops were consolidated illegally, the
police allege, and the issue is how many plants and seedlings Salvato
had. The neighbor has not been charged.
"When you're talking about the medical-marijuana law, math is
very important," Healey said.
The neighbor is a state-licensed caregiver, according to O'Neill,
which allows him to grow marijuana and possess plants, seedlings and
loose marijuana for licensed patients. And one of his patients is
Salvato, the lawyer acknowledged.
Salvato himself is both a licensed caregiver and a licensed patient,
O'Neill said, apparently allowing him to have even more plants,
seedlings and loose marijuana than the neighbor. Annemarie Beardsworth,
a spokeswoman for the Rhode Island Department of Health, which oversees
the medical-marijuana program, said the law allows the double licensing.
Neither the police, nor the attorney general's office will say how
many plants, seedlings and loose marijuana were seized and for what
amounts Salvato is being held responsible. Healey said those aspects
remain under investigation.
O'Neill, however, said outside court that Salvato legally had 48
mature and immature plants plus a number of seedlings and denied that
his client was either illegally possesseing and distributing marijuana.
Bucci scheduled a follow-up hearing for Thursday to thrash out the
complexities of the medical-marijuana law and to reconsider bail.
As explained by Beardsworth, the law allows a caregiver to have an
unlimited number of patients, but to grow a maximum of 24 plants, to
grow "a reasonable amount of unusable marijuana, up to 12
seedlings," and to keep a maximum of 5 ounces of usable loose
marijuana.
A patient may have a maximum of 12 plants, a maximum 12 seedlings and a
maximum 2.5 ounces of usable loose marijuana.
The incident occurred, according to the police, on the morning of April
15, when Salvato, who lived alone in an apartment that took in the
second and third floors of the house, arrived home with his girlfriend.
They noticed that some items had been gathered together on the floor, as
if they were to be stolen by a thief, and Salvato got his semiautomatic
handgun.
He went to the third floor, called out that he had a gun and, as he
related to the police, encountered Delasnueces, who wore a bandanna
across his face and also carried a handgun. Salvato fired once and
Delasnueces tumbled down the stairs and came to rest with his gun
beneath him, according to Detective Capt. James Desmarais.
Investigators said they recovered three handguns; it is unclear who owns
the third gun.
Healey said it is too early in the investigation to say whether Salvato
may face a more serious charge regarding the shooting. But he said the
vast majority of suspicious deaths are presented to a grand jury for
consideration of an indictment.
To the police, the incident is further evidence of a flawed
medical-marijuana law, which they say makes caregivers and patients
targets of crime and is overly secretive.
O'Neill said his client had a gun because he lives in a bad
neighborhood and because the neighbor had been the victim of a recent
break-in.
"He wasn't protecting his, quote, unquote stash,"
O'Neill said.
Medical marijuana plants stolen on Big Island
Big Island police are looking for man who stole two medical marijuana
plants from a home in Waimea Thursday morning.
Police say a 38-year-old man reported that he found a male intruder in
his home after he returned from a morning walk. The victim said the
burglar threatened him and took the plants. The intruder is described as
Caucasian, 18 to 22 years old, 5 foot 10 inches, with a muscular build.
He was wearing blue jeans, a black pullover sweater with an emblem on
the front and a black or blue Vulcans baseball cap.
Police ask anyone with information about the crime to call the
department's nonemergency line at 935-331. Tipsters who want to remain
anonymous may call Crime Stoppers at 961-8300 in Hilo or 392-8181 in
Kona.
plants from a home in Waimea Thursday morning.
Police say a 38-year-old man reported that he found a male intruder in
his home after he returned from a morning walk. The victim said the
burglar threatened him and took the plants. The intruder is described as
Caucasian, 18 to 22 years old, 5 foot 10 inches, with a muscular build.
He was wearing blue jeans, a black pullover sweater with an emblem on
the front and a black or blue Vulcans baseball cap.
Police ask anyone with information about the crime to call the
department's nonemergency line at 935-331. Tipsters who want to remain
anonymous may call Crime Stoppers at 961-8300 in Hilo or 392-8181 in
Kona.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Medical marijuana club opens in Mountain View
by Daniel DeBolt
Mountain View Voice Staff
http://www.PaloAltoOnline.com/news/story.php?story_id=16560
The City Council decided Tuesday to take legal action against the first
known storefront pot club in Mountain View, operated by a
multimillionaire lawyer who says he is ready for a legal fight.
Lawyer Matt Lucero and his nephew Jesse opened a medical marijuana
dispensary called Buddy's on April 10 in a warehouse at 2632 Bayshore
Parkway. Its opening came as a surprise to city officials, and to other
prospective pot club operators who believed the city would allow them to
open dispensaries legally sometime in the next year.
City Council members met in closed session on Tuesday night to discuss a
potential lawsuit meant to close the dispensary. The city considers the
club to be illegal under a moratorium on pot clubs the council approved
in February. City attorney Jannie Quinn said the council had decided to
"initiate an action" against the pot club, but declined to say what that
action would be until it actually happened.
If the city does move forward with legal action, "I am absolutely ready
for them," Lucero said Wednesday. He said he believes state law
supersedes the city's moratorium.
"We have very considerable financial resources and the backing of some
really, really hard-hitting lawyers -- people who have won California
Supreme Court cases," Lucero said. "We're going to stay."
Some of those financial resources may come from Lucero himself, who said
he made his millions working as a lawyer for large tech companies. "I've
been significantly a millionaire for many years," he said.
Originally from Staten Island, Lucero has lived in the county since 1988
and currently resides in Campbell. He said the dispensary isn't about
making money or making a political point: "It's about getting medicine
to people who need it -- people who are fighting AIDS and fighting
cancer. I will absolutely continue to fight for the rights of the
seriously ill residents of Santa Clara County."
The dispensary opened to the chagrin of prospective pot club operator
[www.mv Brian David], who wanted to work cooperatively with the city to
open a pot club in the same Shoreline industrial neighborhood.
"Personally I feel he is breaking the law, and being an attorney does
not make him above the law so he should be arrested, fined or both,"
David said in an e-mail. He added that pot club regulations could be
approved by the council later this year
(http://www.mv-voice.com/news/show_story.php?id=2557), so he worried
that the city would try to pass on a lawsuit against the dispensary.
Lucero said he picked Mountain View because it appeared that the City
Council was relatively supportive of dispensaries. While a majority of
council members supported the idea of allowing dispensaries in a
February meeting, the council wanted more time to create regulations on
them and placed a temporary ban on them starting in March. Because of
that moratorium, the city had rejected an application for a business
license by the operators of Buddy's.
The pot club's "discreet" location on Bayshore Parkway was selected in
respect for concerns from city officials, Lucero said. "If you don't
know it is here you are going to drive right by it, which is exactly how
we want it," he said.
A look inside
The dispensary is located in a warehouse building that is partly used by
Intuit for storage (Intuit has no connection to the pot club). On
display in small jars are the various strains of marijuana for sale,
which Lucero said are legally grown by collective members.
Inside, electronic music bounces off the pink walls and black-and-white
floor. A large mural of the Virgin Mary is one of the first works by
local artists that the collective hopes to have on display.
The place is well fortified: An alarm system uses laser beams to alert
police to break-ins, heavy bars are installed over the windows, and soon
security cameras will be installed.
Prospective club members are directed into a waiting room made from
covered cyclone fence, where their doctor's notes are verified before a
membership card is issued. Members are then allowed through a locked
door into the dispensary.
"No one gets through that caged area unless we've verified their
doctor's recommendation," Lucero said. "We do not distribute to
non-members ever, ever."
The pot club had over 100 members join in the first week and took in
$4,000 in sales, Lucero said.
Lucero said he hopes the pot club will be a "very positive community
center" where artists can display their art and medi-pot users can take
classes about how to grow their own marijuana. Buddy's is a nonprofit,
and its surplus revenue will be available to local charities and other
nonprofits, Lucero said.
According to Lucero, the dispensary has already been visited by Mountain
View police, a building code enforcement officer, city attorney Quinn,
city manager Kevin Duggan, planning director Randy Tsuda and council
members John Inks and Tom Means.
"I assured them it would be lawful," he said.
Mountain View Voice Staff
http://www.PaloAltoOnline.com/news/story.php?story_id=16560
The City Council decided Tuesday to take legal action against the first
known storefront pot club in Mountain View, operated by a
multimillionaire lawyer who says he is ready for a legal fight.
Lawyer Matt Lucero and his nephew Jesse opened a medical marijuana
dispensary called Buddy's on April 10 in a warehouse at 2632 Bayshore
Parkway. Its opening came as a surprise to city officials, and to other
prospective pot club operators who believed the city would allow them to
open dispensaries legally sometime in the next year.
City Council members met in closed session on Tuesday night to discuss a
potential lawsuit meant to close the dispensary. The city considers the
club to be illegal under a moratorium on pot clubs the council approved
in February. City attorney Jannie Quinn said the council had decided to
"initiate an action" against the pot club, but declined to say what that
action would be until it actually happened.
If the city does move forward with legal action, "I am absolutely ready
for them," Lucero said Wednesday. He said he believes state law
supersedes the city's moratorium.
"We have very considerable financial resources and the backing of some
really, really hard-hitting lawyers -- people who have won California
Supreme Court cases," Lucero said. "We're going to stay."
Some of those financial resources may come from Lucero himself, who said
he made his millions working as a lawyer for large tech companies. "I've
been significantly a millionaire for many years," he said.
Originally from Staten Island, Lucero has lived in the county since 1988
and currently resides in Campbell. He said the dispensary isn't about
making money or making a political point: "It's about getting medicine
to people who need it -- people who are fighting AIDS and fighting
cancer. I will absolutely continue to fight for the rights of the
seriously ill residents of Santa Clara County."
The dispensary opened to the chagrin of prospective pot club operator
[www.mv Brian David], who wanted to work cooperatively with the city to
open a pot club in the same Shoreline industrial neighborhood.
"Personally I feel he is breaking the law, and being an attorney does
not make him above the law so he should be arrested, fined or both,"
David said in an e-mail. He added that pot club regulations could be
approved by the council later this year
(http://www.mv-voice.com/news/show_story.php?id=2557), so he worried
that the city would try to pass on a lawsuit against the dispensary.
Lucero said he picked Mountain View because it appeared that the City
Council was relatively supportive of dispensaries. While a majority of
council members supported the idea of allowing dispensaries in a
February meeting, the council wanted more time to create regulations on
them and placed a temporary ban on them starting in March. Because of
that moratorium, the city had rejected an application for a business
license by the operators of Buddy's.
The pot club's "discreet" location on Bayshore Parkway was selected in
respect for concerns from city officials, Lucero said. "If you don't
know it is here you are going to drive right by it, which is exactly how
we want it," he said.
A look inside
The dispensary is located in a warehouse building that is partly used by
Intuit for storage (Intuit has no connection to the pot club). On
display in small jars are the various strains of marijuana for sale,
which Lucero said are legally grown by collective members.
Inside, electronic music bounces off the pink walls and black-and-white
floor. A large mural of the Virgin Mary is one of the first works by
local artists that the collective hopes to have on display.
The place is well fortified: An alarm system uses laser beams to alert
police to break-ins, heavy bars are installed over the windows, and soon
security cameras will be installed.
Prospective club members are directed into a waiting room made from
covered cyclone fence, where their doctor's notes are verified before a
membership card is issued. Members are then allowed through a locked
door into the dispensary.
"No one gets through that caged area unless we've verified their
doctor's recommendation," Lucero said. "We do not distribute to
non-members ever, ever."
The pot club had over 100 members join in the first week and took in
$4,000 in sales, Lucero said.
Lucero said he hopes the pot club will be a "very positive community
center" where artists can display their art and medi-pot users can take
classes about how to grow their own marijuana. Buddy's is a nonprofit,
and its surplus revenue will be available to local charities and other
nonprofits, Lucero said.
According to Lucero, the dispensary has already been visited by Mountain
View police, a building code enforcement officer, city attorney Quinn,
city manager Kevin Duggan, planning director Randy Tsuda and council
members John Inks and Tom Means.
"I assured them it would be lawful," he said.
Dispensary Robberies a Problematic Trend for LAPD
By Eric Richardson
Published: Thursday, April 22, 2010, at 10:35AM
http://blogdowntown.com/2010/04/5296-dispensary-robberies-a-problematic-\
trend
Composite sketch of armed suspect in Monday's dispensary robbery.-
2010/04/19 LAPD -
http://assets.blogdowntown.com/images/misc/lapd_weed_sketch_m.jpg
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — A pair of armed men robbed medical marijuana
clinic on the border between Skid Row and Little Tokyo on Monday,
getting away with $1,200 in cash, $7,000 in weed and a laptop computer.
It's the latest in a trend that police find troubling.
"I know of 14 clinics just in downtown Los Angeles and five were
robbed in the last 18 months," said Lt. Paul Vernon, head of Central
Division detectives.
The city recently passed a new ordinance governing the density and
location of dispensaries, but it won't take effect until June 4.
Advocates have said that they intend to challenge the legislation in
court.
While the city was debating the ordinance, hundreds of new dispensaries
opened, trying to take advantage of a perceived loophole in the rules.
Those locations must now close once the new rules go into place, but the
187 dispensaries that legally registered with the city before 2007 are
allowed to remain if they comply with the new rules.
The robbery took place at City Compassionate Caregivers, located at 606
E. 4th street. The facility is one of those properly registered, but the
location at 4th and Towne appears to run afoul of a new requirement that
dispensaries be at least 1000 feet from such sensitive uses as schools,
libraries and substance abuse rehabilitation centers. The site is
approximately 600 feet from the Fred Jordan Mission and roughly 700 feet
from Centenary United Methodist Church.
The dispensary will have 180 days to find a compliant location once the
ordinance is made law.
Vernon will be glad to see the collectives zoned out of Skid Row.
"It's ironic and a bit perplexing that two medical marijuana
clinics can operate one block apart in the largest drug recovery area in
Southern California," he said.
The two suspects are described as hispanic, 25 to 30 years old and
approximately 5'8". The arm who pulled a gun is said to be "a pretty boy
with good teeth."
While no shots were fired in Monday's robbery, Vernon listed two other
recent dispensary robberies where gunfire did take place, including one
last September on 17th street. "We did not even know that clinic
existed until the shooting occurred," Vernon said. "Clinic
workers wrote off the event as upset rival sellers trying to intimidate
them, rather than an attempted robbery."
Published: Thursday, April 22, 2010, at 10:35AM
http://blogdowntown.com/2010/04/5296-dispensary-robberies-a-problematic-\
trend
Composite sketch of armed suspect in Monday's dispensary robbery.-
2010/04/19 LAPD -
http://assets.blogdowntown.com/images/misc/lapd_weed_sketch_m.jpg
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — A pair of armed men robbed medical marijuana
clinic on the border between Skid Row and Little Tokyo on Monday,
getting away with $1,200 in cash, $7,000 in weed and a laptop computer.
It's the latest in a trend that police find troubling.
"I know of 14 clinics just in downtown Los Angeles and five were
robbed in the last 18 months," said Lt. Paul Vernon, head of Central
Division detectives.
The city recently passed a new ordinance governing the density and
location of dispensaries, but it won't take effect until June 4.
Advocates have said that they intend to challenge the legislation in
court.
While the city was debating the ordinance, hundreds of new dispensaries
opened, trying to take advantage of a perceived loophole in the rules.
Those locations must now close once the new rules go into place, but the
187 dispensaries that legally registered with the city before 2007 are
allowed to remain if they comply with the new rules.
The robbery took place at City Compassionate Caregivers, located at 606
E. 4th street. The facility is one of those properly registered, but the
location at 4th and Towne appears to run afoul of a new requirement that
dispensaries be at least 1000 feet from such sensitive uses as schools,
libraries and substance abuse rehabilitation centers. The site is
approximately 600 feet from the Fred Jordan Mission and roughly 700 feet
from Centenary United Methodist Church.
The dispensary will have 180 days to find a compliant location once the
ordinance is made law.
Vernon will be glad to see the collectives zoned out of Skid Row.
"It's ironic and a bit perplexing that two medical marijuana
clinics can operate one block apart in the largest drug recovery area in
Southern California," he said.
The two suspects are described as hispanic, 25 to 30 years old and
approximately 5'8". The arm who pulled a gun is said to be "a pretty boy
with good teeth."
While no shots were fired in Monday's robbery, Vernon listed two other
recent dispensary robberies where gunfire did take place, including one
last September on 17th street. "We did not even know that clinic
existed until the shooting occurred," Vernon said. "Clinic
workers wrote off the event as upset rival sellers trying to intimidate
them, rather than an attempted robbery."
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Bill to legalize medical marijuana in Tenn. deferred for another week
By Hank Hayes
Published April 20th, 2010
http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9022387
A legislative amendment directing the Tennessee Board of Pharmacy to
study legalizing the medical use of marijuana was defeated by the House
Health and Human Resources Committee on Tuesday.
With the amendment, state Rep. Jeanne Richardson attempted to rewrite
her proposed legislation to establish a medical marijuana program for
qualified patients, but it failed by a 9-12 vote.
Richardson, D-Memphis, then asked for and got another deferral of the
legislation for one week.
State Rep. Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald, said before the vote that the
medical marijuana issue encompasses more than just pharmacists.
"I don't know how much they can really ... how much light they
can shed on the subject," said Hensley, a working physician. "I
just don't really think the Board of Pharmacy is going to be able to
answer all the questions. Dispensing is certainly one question, but
that's really not my biggest question. ... It's the ethics,
it's the use, it's the FDA (Food and Drug Administration)
looking at the drug itself and Scheduling it before we actually
prescribe it. ... I don't really think the Board of Pharmacy wants
to study this, either. ... I am not going to support this
amendment."
At the federal level, marijuana remains classified as a Schedule I
substance under the Controlled Substances Act, making distribution of
marijuana a federal offense.
But in 1996, California became the first state to allow for the medical
use of marijuana. Since then, 14 more states have enacted similar laws,
according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).
Last year, NCSL said President Barack Obama's administration sent a
memo to federal prosecutors encouraging them not to prosecute people who
distribute marijuana for medical purposes in accordance with various
state laws.
In response to Hensley, Richardson said pharmacy board members agreed in
a teleconference to study the issue and would be assisted by the
Tennessee Department of Health.
"I think it is very important to the people of this state who are
sick and dying and suffering that this get a fair hearing and
consideration. We owe that to them," Richardson said.
State Rep. David Shepard, D-Dickson, pointed out the pharmacy board
could at least look at the regulatory aspects of medical marijuana.
"That's really what my concerns are. ... How do you regulate
it?" Shepard, a working pharmacist, asked. "How do you set up
the dispensaries? Should the Schedule of the drug be changed? In federal
law, marijuana is Schedule I. ... In state law it is Schedule 6. ... I
do believe this is an issue we should look at and give a fair hearing
to."
The Tennessee Board of Pharmacy licenses and registers pharmacists,
pharmacies, pharmacy technicians, manufacturers and wholesale
distributors, and medical service representatives. The board also enacts
rules addressing professional conduct and standards of practice.
Under Richardson's original bill, those medically eligible to use
marijuana would include cancer and Alzheimer's patients, HIV and
hepatitis C patients, people with chronic pain, and any medical
condition resulting in hospice enrollment.
The bill would also establish a program to allow a patient to receive a
prescription for medical marijuana from a practitioner, and the patient
would need a program identification card from the Department of Health.
Participating pharmacies would distribute medical marijuana, and
licensed farmers would grow it.
Neither patients nor practitioners would be subject to arrest, according
to the bill.
The legislation would also require the General Assembly to appoint a
13-member select oversight committee on medical marijuana.
The state's Fiscal Review Office estimated that after the
program's second year, at least 10,000 patients would be registered,
but the legislation's recurring cost to the state was estimated at
about $1.5 million.
For more information go to www.capitol.tn.gov. The bill's number is
HB 2562.
Published April 20th, 2010
http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9022387
A legislative amendment directing the Tennessee Board of Pharmacy to
study legalizing the medical use of marijuana was defeated by the House
Health and Human Resources Committee on Tuesday.
With the amendment, state Rep. Jeanne Richardson attempted to rewrite
her proposed legislation to establish a medical marijuana program for
qualified patients, but it failed by a 9-12 vote.
Richardson, D-Memphis, then asked for and got another deferral of the
legislation for one week.
State Rep. Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald, said before the vote that the
medical marijuana issue encompasses more than just pharmacists.
"I don't know how much they can really ... how much light they
can shed on the subject," said Hensley, a working physician. "I
just don't really think the Board of Pharmacy is going to be able to
answer all the questions. Dispensing is certainly one question, but
that's really not my biggest question. ... It's the ethics,
it's the use, it's the FDA (Food and Drug Administration)
looking at the drug itself and Scheduling it before we actually
prescribe it. ... I don't really think the Board of Pharmacy wants
to study this, either. ... I am not going to support this
amendment."
At the federal level, marijuana remains classified as a Schedule I
substance under the Controlled Substances Act, making distribution of
marijuana a federal offense.
But in 1996, California became the first state to allow for the medical
use of marijuana. Since then, 14 more states have enacted similar laws,
according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).
Last year, NCSL said President Barack Obama's administration sent a
memo to federal prosecutors encouraging them not to prosecute people who
distribute marijuana for medical purposes in accordance with various
state laws.
In response to Hensley, Richardson said pharmacy board members agreed in
a teleconference to study the issue and would be assisted by the
Tennessee Department of Health.
"I think it is very important to the people of this state who are
sick and dying and suffering that this get a fair hearing and
consideration. We owe that to them," Richardson said.
State Rep. David Shepard, D-Dickson, pointed out the pharmacy board
could at least look at the regulatory aspects of medical marijuana.
"That's really what my concerns are. ... How do you regulate
it?" Shepard, a working pharmacist, asked. "How do you set up
the dispensaries? Should the Schedule of the drug be changed? In federal
law, marijuana is Schedule I. ... In state law it is Schedule 6. ... I
do believe this is an issue we should look at and give a fair hearing
to."
The Tennessee Board of Pharmacy licenses and registers pharmacists,
pharmacies, pharmacy technicians, manufacturers and wholesale
distributors, and medical service representatives. The board also enacts
rules addressing professional conduct and standards of practice.
Under Richardson's original bill, those medically eligible to use
marijuana would include cancer and Alzheimer's patients, HIV and
hepatitis C patients, people with chronic pain, and any medical
condition resulting in hospice enrollment.
The bill would also establish a program to allow a patient to receive a
prescription for medical marijuana from a practitioner, and the patient
would need a program identification card from the Department of Health.
Participating pharmacies would distribute medical marijuana, and
licensed farmers would grow it.
Neither patients nor practitioners would be subject to arrest, according
to the bill.
The legislation would also require the General Assembly to appoint a
13-member select oversight committee on medical marijuana.
The state's Fiscal Review Office estimated that after the
program's second year, at least 10,000 patients would be registered,
but the legislation's recurring cost to the state was estimated at
about $1.5 million.
For more information go to www.capitol.tn.gov. The bill's number is
HB 2562.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Medical marijuana bill up for a vote today
The D.C. Council will vote today on a much-awaited proposal to allow
chronically ill patients to receive a doctor's prescription to use
marijuana and buy it from a city-sanctioned distribution center.
Under the bill, which has already cleared two committees, a patient who
suffers from HIV, glaucoma, cancer or a "chronic and lasting disease"
may receive a doctor's recommendation to possess up to 2 ounces of
marijuana in a 30-day period.
The patient would not be allowed to grow their own marijuana, but
between five and eight pot distribution centers would be established in
the city.
Those distribution centers would receive marijuana from privately run
cultivation centers, where up to 95 marijuana plants could be grown at a
given time. The distribution and cultivation centers, which could not be
located within 300 feet of a school or preschool, would be operated by
private or nonprofit organizations and businesses that would be licensed
by the city.
The bill is expected to easily pass the council today, perhaps by a
unanimous vote. The council will then have to vote on it a second time
next month. But it will likely be at least several months before the
city's medical marijuana program gets off the ground.
Under the legislation, the mayor's office and the Department of Health
will have to draft regulations on where the distribution centers can be
located and under what terms. It remains unclear what criteria the mayor
would use when selecting what companies or nonprofits will win the right
to enter the city's potentially lucrative marijuana market. But city
officials say they have learned lessons from other states with less
controlled medical marijuana programs.
Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D), a Democratic candidate for mayor,
said Monday he hopes the city moves swiftly to implement the medical
marijuana law. He noted District voters overwhelmingly approved a
referendum in 1998 to legalize medical marijuana, but Congress blocked
the city from moving forward on the issue until this year.
"This is not a new issue," Gray said. "It's been around 10 years. We had
an overwhelmingly large number of people support this. ... I would hope
we could move this quickly and implement something a majority of people
said they supported."
-- Tim Craig
chronically ill patients to receive a doctor's prescription to use
marijuana and buy it from a city-sanctioned distribution center.
Under the bill, which has already cleared two committees, a patient who
suffers from HIV, glaucoma, cancer or a "chronic and lasting disease"
may receive a doctor's recommendation to possess up to 2 ounces of
marijuana in a 30-day period.
The patient would not be allowed to grow their own marijuana, but
between five and eight pot distribution centers would be established in
the city.
Those distribution centers would receive marijuana from privately run
cultivation centers, where up to 95 marijuana plants could be grown at a
given time. The distribution and cultivation centers, which could not be
located within 300 feet of a school or preschool, would be operated by
private or nonprofit organizations and businesses that would be licensed
by the city.
The bill is expected to easily pass the council today, perhaps by a
unanimous vote. The council will then have to vote on it a second time
next month. But it will likely be at least several months before the
city's medical marijuana program gets off the ground.
Under the legislation, the mayor's office and the Department of Health
will have to draft regulations on where the distribution centers can be
located and under what terms. It remains unclear what criteria the mayor
would use when selecting what companies or nonprofits will win the right
to enter the city's potentially lucrative marijuana market. But city
officials say they have learned lessons from other states with less
controlled medical marijuana programs.
Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D), a Democratic candidate for mayor,
said Monday he hopes the city moves swiftly to implement the medical
marijuana law. He noted District voters overwhelmingly approved a
referendum in 1998 to legalize medical marijuana, but Congress blocked
the city from moving forward on the issue until this year.
"This is not a new issue," Gray said. "It's been around 10 years. We had
an overwhelmingly large number of people support this. ... I would hope
we could move this quickly and implement something a majority of people
said they supported."
-- Tim Craig
SUNRISE: Denver rally to show support for legalizing marijuana
DENVER (AP) — Pot smokers from Denver to Durango are gathering to
call for the drug's legalization.
Tuesday is April 20, or 4/20, a number used by many to denote marijuana.
The festivities in Denver include a daylong rally in Civic Center Park.
The Denver event will include remarks from the director of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
An unauthorized public smoking event is expected to draw thousands on
the campus of the University of Colorado in Boulder.
And in Durango, an evening concert is planned to promote a proposal to
decriminalize marijuana in small amounts for adults.
call for the drug's legalization.
Tuesday is April 20, or 4/20, a number used by many to denote marijuana.
The festivities in Denver include a daylong rally in Civic Center Park.
The Denver event will include remarks from the director of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
An unauthorized public smoking event is expected to draw thousands on
the campus of the University of Colorado in Boulder.
And in Durango, an evening concert is planned to promote a proposal to
decriminalize marijuana in small amounts for adults.
Monday, April 19, 2010
One year later, N.Y. drug law change shows mixed results
ALBANY -- After 19 years in prison, Amir Amma served his time for two
nonviolent drug counts, a stretch as long as some murderers get. Now
free and pursuing a college degree, he says, "Crime is not an option."
Carlie Beltran also said he put trouble behind him after a crack cocaine
and gun possession conviction sent him to prison for more than seven
years, time he spent getting a high-school equivalency diploma, job
training and drug counseling. But less than four months after his
release, police said they found him carrying a loaded semiautomatic
pistol.
Amma and Beltran were snared under New York's harsh Rockefeller drug
laws, nicknamed for Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, who signed them into law in
the 1970s. The laws required long sentences for possession and sale of
even small amounts of narcotics.
The two men are also among the first of nearly 300 to benefit from the
landmark easing a year ago of those laws -- a development that drew
impassioned supporters and doom-saying opponents like few issues ever to
hit Albany.
"The reality of what's happened a year later is not as good as the
defense had hoped and not as terrible as the prosecutors had feared,"
said attorney William Gibney of the Legal Aid Society in New York.
The new law eliminated some mandatory minimum prison terms, let hundreds
of nonviolent drug felons request shorter prison sentences and gave
judges more latitude to send offenders to treatment programs or county
jails.
New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said 72
inmates and parolees prosecuted by her office applied for resentencing,
with judges initially turning down 17 and granting 19 requests; others
were still under consideration.
Beltran is among two who have been re-arrested, the other on a drug
charge, and a third person was deported, she said.
Advocates of the reforms said relief was needed for the low-level
nonviolent people who just got caught up in drugs. But Brennan said many
such inmates had already been released, leaving more problematic
resentencing cases for judges to decide.
"As it played out, really, it was only the person with a substantial
criminal record, or a horrible disciplinary record while in prison, who
ended up being eligible," Brennan said. Her office opposed slightly more
than half the requests that were granted.
According to the Department of Correctional Services, 584 felons were
resentenced and released after 2004 revisions in the drug laws. By
December, 13 were back in prison for new crimes and 27 for parole
violations -- a recidivism rate of 7 percent.
The state's overall recidivism rate is much higher -- 41 percent --
according to 2006 through 2008 figures of the Department of Criminal
Justice Services. Most returned to prison for parole violations, with 11
percent for a new felony.
Amma, now 42, was convicted in Albany of two felonies for a drug sale
and for possession of 2 ounces of cocaine, which he still disputes. He's
back in Queens, living in his mother's small apartment with his
20-year-old son. He has another son just graduating from high school in
the Atlanta area. Parole restrictions may keep Amma from attending the
graduation.
"I was involved in narcotics and stupid stuff," Amma said, who had a
prior arrest for selling marijuana. His co-defendants got much shorter
sentences. He said he refused to tell police anything, went to trial and
got 25 years to life. He has no convictions for violence, but
acknowledges a fight in prison and getting disciplined once for smoking
a joint, a mixed record that kept him from getting resentenced under the
prior changes.
He plans to finish college in social work and criminal justice. For now,
he's "chilling" and happy to be out.
Assistant Albany County District Attorney Sean Childs said his office
has probably participated in 25 to 35 drug resentencings in the past few
months, with three or four denied, and most applications coming directly
from inmates. He was not aware of any re-arrests.
"It was quite harsh," Childs said of Amma's original sentence.
Prosecutors supported his new sentence.
Beltran, on the other hand, was resentenced over prosecutors'
objections. They noted his 2002 conviction, which included carrying an
unloaded semiautomatic gun, and a record of write-ups for prison
disciplinary infractions including fighting and keeping a sharpened
toothbrush under his mattress.
"We argued that this was not the kind of person contemplated" by the
drug law changes, Brennan said.
Beltran's lawyer said he was exactly that kind of person: a
drug-and-alcohol user since age 10 who had never been convicted of
hurting anyone but himself.
"Mr. Beltran has finally come to grips with his drug problem" in prison,
attorney Laura Lieberman Cohen wrote in court papers.
Beltran, 29, was paroled shortly before a judge approved his bid to trim
his six- to 12-year sentence.
Arrested again in March, Beltran is now being held while facing both
state and federal weapons charges because of his prior conviction. He
has pleaded not guilty in the state case and hasn't yet entered a plea
in the federal case. He told a detective he was returning the gun to a
friend, according to a court complaint.
nonviolent drug counts, a stretch as long as some murderers get. Now
free and pursuing a college degree, he says, "Crime is not an option."
Carlie Beltran also said he put trouble behind him after a crack cocaine
and gun possession conviction sent him to prison for more than seven
years, time he spent getting a high-school equivalency diploma, job
training and drug counseling. But less than four months after his
release, police said they found him carrying a loaded semiautomatic
pistol.
Amma and Beltran were snared under New York's harsh Rockefeller drug
laws, nicknamed for Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, who signed them into law in
the 1970s. The laws required long sentences for possession and sale of
even small amounts of narcotics.
The two men are also among the first of nearly 300 to benefit from the
landmark easing a year ago of those laws -- a development that drew
impassioned supporters and doom-saying opponents like few issues ever to
hit Albany.
"The reality of what's happened a year later is not as good as the
defense had hoped and not as terrible as the prosecutors had feared,"
said attorney William Gibney of the Legal Aid Society in New York.
The new law eliminated some mandatory minimum prison terms, let hundreds
of nonviolent drug felons request shorter prison sentences and gave
judges more latitude to send offenders to treatment programs or county
jails.
New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said 72
inmates and parolees prosecuted by her office applied for resentencing,
with judges initially turning down 17 and granting 19 requests; others
were still under consideration.
Beltran is among two who have been re-arrested, the other on a drug
charge, and a third person was deported, she said.
Advocates of the reforms said relief was needed for the low-level
nonviolent people who just got caught up in drugs. But Brennan said many
such inmates had already been released, leaving more problematic
resentencing cases for judges to decide.
"As it played out, really, it was only the person with a substantial
criminal record, or a horrible disciplinary record while in prison, who
ended up being eligible," Brennan said. Her office opposed slightly more
than half the requests that were granted.
According to the Department of Correctional Services, 584 felons were
resentenced and released after 2004 revisions in the drug laws. By
December, 13 were back in prison for new crimes and 27 for parole
violations -- a recidivism rate of 7 percent.
The state's overall recidivism rate is much higher -- 41 percent --
according to 2006 through 2008 figures of the Department of Criminal
Justice Services. Most returned to prison for parole violations, with 11
percent for a new felony.
Amma, now 42, was convicted in Albany of two felonies for a drug sale
and for possession of 2 ounces of cocaine, which he still disputes. He's
back in Queens, living in his mother's small apartment with his
20-year-old son. He has another son just graduating from high school in
the Atlanta area. Parole restrictions may keep Amma from attending the
graduation.
"I was involved in narcotics and stupid stuff," Amma said, who had a
prior arrest for selling marijuana. His co-defendants got much shorter
sentences. He said he refused to tell police anything, went to trial and
got 25 years to life. He has no convictions for violence, but
acknowledges a fight in prison and getting disciplined once for smoking
a joint, a mixed record that kept him from getting resentenced under the
prior changes.
He plans to finish college in social work and criminal justice. For now,
he's "chilling" and happy to be out.
Assistant Albany County District Attorney Sean Childs said his office
has probably participated in 25 to 35 drug resentencings in the past few
months, with three or four denied, and most applications coming directly
from inmates. He was not aware of any re-arrests.
"It was quite harsh," Childs said of Amma's original sentence.
Prosecutors supported his new sentence.
Beltran, on the other hand, was resentenced over prosecutors'
objections. They noted his 2002 conviction, which included carrying an
unloaded semiautomatic gun, and a record of write-ups for prison
disciplinary infractions including fighting and keeping a sharpened
toothbrush under his mattress.
"We argued that this was not the kind of person contemplated" by the
drug law changes, Brennan said.
Beltran's lawyer said he was exactly that kind of person: a
drug-and-alcohol user since age 10 who had never been convicted of
hurting anyone but himself.
"Mr. Beltran has finally come to grips with his drug problem" in prison,
attorney Laura Lieberman Cohen wrote in court papers.
Beltran, 29, was paroled shortly before a judge approved his bid to trim
his six- to 12-year sentence.
Arrested again in March, Beltran is now being held while facing both
state and federal weapons charges because of his prior conviction. He
has pleaded not guilty in the state case and hasn't yet entered a plea
in the federal case. He told a detective he was returning the gun to a
friend, according to a court complaint.
High anxiety: Ohio legislators to consider bill to legalize medical marijuana
Although polls indicate most Ohioans would support the use of marijuana
for medical purposes, most lawmakers won't support the issue because
they fear they'll be stoned by voters in future elections.
State Rep. Bob Hagan, a Democrat from Youngstown, co-sponsored a bill
last week that would make Ohio the 15th state to allow medicinal
marijuana. But Hagan said the bill is certain to go nowhere because his
colleagues in the legislature aren't brave enough to pass it.
Hagan told the Associated Press that several conservative Republican
lawmakers have privately told him that they support medical marijuana,
but think it is political suicide to back it publicly.
According to the Ohio chapter of the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), 73 percent of Ohioans support
legalizing marijuana for medical use.
Local legislatures could not be reached for comment Sunday.
Washington County Sheriff Larry Mincks said he would strongly oppose
medical marijuana in Ohio. He said doctors have synthetic forms of pot,
which they can prescribe. Also, he said legalizing marijuana for
medicinal use would send mixed signals to children and young adults who
may think the drug is safe to use if it can be prescribed.
"There are a number of drugs available to doctors that will do the same
thing marijuana does," Mincks said. "And I've said this many, many
times: Marijuana and alcohol are gateway drugs. It is just another step
before going to something harder. I've been in this business 40 years
and I've never talked to an addict who went from zero to addict. They
usually started with alcohol and marijuana and then moved on to their
parent's medicine cabinet."
In a press release, Tonya Davis, a Montgomery County resident, medical
marijuana user and a member of NORML, said the proposed Ohio Medical
Compassion Act would help thousands of the state's sick.
"It's time that Ohio stops wasting taxpayers' dollars arresting,
prosecuting and caging up citizens of Ohio for using what science has
proven is medicine," she said in the release. "Ohioans have stood up for
gambling... It's time they fight for me and thousands just like me."
The law would protect patients, doctors, and primary caregivers from
arrest and prosecution, and would establish a regulatory framework to
govern the distribution of marijuana within the state. Patients would be
required to register with the state government so it could ensure that
only patients with debilitating medical conditions have access to the
drug.
Conditions that are most commonly treated with marijuana in states where
it is legal include cancer, HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, fibromyalgia, multiple
sclerosis and arthritis. Advocates also point out that recent studies
indicate pot may be effective in fighting the onset of Alzheimer's, as
well as reducing tumor growth in lung cancer patients.
Marietta residents Tom and Janice Meyers said they have mixed feelings
on the issue.
"I feel this is a slippery slope," Tom Meyers said. "I think what you'll
end up with is a situation where you have a whole lot of people with
prescriptions when only a handful may really need it."
Janice Meyers said she believes the real intent of the proposal is to
move the state one step closer to legalizing the drug for recreational
use.
"I think that's what most of these movements are all about," she said.
"Sometimes I think they should just legalize it. Other times, I'm not so
sure."
for medical purposes, most lawmakers won't support the issue because
they fear they'll be stoned by voters in future elections.
State Rep. Bob Hagan, a Democrat from Youngstown, co-sponsored a bill
last week that would make Ohio the 15th state to allow medicinal
marijuana. But Hagan said the bill is certain to go nowhere because his
colleagues in the legislature aren't brave enough to pass it.
Hagan told the Associated Press that several conservative Republican
lawmakers have privately told him that they support medical marijuana,
but think it is political suicide to back it publicly.
According to the Ohio chapter of the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), 73 percent of Ohioans support
legalizing marijuana for medical use.
Local legislatures could not be reached for comment Sunday.
Washington County Sheriff Larry Mincks said he would strongly oppose
medical marijuana in Ohio. He said doctors have synthetic forms of pot,
which they can prescribe. Also, he said legalizing marijuana for
medicinal use would send mixed signals to children and young adults who
may think the drug is safe to use if it can be prescribed.
"There are a number of drugs available to doctors that will do the same
thing marijuana does," Mincks said. "And I've said this many, many
times: Marijuana and alcohol are gateway drugs. It is just another step
before going to something harder. I've been in this business 40 years
and I've never talked to an addict who went from zero to addict. They
usually started with alcohol and marijuana and then moved on to their
parent's medicine cabinet."
In a press release, Tonya Davis, a Montgomery County resident, medical
marijuana user and a member of NORML, said the proposed Ohio Medical
Compassion Act would help thousands of the state's sick.
"It's time that Ohio stops wasting taxpayers' dollars arresting,
prosecuting and caging up citizens of Ohio for using what science has
proven is medicine," she said in the release. "Ohioans have stood up for
gambling... It's time they fight for me and thousands just like me."
The law would protect patients, doctors, and primary caregivers from
arrest and prosecution, and would establish a regulatory framework to
govern the distribution of marijuana within the state. Patients would be
required to register with the state government so it could ensure that
only patients with debilitating medical conditions have access to the
drug.
Conditions that are most commonly treated with marijuana in states where
it is legal include cancer, HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, fibromyalgia, multiple
sclerosis and arthritis. Advocates also point out that recent studies
indicate pot may be effective in fighting the onset of Alzheimer's, as
well as reducing tumor growth in lung cancer patients.
Marietta residents Tom and Janice Meyers said they have mixed feelings
on the issue.
"I feel this is a slippery slope," Tom Meyers said. "I think what you'll
end up with is a situation where you have a whole lot of people with
prescriptions when only a handful may really need it."
Janice Meyers said she believes the real intent of the proposal is to
move the state one step closer to legalizing the drug for recreational
use.
"I think that's what most of these movements are all about," she said.
"Sometimes I think they should just legalize it. Other times, I'm not so
sure."
Friday, April 16, 2010
Oakland may close medical marijuana dispensary
OAKLAND — Medical marijuana patients soon could have one less
dispensary in the city from which to purchase marijuana after a judge
ruled today that city officials may continue in their quest to shutter
the Oakland Patient Center.
The ruling was made four months after Arturo Sanchez, an assistant to
the Oakland city administrator, decided to revoke a permit issued to the
Oakland Patient Center because, according to Sanchez, its owners failed
to comply with laws regulating the operation of medical marijuana
dispensaries within city limits.
Sanchez ruled in January that the center violated city laws by failing
to notify officials that ownership of the dispensary had changed. The
owners argue that Sanchez's decision was made arbitrarily, and they
suggested that revocation of the permit was done to allow another
dispensary to begin operations in the city.
Under city laws regulating medical marijuana, only four dispensaries are
allowed to operate in Oakland. If the city revokes a permit from any of
those four dispensaries, or a dispensary gives it up voluntarily, that
permit becomes available for any other company that applies through a
city-issued response for proposals.
Attorneys representing the Oakland Patient Center appeared in Alameda
County Superior Court today in hopes of convincing a judge to prevent
the city from acting on Sanchez's decision until a full hearing could be
conducted later this year. The attorneys, Sally Steinhardt and Lisa
Gygax, argued that their clients had attempted to comply with city laws
but were rebuffed by city officials who refused to accept a revision to
Oakland Patient Center's permit.
No other problems related to the dispensary's operation were reported by
the city.
The dispensary's troubles with the city began last year when its
majority owners, Steven and Stacie Petras, agreed to sell the dispensary
to Dona Frank in a deal that is being contested in the Superior Court of
Contra Costa County, where the business is registered. Under terms of
that deal, Frank became the operator of Oakland Patient Center and
inherited the responsibilities mandated under the city's permit,
including getting her name on the permit and paying a $30,000 annual
fee.
Gygax said Frank attempted to notify the city of the sale and have her
name placed on the permit but was not allowed to apply. Instead, Gygax
said, the city notified Frank and the Petrases that the city would hold
a hearing regarding revocation of the permit.
Sanchez said today that the city did not learn of the sale until after
it had occurred when the Petrases came to the city asking for help
resolving a dispute between them and Frank over the dispensary's sale.
At that point, Sanchez said, he was forced to revoke the permit because
the city learned the business had been sold without notification to the
city. Such notification is necessary, Sanchez said, to give the city an
opportunity to investigate the a new owner's background to ensure the
business would be legal.
"We cannot conceive of a situation where we want this to be a common
practice, so we have to take a zero-tolerance towards it," Sanchez said.
"There is a process, and Ms. Frank is looking to circumvent that
process."
Sanchez denied an ulterior motive to his decision and said there is no
other business that has inquired about receiving a permit to run a
dispensary. Even if there were, he said, he would not be the person to
decide who gets the permit.
Gygax said the city is mistaken in believing the dispensary's ownership
officially has changed. According to the sale agreement, each side has a
year to make the deal final, and it is dependent on both sides working
toward getting Frank's name on the permit.
"That is simply untrue," Gygax said. "The sale is not complete. The
contract shows it takes a year, and (Frank) has to be added to the
permit."
Although Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Rosech denied the
dispensary's request to stop the city from shutting down the business,
he gave the business an opportunity to provide more evidence during a
hearing next week.
In the meantime, Gygax said, the business will remain open.
Sanchez said the city has no immediate plans to force the business to
close but will begin issuing $1,000 a day fines against the Oakland
Patient Center for violation of city laws. Eventually, he said, the city
might be forced to shut down the operation.
"We may look at all of our options," he said.
dispensary in the city from which to purchase marijuana after a judge
ruled today that city officials may continue in their quest to shutter
the Oakland Patient Center.
The ruling was made four months after Arturo Sanchez, an assistant to
the Oakland city administrator, decided to revoke a permit issued to the
Oakland Patient Center because, according to Sanchez, its owners failed
to comply with laws regulating the operation of medical marijuana
dispensaries within city limits.
Sanchez ruled in January that the center violated city laws by failing
to notify officials that ownership of the dispensary had changed. The
owners argue that Sanchez's decision was made arbitrarily, and they
suggested that revocation of the permit was done to allow another
dispensary to begin operations in the city.
Under city laws regulating medical marijuana, only four dispensaries are
allowed to operate in Oakland. If the city revokes a permit from any of
those four dispensaries, or a dispensary gives it up voluntarily, that
permit becomes available for any other company that applies through a
city-issued response for proposals.
Attorneys representing the Oakland Patient Center appeared in Alameda
County Superior Court today in hopes of convincing a judge to prevent
the city from acting on Sanchez's decision until a full hearing could be
conducted later this year. The attorneys, Sally Steinhardt and Lisa
Gygax, argued that their clients had attempted to comply with city laws
but were rebuffed by city officials who refused to accept a revision to
Oakland Patient Center's permit.
No other problems related to the dispensary's operation were reported by
the city.
The dispensary's troubles with the city began last year when its
majority owners, Steven and Stacie Petras, agreed to sell the dispensary
to Dona Frank in a deal that is being contested in the Superior Court of
Contra Costa County, where the business is registered. Under terms of
that deal, Frank became the operator of Oakland Patient Center and
inherited the responsibilities mandated under the city's permit,
including getting her name on the permit and paying a $30,000 annual
fee.
Gygax said Frank attempted to notify the city of the sale and have her
name placed on the permit but was not allowed to apply. Instead, Gygax
said, the city notified Frank and the Petrases that the city would hold
a hearing regarding revocation of the permit.
Sanchez said today that the city did not learn of the sale until after
it had occurred when the Petrases came to the city asking for help
resolving a dispute between them and Frank over the dispensary's sale.
At that point, Sanchez said, he was forced to revoke the permit because
the city learned the business had been sold without notification to the
city. Such notification is necessary, Sanchez said, to give the city an
opportunity to investigate the a new owner's background to ensure the
business would be legal.
"We cannot conceive of a situation where we want this to be a common
practice, so we have to take a zero-tolerance towards it," Sanchez said.
"There is a process, and Ms. Frank is looking to circumvent that
process."
Sanchez denied an ulterior motive to his decision and said there is no
other business that has inquired about receiving a permit to run a
dispensary. Even if there were, he said, he would not be the person to
decide who gets the permit.
Gygax said the city is mistaken in believing the dispensary's ownership
officially has changed. According to the sale agreement, each side has a
year to make the deal final, and it is dependent on both sides working
toward getting Frank's name on the permit.
"That is simply untrue," Gygax said. "The sale is not complete. The
contract shows it takes a year, and (Frank) has to be added to the
permit."
Although Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Rosech denied the
dispensary's request to stop the city from shutting down the business,
he gave the business an opportunity to provide more evidence during a
hearing next week.
In the meantime, Gygax said, the business will remain open.
Sanchez said the city has no immediate plans to force the business to
close but will begin issuing $1,000 a day fines against the Oakland
Patient Center for violation of city laws. Eventually, he said, the city
might be forced to shut down the operation.
"We may look at all of our options," he said.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Medical marijuana: A broken system
Twelve years after it was passed by voters with hope and empathy for
people in pain, Oregon's medical marijuana program is broken.
Marijuana activists say the law is turning innocent citizens into
criminals. Criminal justice officials say the program is turning illegal
drug dealers with large-scale marijuana farms into quasi-legitimate
business people the law can't touch.
That's primarily because the law allows physicians to sign
authorizations so patients can obtain medical marijuana cards — but
the law doesn't provide a way for most of those patients to actually
get their marijuana.
Under the law, cardholders can grow their own or designate a grower. But
many, especially the elderly, can't grow their own and don't
know anyone who will grow marijuana for them. And that puts them in the
same place as any teenage kid hoping for a high — they're
looking for a dealer.
"Somehow, patients need a place to get it without going to the black
market if they can't grow it themselves," says Madeline
Martinez, executive director of the Oregon chapter of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws — NORML. "The law
says it should be treated like any other medicine. We don't have
access to that medicine that we need, except on the black market."
Martinez started the Cannabis Café in Northeast Portland as a service
to those cardholders, she says. There are only two marijuana cafes in
the country, both in Portland, and Martinez says hers provides free
donated marijuana and a place to smoke it — for those who pay a
total of $60 for a $35 NORML membership fee, a $20 café membership
and a $5 cover charge.
"People get ripped off all the time," Martinez says. "They
look for somebody because they're desperate. They give drug dealers
money and never get their pot."
State police confirm that they get calls from cardholders reporting just
that scenario, but they don't have the manpower to follow up.
According to Lt. Michael Dingeman, longtime director of the Oregon State
Police drug enforcement section, many of those calls involve a slightly
different twist — cardholders designating established growers to
provide for them, but who never see their marijuana.
Dingeman says many growers are simply using the cardholders for cover,
and selling their crops on the black market. In fact, some county
sheriffs estimate that as much as one half of the illegal street
marijuana they're seeing is being grown under the protection of the
state's medical marijuana program.
All this is set against a backdrop of increasing public acceptance of
marijuana, a growing population of people who use the drug — both
legally and illegally — and one and possibly more state ballot
measures looming that could dramatically alter Oregon's political
and social landscape.
As of last month, 36,403 Oregonians held or were waiting final state
approval for medical marijuana cards. In the last year alone, close to
21,000 new applications for cards have been approved by physicians.
That's a far cry from the numbers anticipated when the medical
marijuana ballot measure was approved by voters in 1998.
"The way (the ballot measure) was sold was basically there's
this grandmother with cancer who can't keep any food down because
she's so nauseated with chemo, and there's this drug that can
(help)," says Josh Marquis, Clatsop County district attorney.
"The problem is it's being abused by people who just want to
smoke a doobie."
It certainly isn't old ladies and cancer patients anymore. Fewer
than 10 percent of the Oregonians who are cardholders are suffering from
cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma and the other ailments that were
given high profile 12 years ago. In fact, the heavy majority of
cardholders have pain relief listed as their condition (see
chart)(http://i717.photobucket.com/albums/ww179/pmgfoto/TRIBUNE/Picture2\
-6.jpg).
Operators of clinics where patients can see a doctor who will recommend
them for a state-issued medical marijuana card say the average age of
their patients is closer to 45 than 75.
But many in law enforcement don't think the primary abuse of the
state's medical marijuana laws comes from recreational smokers. They
worry about the cover the medical marijuana program offers illegal
growers and dealers.
Cornelius resident Robin Sawyer figures cops are estimating low when
they say 50 percent of black market marijuana is grown under protection
of the medical marijuana act. Sawyer is not a police officer, just a
51-year-old truck driver who had a frustrating one-year experience with
medical marijuana.
A few years ago, a truck Sawyer was driving was hit by a train in
Montana, leaving him with a variety of neurological ills. Pharmaceutical
pain relief left him addicted to morphine. In 2008, he decided to apply
for a medical marijuana card.
Ten minutes with a doctor who reviewed his medical records at a Portland
medical marijuana clinic cost him $180 and yielded an authorization for
his card.
"The doctor walked up to me and said, `You're qualified,
congratulations,' " Sawyer recalls. "It became apparent that
people who hold cards seemed to be in some exclusive pot club."
That, Sawyer says, was the easy part. As a cardholder, he spent a year
unsuccessfully trying to get marijuana to relieve his pain. He talked to
other card holders; he even posted online for a grower to help him. And
he spoke to a number of growers — just not growers interested in
providing him with marijuana free of charge.
Some growers said they'd use his card, and maybe give him a small
amount. But all, he says, made it clear that they were in business to
sell marijuana on the black market, and that's where most of their
crop would go, for upwards of $200 an ounce.
"These guys don't want to grow for medical marijuana. They want
to grow for money," Sawyer says.
A few acquaintances eventually gave Sawyer a small amount of marijuana
but he found it didn't seem to help his pain. At the end of a year
he didn't bother to renew his medical marijuana card.
people in pain, Oregon's medical marijuana program is broken.
Marijuana activists say the law is turning innocent citizens into
criminals. Criminal justice officials say the program is turning illegal
drug dealers with large-scale marijuana farms into quasi-legitimate
business people the law can't touch.
That's primarily because the law allows physicians to sign
authorizations so patients can obtain medical marijuana cards — but
the law doesn't provide a way for most of those patients to actually
get their marijuana.
Under the law, cardholders can grow their own or designate a grower. But
many, especially the elderly, can't grow their own and don't
know anyone who will grow marijuana for them. And that puts them in the
same place as any teenage kid hoping for a high — they're
looking for a dealer.
"Somehow, patients need a place to get it without going to the black
market if they can't grow it themselves," says Madeline
Martinez, executive director of the Oregon chapter of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws — NORML. "The law
says it should be treated like any other medicine. We don't have
access to that medicine that we need, except on the black market."
Martinez started the Cannabis Café in Northeast Portland as a service
to those cardholders, she says. There are only two marijuana cafes in
the country, both in Portland, and Martinez says hers provides free
donated marijuana and a place to smoke it — for those who pay a
total of $60 for a $35 NORML membership fee, a $20 café membership
and a $5 cover charge.
"People get ripped off all the time," Martinez says. "They
look for somebody because they're desperate. They give drug dealers
money and never get their pot."
State police confirm that they get calls from cardholders reporting just
that scenario, but they don't have the manpower to follow up.
According to Lt. Michael Dingeman, longtime director of the Oregon State
Police drug enforcement section, many of those calls involve a slightly
different twist — cardholders designating established growers to
provide for them, but who never see their marijuana.
Dingeman says many growers are simply using the cardholders for cover,
and selling their crops on the black market. In fact, some county
sheriffs estimate that as much as one half of the illegal street
marijuana they're seeing is being grown under the protection of the
state's medical marijuana program.
All this is set against a backdrop of increasing public acceptance of
marijuana, a growing population of people who use the drug — both
legally and illegally — and one and possibly more state ballot
measures looming that could dramatically alter Oregon's political
and social landscape.
As of last month, 36,403 Oregonians held or were waiting final state
approval for medical marijuana cards. In the last year alone, close to
21,000 new applications for cards have been approved by physicians.
That's a far cry from the numbers anticipated when the medical
marijuana ballot measure was approved by voters in 1998.
"The way (the ballot measure) was sold was basically there's
this grandmother with cancer who can't keep any food down because
she's so nauseated with chemo, and there's this drug that can
(help)," says Josh Marquis, Clatsop County district attorney.
"The problem is it's being abused by people who just want to
smoke a doobie."
It certainly isn't old ladies and cancer patients anymore. Fewer
than 10 percent of the Oregonians who are cardholders are suffering from
cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma and the other ailments that were
given high profile 12 years ago. In fact, the heavy majority of
cardholders have pain relief listed as their condition (see
chart)(http://i717.photobucket.com/albums/ww179/pmgfoto/TRIBUNE/Picture2\
-6.jpg).
Operators of clinics where patients can see a doctor who will recommend
them for a state-issued medical marijuana card say the average age of
their patients is closer to 45 than 75.
But many in law enforcement don't think the primary abuse of the
state's medical marijuana laws comes from recreational smokers. They
worry about the cover the medical marijuana program offers illegal
growers and dealers.
Cornelius resident Robin Sawyer figures cops are estimating low when
they say 50 percent of black market marijuana is grown under protection
of the medical marijuana act. Sawyer is not a police officer, just a
51-year-old truck driver who had a frustrating one-year experience with
medical marijuana.
A few years ago, a truck Sawyer was driving was hit by a train in
Montana, leaving him with a variety of neurological ills. Pharmaceutical
pain relief left him addicted to morphine. In 2008, he decided to apply
for a medical marijuana card.
Ten minutes with a doctor who reviewed his medical records at a Portland
medical marijuana clinic cost him $180 and yielded an authorization for
his card.
"The doctor walked up to me and said, `You're qualified,
congratulations,' " Sawyer recalls. "It became apparent that
people who hold cards seemed to be in some exclusive pot club."
That, Sawyer says, was the easy part. As a cardholder, he spent a year
unsuccessfully trying to get marijuana to relieve his pain. He talked to
other card holders; he even posted online for a grower to help him. And
he spoke to a number of growers — just not growers interested in
providing him with marijuana free of charge.
Some growers said they'd use his card, and maybe give him a small
amount. But all, he says, made it clear that they were in business to
sell marijuana on the black market, and that's where most of their
crop would go, for upwards of $200 an ounce.
"These guys don't want to grow for medical marijuana. They want
to grow for money," Sawyer says.
A few acquaintances eventually gave Sawyer a small amount of marijuana
but he found it didn't seem to help his pain. At the end of a year
he didn't bother to renew his medical marijuana card.
Fear and loathing in Eagle Rock
They had all the momentum; riding the crest of a high and beautiful
wave, so to speak. But in a little less than two months, dispensary
operators in Eagle Rock, where the medical marijuana trade has reached a
high-water mark, may see that wave finally break and roll back.
For the past two years, dispensaries have flourished in this northeast
corner of Los Angeles as part of a grand and unofficial experiment that
tested both the limits of the law and perception — one that will for
the most part end under the city's new medical marijuana ordinance.
A community of just 34,000 souls, Eagle Rock has seen the number of
dispensaries double to about 20 since 2007, which some observers say is
as much due to dispensary bans in adjacent Pasadena and Glendale as it
is to a legal loophole big enough to stick a blunt through that allowed
dispensaries to open despite a moratorium throughout Los Angeles.
But even as a crackdown appears imminent, evidenced by what some call
the overzealous antics of the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office,
which in January won an unprecedented injunction to shut down one Eagle
Rock collective, there's a rising sentiment that the ordinance will
only make matters worse for dispensary operators, their patients and the
community.
"It seems like this ordinance will have a negative impact on Eagle
Rock and every other area of Los Angeles, because if the collectives
don't serve the patients, we're very worried the black market
will fill in," said attorney Stewart Richlin, who represents about
200 Southern California dispensaries.
There's even fear among some community leaders that the ordinance,
which will prohibit dispensaries from operating within 1,000 feet of
schools, churches, rehabs, homes and other so-called "sensitive
uses," will force dispensaries and their patients into undesirable
commercial or industrial areas where crime festers.
"That doesn't strike me as humane, reasonable or in any way in
the spirit of the law," said Stephan Early, president of the Eagle
Rock Neighborhood Council.
The ordinance also ultimately seeks to reduce the Los Angeles'
bounty of 700-plus dispensaries to 70, which Early likened to city
officials cutting bait in what could be a sizeable revenue stream for a
city budget riddled with deficit.
"It seems amazing to me that we have draconian budget cuts to
education and all city services and, on the other hand, we have a river
of unaccounted money," Early said.
But still others say any action to reduce the number of dispensaries is
welcome in a community that for too long has lived with what — in
the opinion of Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley —
amounts to illegal drug sales that tarnish the community's image,
said Michael Larsen, the Neighborhood Council's safety director.
Too weird to live, too rare to die
In September 2007, nearly 11 years after California voters approved the
use of marijuana for medical purposes, the Los Angeles City Council
passed an interim ordinance that placed a moratorium on new dispensaries
beyond the 186 already in operation at the time. But one section of that
law — and a general lack of enforcement — allowed hundreds of
new dispensaries to open across LA after claiming a hardship exemption.
Eagle Rock was no exception. About three-quarters of the dispensaries
now in operation there either claimed a hardship exemption, opened after
the council denied the exemption or simply flung open their doors
despite the ordinance, testing LA City Attorney Carmen Trutanich's
contention that retail sales are not permitted under state law. In
January, the council eventually removed the hardship exemption at the
request of Councilman Jose Huizar, who represents Eagle Rock.
A month later, a judge struck down an extension of the interim ordinance
that the council passed over the summer, but county and city officials
vowed to continue their crackdown.
That they did when one collective, Hemp Factory V, quietly opened on
Colorado Boulevard last year after its exemption was denied. A judge
granted the city attorney an injunction in January blocking sales at the
location under state drug laws, as well as under another law requiring
proper labeling of food, drugs and cosmetics. Lawsuits against other
dispensaries in other parts of the city followed, multiple eviction
letters went out from landlords renting to dispensaries, and a few
operators were carted off to jail for what authorities called illegal
marijuana sales.
If Eagle Rock's dispensary operators fear they may be next,
they're keeping quiet about it; none of the dispensaries operating
in alleged violation of the interim ordinance would comment for this
report. But other operators rue the day the other shoe may drop.
"On our side, we don't have to worry about anything," said
Pastor Garcia, manager of Colorado Quality Pain Relief Collective,
adding that the outlet is one of the 186 that will be eligible to
register with the city once the ordinance takes effect. "But I
don't want to see any other collectives shut down. We're in a
recession and we're losing jobs. It doesn't make sense."
Technical questions abound as to how the city will actually reduce the
number of dispensaries. Larsen, of the Neighborhood Council, said he has
suspicions that much of it will be a police response. "I think it
has been very frustrating for all of the enforcement agencies to stand
by and not have any ordinance or law to stand on as far as
enforcement," Larsen said.
While approved, the ordinance will not take effect until the City
Council OKs about $1,200 in fees dispensary owners must pay to operate.
Council members could act on those fees Friday. The ordinance would take
effect about a month after that.
However, Americans for Safe Access, an Oakland-based nonprofit backing
sensible medical marijuana policy since a spat of federal raids on
patients in 2002, and two collectives asked a judge in March to declare
it unconstitutional. The judge has yet to rule.
Greener horizons
Even with new regulations in place, the Neighborhood Council's Early
doubts the world of medical marijuana will become any less hazy.
"Part of the problem is the ambiguity of the law and the lack of
reasonable legal guidelines," Early said. "But all of that kind
of becomes moot, because in November we're going to vote on whether
it should be legal."
Indeed, Californians will get their say on the issue by way of the
Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 on the November ballot.
If it passes, the initiative will allow adults 21 and over to posses an
ounce of pot and cultivate the herb in a 25 square-foot area, while
letting local governments tax sales.
While law enforcement groups say legalization would only add to existing
societal woes, supporters say it is clear that the herb is safer and has
less of an impact than alcohol. Plus, added Garcia, "California
needs cannabis to at least help out the budget."
wave, so to speak. But in a little less than two months, dispensary
operators in Eagle Rock, where the medical marijuana trade has reached a
high-water mark, may see that wave finally break and roll back.
For the past two years, dispensaries have flourished in this northeast
corner of Los Angeles as part of a grand and unofficial experiment that
tested both the limits of the law and perception — one that will for
the most part end under the city's new medical marijuana ordinance.
A community of just 34,000 souls, Eagle Rock has seen the number of
dispensaries double to about 20 since 2007, which some observers say is
as much due to dispensary bans in adjacent Pasadena and Glendale as it
is to a legal loophole big enough to stick a blunt through that allowed
dispensaries to open despite a moratorium throughout Los Angeles.
But even as a crackdown appears imminent, evidenced by what some call
the overzealous antics of the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office,
which in January won an unprecedented injunction to shut down one Eagle
Rock collective, there's a rising sentiment that the ordinance will
only make matters worse for dispensary operators, their patients and the
community.
"It seems like this ordinance will have a negative impact on Eagle
Rock and every other area of Los Angeles, because if the collectives
don't serve the patients, we're very worried the black market
will fill in," said attorney Stewart Richlin, who represents about
200 Southern California dispensaries.
There's even fear among some community leaders that the ordinance,
which will prohibit dispensaries from operating within 1,000 feet of
schools, churches, rehabs, homes and other so-called "sensitive
uses," will force dispensaries and their patients into undesirable
commercial or industrial areas where crime festers.
"That doesn't strike me as humane, reasonable or in any way in
the spirit of the law," said Stephan Early, president of the Eagle
Rock Neighborhood Council.
The ordinance also ultimately seeks to reduce the Los Angeles'
bounty of 700-plus dispensaries to 70, which Early likened to city
officials cutting bait in what could be a sizeable revenue stream for a
city budget riddled with deficit.
"It seems amazing to me that we have draconian budget cuts to
education and all city services and, on the other hand, we have a river
of unaccounted money," Early said.
But still others say any action to reduce the number of dispensaries is
welcome in a community that for too long has lived with what — in
the opinion of Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley —
amounts to illegal drug sales that tarnish the community's image,
said Michael Larsen, the Neighborhood Council's safety director.
Too weird to live, too rare to die
In September 2007, nearly 11 years after California voters approved the
use of marijuana for medical purposes, the Los Angeles City Council
passed an interim ordinance that placed a moratorium on new dispensaries
beyond the 186 already in operation at the time. But one section of that
law — and a general lack of enforcement — allowed hundreds of
new dispensaries to open across LA after claiming a hardship exemption.
Eagle Rock was no exception. About three-quarters of the dispensaries
now in operation there either claimed a hardship exemption, opened after
the council denied the exemption or simply flung open their doors
despite the ordinance, testing LA City Attorney Carmen Trutanich's
contention that retail sales are not permitted under state law. In
January, the council eventually removed the hardship exemption at the
request of Councilman Jose Huizar, who represents Eagle Rock.
A month later, a judge struck down an extension of the interim ordinance
that the council passed over the summer, but county and city officials
vowed to continue their crackdown.
That they did when one collective, Hemp Factory V, quietly opened on
Colorado Boulevard last year after its exemption was denied. A judge
granted the city attorney an injunction in January blocking sales at the
location under state drug laws, as well as under another law requiring
proper labeling of food, drugs and cosmetics. Lawsuits against other
dispensaries in other parts of the city followed, multiple eviction
letters went out from landlords renting to dispensaries, and a few
operators were carted off to jail for what authorities called illegal
marijuana sales.
If Eagle Rock's dispensary operators fear they may be next,
they're keeping quiet about it; none of the dispensaries operating
in alleged violation of the interim ordinance would comment for this
report. But other operators rue the day the other shoe may drop.
"On our side, we don't have to worry about anything," said
Pastor Garcia, manager of Colorado Quality Pain Relief Collective,
adding that the outlet is one of the 186 that will be eligible to
register with the city once the ordinance takes effect. "But I
don't want to see any other collectives shut down. We're in a
recession and we're losing jobs. It doesn't make sense."
Technical questions abound as to how the city will actually reduce the
number of dispensaries. Larsen, of the Neighborhood Council, said he has
suspicions that much of it will be a police response. "I think it
has been very frustrating for all of the enforcement agencies to stand
by and not have any ordinance or law to stand on as far as
enforcement," Larsen said.
While approved, the ordinance will not take effect until the City
Council OKs about $1,200 in fees dispensary owners must pay to operate.
Council members could act on those fees Friday. The ordinance would take
effect about a month after that.
However, Americans for Safe Access, an Oakland-based nonprofit backing
sensible medical marijuana policy since a spat of federal raids on
patients in 2002, and two collectives asked a judge in March to declare
it unconstitutional. The judge has yet to rule.
Greener horizons
Even with new regulations in place, the Neighborhood Council's Early
doubts the world of medical marijuana will become any less hazy.
"Part of the problem is the ambiguity of the law and the lack of
reasonable legal guidelines," Early said. "But all of that kind
of becomes moot, because in November we're going to vote on whether
it should be legal."
Indeed, Californians will get their say on the issue by way of the
Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 on the November ballot.
If it passes, the initiative will allow adults 21 and over to posses an
ounce of pot and cultivate the herb in a 25 square-foot area, while
letting local governments tax sales.
While law enforcement groups say legalization would only add to existing
societal woes, supporters say it is clear that the herb is safer and has
less of an impact than alcohol. Plus, added Garcia, "California
needs cannabis to at least help out the budget."
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Marijuana legalization is on the way
The 30 marijuana plants are ready for harvest. Sunning themselves under
grow lights in a room lined with white plastic, they are a lush green,
with not a dead leaf on them. Their fist-sized buds bend each stem
downward like branches laden with snow.
The secret grow operation supplies one of Seattle's oldest
medical-marijuana dispensaries, Compassion in Action, in a Seattle
industrial zone in a building with no sign. It offers marijuana smoking
mixture, oil, cookies, peanut brittle and Rice Krispies bars to 3,300
patients.
Each patient has a letter from a physician certifying that he has
multiple sclerosis, AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, intractable pain or one of
the other conditions named in Washington law.
The dispensary has been here five years, and was in other places before
that. Founder and longtime leader Dale Rogers says police and
prosecutors know where it is.
The feds, too?
"I'm sure the feds know," he says. "Public officials know I'm trying to
do this in good faith."
Originally Rogers kept no business records. It was too risky. In the
past two years he has hired an accountant, put his growers on salary and
begun reporting their pay to the IRS. He says controlling payments to
growers allowed him to lower prices by $100 an ounce.
The operation is set up as a not-for-profit co-op. Appearances seem to
confirm this. I see no gold chains or fancy cars. An employee jokes that
Rogers owns only three pairs of pants.
Other dispensaries are more frankly commercial, some of them supplied
from California.
"The California guys are entrepreneurs," says the co-op's attorney,
Douglas Hiatt. "We're socialists, compared to those guys."
The whole ecosystem of medical marijuana here, cooperative and
capitalist, operates under an umbrella of black-market prices that is
not sustainable. Already dispensaries are operating openly in Los
Angeles under the green cross, and in other places: I saw one two weeks
ago in Garberville, along the Redwood Highway. In November, Californians
will vote on a statewide ballot measure for full legalization.
Legalize marijuana, and the world-class farmers of the San Joaquin
Valley will be cultivating hemp in big, flat, open fields. No one will
have to pay $400 an ounce — and the grow-light guys will be gone.
The Humboldt County entrepreneurs, with their small, secret plots in the
woods, will fold up — which is why they are now passing out bumper
stickers saying "Keep Pot Illegal."
When it comes, legalization in California will lower prices here. So
would Washington Initiative 1068, a measure sponsored by Hiatt and
others that may be on the statewide ballot here in November.
Then what? "Everyone worries about Philip Morris coming in," says Vivian
McPeak, director of Seattle Hempfest. "But you can't hold freedom back
for that reason."
The recent invasion and shooting at a marijuana grow operation raises
another issue: security. "We're entering into a very scary, unstable
time," says Rogers, who wants no part of gangland rule, either as a
business operator or a patient.
Rogers, who uses marijuana to keep his AIDS medicine down and his
appetite up, has worked for years for the social changes that are now
happening. They will change the world of his growers and his "socialist"
cooperative. Nevertheless, he says, "I'm calling for full legalization,
and taxing."
grow lights in a room lined with white plastic, they are a lush green,
with not a dead leaf on them. Their fist-sized buds bend each stem
downward like branches laden with snow.
The secret grow operation supplies one of Seattle's oldest
medical-marijuana dispensaries, Compassion in Action, in a Seattle
industrial zone in a building with no sign. It offers marijuana smoking
mixture, oil, cookies, peanut brittle and Rice Krispies bars to 3,300
patients.
Each patient has a letter from a physician certifying that he has
multiple sclerosis, AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, intractable pain or one of
the other conditions named in Washington law.
The dispensary has been here five years, and was in other places before
that. Founder and longtime leader Dale Rogers says police and
prosecutors know where it is.
The feds, too?
"I'm sure the feds know," he says. "Public officials know I'm trying to
do this in good faith."
Originally Rogers kept no business records. It was too risky. In the
past two years he has hired an accountant, put his growers on salary and
begun reporting their pay to the IRS. He says controlling payments to
growers allowed him to lower prices by $100 an ounce.
The operation is set up as a not-for-profit co-op. Appearances seem to
confirm this. I see no gold chains or fancy cars. An employee jokes that
Rogers owns only three pairs of pants.
Other dispensaries are more frankly commercial, some of them supplied
from California.
"The California guys are entrepreneurs," says the co-op's attorney,
Douglas Hiatt. "We're socialists, compared to those guys."
The whole ecosystem of medical marijuana here, cooperative and
capitalist, operates under an umbrella of black-market prices that is
not sustainable. Already dispensaries are operating openly in Los
Angeles under the green cross, and in other places: I saw one two weeks
ago in Garberville, along the Redwood Highway. In November, Californians
will vote on a statewide ballot measure for full legalization.
Legalize marijuana, and the world-class farmers of the San Joaquin
Valley will be cultivating hemp in big, flat, open fields. No one will
have to pay $400 an ounce — and the grow-light guys will be gone.
The Humboldt County entrepreneurs, with their small, secret plots in the
woods, will fold up — which is why they are now passing out bumper
stickers saying "Keep Pot Illegal."
When it comes, legalization in California will lower prices here. So
would Washington Initiative 1068, a measure sponsored by Hiatt and
others that may be on the statewide ballot here in November.
Then what? "Everyone worries about Philip Morris coming in," says Vivian
McPeak, director of Seattle Hempfest. "But you can't hold freedom back
for that reason."
The recent invasion and shooting at a marijuana grow operation raises
another issue: security. "We're entering into a very scary, unstable
time," says Rogers, who wants no part of gangland rule, either as a
business operator or a patient.
Rogers, who uses marijuana to keep his AIDS medicine down and his
appetite up, has worked for years for the social changes that are now
happening. They will change the world of his growers and his "socialist"
cooperative. Nevertheless, he says, "I'm calling for full legalization,
and taxing."
Protesters Gather in Support of Legalizing Marijuana
GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) - Several protesters gathered outside the
Guilford County Courthouse on Tuesday evening in support of a bill to
legalize medical marijuana.
The purpose of the protest was to educate people on House Bill 1380
(http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2009/Bills/House/HTML/H1380v1.html\
), a bill which would allow doctors to prescribe marijuana to patients.
Harold Watts said he uses marijuana for a medical condition and wants to
educate the public on how the drug helps those who are suffering with
chronic illnesses or pains.
"I use it for a medical condition. I have post-traumatic stress
disorder, and add an eating disorder, and it's hard keeping food down,"
said Watts.
Watts was recently caught growing marijuana at his home. Deputies came
to his home and took his plants and lights. Watts came to the Guilford
County Jail on Wednesday to turn himself in but the magistrate's office
told him a warrant has not been issued.
"I want to see my day in court. I think the judge of Guilford County
would be interested in seeing what's going on," said Watts. "I don't
think it's right or moral for people to get arrested when trying to
medicate extreme pain or suffering."
House Bill 1380, introduced by State Representative Earl Jones, would
allow doctors to prescribe marijuana to patients. While the bill is
controversial, Jones believes people are becoming more educated on the
subject and hopes the bill will eventually pass.
"I'm optimistic. The polls have jumped 30 percent when I first filed it
over a year ago to 63 percent statewide," said Jones.
The bill is currently in the Health Committee of the House. State Rep.
Jones says he does not think the bill will pass in short session but
thinks it could pass next year.
Guilford County Courthouse on Tuesday evening in support of a bill to
legalize medical marijuana.
The purpose of the protest was to educate people on House Bill 1380
(http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2009/Bills/House/HTML/H1380v1.html\
), a bill which would allow doctors to prescribe marijuana to patients.
Harold Watts said he uses marijuana for a medical condition and wants to
educate the public on how the drug helps those who are suffering with
chronic illnesses or pains.
"I use it for a medical condition. I have post-traumatic stress
disorder, and add an eating disorder, and it's hard keeping food down,"
said Watts.
Watts was recently caught growing marijuana at his home. Deputies came
to his home and took his plants and lights. Watts came to the Guilford
County Jail on Wednesday to turn himself in but the magistrate's office
told him a warrant has not been issued.
"I want to see my day in court. I think the judge of Guilford County
would be interested in seeing what's going on," said Watts. "I don't
think it's right or moral for people to get arrested when trying to
medicate extreme pain or suffering."
House Bill 1380, introduced by State Representative Earl Jones, would
allow doctors to prescribe marijuana to patients. While the bill is
controversial, Jones believes people are becoming more educated on the
subject and hopes the bill will eventually pass.
"I'm optimistic. The polls have jumped 30 percent when I first filed it
over a year ago to 63 percent statewide," said Jones.
The bill is currently in the Health Committee of the House. State Rep.
Jones says he does not think the bill will pass in short session but
thinks it could pass next year.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Oppose AB 2650 - Act fast to protect patients' access
"On Tuesday, the California Assembly Committee on Public Health will
discuss AB 2650, bill that would require that medical cannabis
collectives, cooperatives, and growers be located at least 1,000 feet
away from a laundry list of "sensitive uses" everywhere in the
state. The bill was introduced unexpectedly this week by Assembly Member
Joan Buchanan (D-Alamo). AB 2650 is sponsored by the Peace Officers
Research Association of California (PORCA), a law enforcement lobby
organization that opposes medical cannabis, and mirrors a controversial
ordinance recently adopted in the City of Los Angeles.
ASA opposes AB 2650, and we are calling on our members in California to
tell their Assembly representatives on the committee to vote no. Find
out if your Assembly representative is on the Public Health Committee,
and tell him or her to oppose AB 2650!..."
Read the entire post with links at http://safeaccessnow.org/blog/?p=697
discuss AB 2650, bill that would require that medical cannabis
collectives, cooperatives, and growers be located at least 1,000 feet
away from a laundry list of "sensitive uses" everywhere in the
state. The bill was introduced unexpectedly this week by Assembly Member
Joan Buchanan (D-Alamo). AB 2650 is sponsored by the Peace Officers
Research Association of California (PORCA), a law enforcement lobby
organization that opposes medical cannabis, and mirrors a controversial
ordinance recently adopted in the City of Los Angeles.
ASA opposes AB 2650, and we are calling on our members in California to
tell their Assembly representatives on the committee to vote no. Find
out if your Assembly representative is on the Public Health Committee,
and tell him or her to oppose AB 2650!..."
Read the entire post with links at http://safeaccessnow.org/blog/?p=697
Medicinal marijuana a vote away in Illinois
CHICAGO (WBBM) -- Medicinal marijuana is one vote away from possibly
becoming law in Illinois.
The measure's chief sponsor, State Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), said
Saturday that he is working behind the scenes to line up the needed
votes, and is waiting for the right moment to call it for a vote in the
Illinois House.
If approved and signed into law by Gov. Pat Quinn, Illinois would become
the 15th state to allow medicinal use of marijuana, which has been
criminalized in Illinois since the 1930s.
Lang claimed that privately, more than 90 members of the House support
the bill. But he said nearly 40 refuse to vote for it because of fears
about political fallout.
The bill would allow those who obtain a doctor's prescription and state
licensing to own three marijuana plants.
"It requires them to get a license from the Illinois Dept. of Public
health, which would monitor and license each person, and it provides
strict penalties for those who break the law, or use the marijuana and
drive, or try to sell it or distribute it," Lang said.
Lang said studies have shown repeatedly that marijuana is not addictive
and that someone cannot overdose using it. He said that, as a result, it
makes a lot more sense in the treatment of chronic pain than Oxycontin
or Vicodin, both of which are addictive and can kill.
The bill has the support of Illinois Public Health Advocate Dr. Quentin
Young, who is also Quinn's personal physician.
"The medical profession has no controversy on this, to speak of," Dr.
Young said.
During a news conference at the James R. Thompson Center, a woman who
has had multiple sclerosis for more than 20 years, Julie Falco, said
marijuana use has not only relieved pain, it has "saved my life."
"I was released from debilitating depression and chronic pharmaceutical
side effects that almost led me to take my own life," she said.
The bill won approval in the Illinois Senate 30-28 more than 10 months
ago, and won approval 4-3 in the Illinois House Human Services Committee
and 3-2 in the Rules Committee. Lang said he has been promised a vote by
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) if he can muster the
needed votes.
becoming law in Illinois.
The measure's chief sponsor, State Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), said
Saturday that he is working behind the scenes to line up the needed
votes, and is waiting for the right moment to call it for a vote in the
Illinois House.
If approved and signed into law by Gov. Pat Quinn, Illinois would become
the 15th state to allow medicinal use of marijuana, which has been
criminalized in Illinois since the 1930s.
Lang claimed that privately, more than 90 members of the House support
the bill. But he said nearly 40 refuse to vote for it because of fears
about political fallout.
The bill would allow those who obtain a doctor's prescription and state
licensing to own three marijuana plants.
"It requires them to get a license from the Illinois Dept. of Public
health, which would monitor and license each person, and it provides
strict penalties for those who break the law, or use the marijuana and
drive, or try to sell it or distribute it," Lang said.
Lang said studies have shown repeatedly that marijuana is not addictive
and that someone cannot overdose using it. He said that, as a result, it
makes a lot more sense in the treatment of chronic pain than Oxycontin
or Vicodin, both of which are addictive and can kill.
The bill has the support of Illinois Public Health Advocate Dr. Quentin
Young, who is also Quinn's personal physician.
"The medical profession has no controversy on this, to speak of," Dr.
Young said.
During a news conference at the James R. Thompson Center, a woman who
has had multiple sclerosis for more than 20 years, Julie Falco, said
marijuana use has not only relieved pain, it has "saved my life."
"I was released from debilitating depression and chronic pharmaceutical
side effects that almost led me to take my own life," she said.
The bill won approval in the Illinois Senate 30-28 more than 10 months
ago, and won approval 4-3 in the Illinois House Human Services Committee
and 3-2 in the Rules Committee. Lang said he has been promised a vote by
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) if he can muster the
needed votes.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Berkeley Looks at New Medical Marijuana Regulations
Berkeley might soon start resembling the fictitious city of Agrestic
featured in the hit TV series "Weeds," where a widowed young
mother bakes pot cookies at home to make ends meet.
Except, there would be nothing illegal about it.
Berkeley's Medical Cannabis Commission is considering a proposition
that would allow all three of the city's medical marijuana
dispensaries to expand beyond retail space to grow cannabis and bake
marijuana-laced cookies and brownies in residential and commercial
properties
If this sounds like a belated April Fool's joke, it's not. The
commission is expected to bring the proposal before the Berkeley City
Council on April 27.
A related proposal from the commission would allow medical marijuana
patient groups to grow cannabis or bake marijuana goods inside their
homes or commercial spaces and sell them to medical marijuana clinics.
The idea is not to turn Berkeley into "pot heaven," but
according to the Medical Cannabis Commission, regulate the quality of
the grown and baked cannabis goods being sold at dispensaries throughout
the city.
The city is currently contemplating taxing medical cannabis clinics
based on their square footage to increase revenue, a move some advocates
of medical marijuana view as a bit extreme.
However, most of them said Wednesday that they approved of the new
regulations being proposed.
"We definitely like it," said Brad Senesac, director of
communications for the Berkeley Patients Group, which is getting ready
to move from its tiny space on San Pablo Avenue to the Scharffen Berger
candy factory a few blocks away. "We think it will make things
better—there will be more policies and procedures in place. Right
now you have collectives of patients who grow or make marijuana goods
but it's not regulated by the city's health department."
Most medical cannabis clubs in Berkeley work with specific vendors who
have "quality spaces" to grow and develop marijuana products,
but "we want more regulation," Senesac said. "We want the
products to be certified."
Senesac said the Berkeley Patients Group discussed the proposals with
several other dispensaries as well as city officials.
"With the small space we have right now, we don't have a bakery
or a commercial grow area," he said. "We barely have room for a
dispensary or social services."
The Berkeley Patients Group offers therapy, massages and free food and
drink and sells products such as cannabis flowers, extracts, oils,
chocolates, teas, lemonade and topical ointments.
Councilmember Kriss Worthington, a staunch advocate of medical
marijuana, said that new regulations would clear any ambiguity
associated with vendors growing marijuana or selling goods made from it.
Worthington said that although state Proposition 215 allowed people to
grow small quantities of marijuana at home, "it's a weird thing
legally."
"The clubs have a permit to dispense it to their patients, but
it's sort of a gray area where the cannabis can be grown before
coming to the dispensary," he said. "We need to figure out a way
to provide legal protection to the people who are providing it to the
dispensary."
Meanwhile, Berkeley's neighboring cities like Richmond and Walnut
Creek are cracking down on cannabis clinics and imposing hefty fines on
them.
featured in the hit TV series "Weeds," where a widowed young
mother bakes pot cookies at home to make ends meet.
Except, there would be nothing illegal about it.
Berkeley's Medical Cannabis Commission is considering a proposition
that would allow all three of the city's medical marijuana
dispensaries to expand beyond retail space to grow cannabis and bake
marijuana-laced cookies and brownies in residential and commercial
properties
If this sounds like a belated April Fool's joke, it's not. The
commission is expected to bring the proposal before the Berkeley City
Council on April 27.
A related proposal from the commission would allow medical marijuana
patient groups to grow cannabis or bake marijuana goods inside their
homes or commercial spaces and sell them to medical marijuana clinics.
The idea is not to turn Berkeley into "pot heaven," but
according to the Medical Cannabis Commission, regulate the quality of
the grown and baked cannabis goods being sold at dispensaries throughout
the city.
The city is currently contemplating taxing medical cannabis clinics
based on their square footage to increase revenue, a move some advocates
of medical marijuana view as a bit extreme.
However, most of them said Wednesday that they approved of the new
regulations being proposed.
"We definitely like it," said Brad Senesac, director of
communications for the Berkeley Patients Group, which is getting ready
to move from its tiny space on San Pablo Avenue to the Scharffen Berger
candy factory a few blocks away. "We think it will make things
better—there will be more policies and procedures in place. Right
now you have collectives of patients who grow or make marijuana goods
but it's not regulated by the city's health department."
Most medical cannabis clubs in Berkeley work with specific vendors who
have "quality spaces" to grow and develop marijuana products,
but "we want more regulation," Senesac said. "We want the
products to be certified."
Senesac said the Berkeley Patients Group discussed the proposals with
several other dispensaries as well as city officials.
"With the small space we have right now, we don't have a bakery
or a commercial grow area," he said. "We barely have room for a
dispensary or social services."
The Berkeley Patients Group offers therapy, massages and free food and
drink and sells products such as cannabis flowers, extracts, oils,
chocolates, teas, lemonade and topical ointments.
Councilmember Kriss Worthington, a staunch advocate of medical
marijuana, said that new regulations would clear any ambiguity
associated with vendors growing marijuana or selling goods made from it.
Worthington said that although state Proposition 215 allowed people to
grow small quantities of marijuana at home, "it's a weird thing
legally."
"The clubs have a permit to dispense it to their patients, but
it's sort of a gray area where the cannabis can be grown before
coming to the dispensary," he said. "We need to figure out a way
to provide legal protection to the people who are providing it to the
dispensary."
Meanwhile, Berkeley's neighboring cities like Richmond and Walnut
Creek are cracking down on cannabis clinics and imposing hefty fines on
them.
Sacramento judge sentences medical pot traveler to jail
A medical marijuana user convicted of transporting 3 pounds of pot at
Sacramento International Airport was sentenced to 120 days in jail
Thursday and ordered not to travel in California with more than 1 ounce
of pot.
In imposing sentence on Matthew Zugsberger, 34, of Mendocino County,
Sacramento Superior Court Judge Roland Candee settled for well less than
the maximum of four years in prison.
Zugsberger has been in custody for 33 days and could be out in 27 days
with time off for good behavior.
A former deep-sea diver, he was convicted March 9 of illegally
transporting pot duct-taped in a scuba suit and packed in a metal
dominoes container. He also was carrying a stash of pot in his pants as
he prepared to board a flight to New Orleans in December 2008.
Candee said Zugsberger was carrying an amount that exceeded any
reasonable personal use.
"It's really clear from the testimony that this is not a personal-use
case," Candee said.
The judge ordered Zugsberger placed on five years' probation and said he
must seek approval from his probation officer to carry more than 28
grams of marijuana.
Candee also barred Zugsberger from transporting any marijuana into or
out of California.
His order means that Zugsberger cannot carry the same amount in the
state as other medical pot users.
In 2003, Gov. Gray Davis signed a law permitting people with medical
marijuana recommendations to possess six mature or 12 immature plants
and 8 ounces of dried marijuana.
Those limits were thrown out last month by the California Supreme Court.
However, local authorities still can detain patients found with more
than 8 ounces if they suspect illegal activity.
Aaron Smith, California director of the Marijuana Policy Project, which
advocates rolling back marijuana laws, said he was surprised that the
judge set a standard for Zugsberger well below the 2003 state limit.
"It seems kind of arbitrary and capricious," Smith said. "I would think
the figure should at least be more consistent with what his medical
needs are and at least be set at the state threshold. I haven't heard of
anything like that."
Zugsberger, who suffered crushed vertebrae and other injuries while
working on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, entered court using a cane
and limping badly.
His attorney, Grant Pegg, said Zugsberger had "lost a lot of weight"
while in custody. He requested that Zugsberger be released immediately
on "medical furlough."
Candee denied the request.
Zugsberger didn't speak in court, other than to answer, "Yes, sir," to
the judge.
Pegg said his client will appeal the conviction on grounds that the
amount of pot he was carrying was allowed under the recent Supreme Court
decision.
Zugsberger said he was taking the marijuana to Louisiana to have it
mixed into food and ice cream for his use by two Louisiana master chefs,
including his ex-wife.
He had a medical pot recommendation from Dr. Milan Hopkins, a Mendocino
County physician. The operator of a "alternative medi-spa," Hopkins'
standard referral says patients "may need to grow 25 mature plants and
possess 5 pounds of cannabis" for yearly needs.
Zugsberger also faces an upcoming trial in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana,
on charges of illegally shipping 2 pounds of pot to a former residence.
Call The Bee's Peter Hecht, (916) 326-5539. Read his California
marijuana issues blog, www.sacbee.com/ weedwars.
Sacramento International Airport was sentenced to 120 days in jail
Thursday and ordered not to travel in California with more than 1 ounce
of pot.
In imposing sentence on Matthew Zugsberger, 34, of Mendocino County,
Sacramento Superior Court Judge Roland Candee settled for well less than
the maximum of four years in prison.
Zugsberger has been in custody for 33 days and could be out in 27 days
with time off for good behavior.
A former deep-sea diver, he was convicted March 9 of illegally
transporting pot duct-taped in a scuba suit and packed in a metal
dominoes container. He also was carrying a stash of pot in his pants as
he prepared to board a flight to New Orleans in December 2008.
Candee said Zugsberger was carrying an amount that exceeded any
reasonable personal use.
"It's really clear from the testimony that this is not a personal-use
case," Candee said.
The judge ordered Zugsberger placed on five years' probation and said he
must seek approval from his probation officer to carry more than 28
grams of marijuana.
Candee also barred Zugsberger from transporting any marijuana into or
out of California.
His order means that Zugsberger cannot carry the same amount in the
state as other medical pot users.
In 2003, Gov. Gray Davis signed a law permitting people with medical
marijuana recommendations to possess six mature or 12 immature plants
and 8 ounces of dried marijuana.
Those limits were thrown out last month by the California Supreme Court.
However, local authorities still can detain patients found with more
than 8 ounces if they suspect illegal activity.
Aaron Smith, California director of the Marijuana Policy Project, which
advocates rolling back marijuana laws, said he was surprised that the
judge set a standard for Zugsberger well below the 2003 state limit.
"It seems kind of arbitrary and capricious," Smith said. "I would think
the figure should at least be more consistent with what his medical
needs are and at least be set at the state threshold. I haven't heard of
anything like that."
Zugsberger, who suffered crushed vertebrae and other injuries while
working on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, entered court using a cane
and limping badly.
His attorney, Grant Pegg, said Zugsberger had "lost a lot of weight"
while in custody. He requested that Zugsberger be released immediately
on "medical furlough."
Candee denied the request.
Zugsberger didn't speak in court, other than to answer, "Yes, sir," to
the judge.
Pegg said his client will appeal the conviction on grounds that the
amount of pot he was carrying was allowed under the recent Supreme Court
decision.
Zugsberger said he was taking the marijuana to Louisiana to have it
mixed into food and ice cream for his use by two Louisiana master chefs,
including his ex-wife.
He had a medical pot recommendation from Dr. Milan Hopkins, a Mendocino
County physician. The operator of a "alternative medi-spa," Hopkins'
standard referral says patients "may need to grow 25 mature plants and
possess 5 pounds of cannabis" for yearly needs.
Zugsberger also faces an upcoming trial in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana,
on charges of illegally shipping 2 pounds of pot to a former residence.
Call The Bee's Peter Hecht, (916) 326-5539. Read his California
marijuana issues blog, www.sacbee.com/ weedwars.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Man calls school to retrieve pot in son's Elmo backpack
A Uniontown man was arrested this morning after staff at an elementary
school found marijuana in the backpack of the man's son.
Ronald J. Washington, 33, telephoned Menallen Elementary School to ask
whether his son, who is in kindergarten, had arrived.
Mr. Washington told school officials that he needed to retrieve
something from his son's blue Elmo backpack.
State police said the school staff was suspicious and searched the book
bag, where they found two clear plastic bags of marijuana.
State police were summoned and determined the bags contained 105 grams
of pot.
After Mr. Washington arrived outside the school, the troopers confronted
him.
Mr. Washington told the troopers, "It was something dumb."
Mr. Washington was arrested on charges of possession of marijuana,
possession with intent to deliver the drug and disorderly conduct.
He was being held in the Fayette County Jail on $100,000 bail, pending a
preliminary hearing at 9:30 a.m. April 14 before District Judge Joseph
M. George Jr. in Uniontown.
school found marijuana in the backpack of the man's son.
Ronald J. Washington, 33, telephoned Menallen Elementary School to ask
whether his son, who is in kindergarten, had arrived.
Mr. Washington told school officials that he needed to retrieve
something from his son's blue Elmo backpack.
State police said the school staff was suspicious and searched the book
bag, where they found two clear plastic bags of marijuana.
State police were summoned and determined the bags contained 105 grams
of pot.
After Mr. Washington arrived outside the school, the troopers confronted
him.
Mr. Washington told the troopers, "It was something dumb."
Mr. Washington was arrested on charges of possession of marijuana,
possession with intent to deliver the drug and disorderly conduct.
He was being held in the Fayette County Jail on $100,000 bail, pending a
preliminary hearing at 9:30 a.m. April 14 before District Judge Joseph
M. George Jr. in Uniontown.
Legalization worries pot growers
If you think you face challenges in your farming operation, consider for
a moment the problems now contemplated by growers of illegal marijuana
in Northern California.
They have dreamed for years that their prized crop would be made legal
and they could grow and sell it openly. If Californians approve a ballot
initiative this November, they may finally get their wish.
So, dude, what's the problem?
Big agriculture. At least that's what some illicit growers in Humboldt
County recently told county officials and community leaders.
The Northern California community has long been known as a primo
destination for those involved in alternative crop production.
Humboldt's wet and mild climate, its remote landscape and the liberal
live-and-let-live viewpoints of the citizenry have made the area one of
the most grower-friendly places in the West.
Growers, governmental officials and community leaders met last month to
discuss how the area might capitalize on its unique position if voters
legalize marijuana. As one might expect, the ideas were big. They want
to turn Humboldt County into the Napa Valley of legal weed, offering
tours and tastings to discriminating users.
Whether they possess sharp business savvy or a heightened sense of
paranoia from sampling too much of their own product, the growers worry
that legalization might end up being bad for them. They're worried that
big, corporate agriculture will move into the business. Before you know
it, marijuana will be growing like, well, weeds, across the fertile
farmland of the Central Valley. As every farmer knows, when everyone
starts growing a crop its price falls as the market adjusts to increased
supply. That could force the little guy out of the business.
Before you know it, the business will be dominated by big, "corporate"
farmers and the small growers will lose their way of life. Could Roundup
Ready seed and government support programs be far off?
We doubt it. What now-illicit growers really fear is the regulation and
taxation that comes with legalization. They'll need water rights; the
state will monitor their fertilizer, insecticide and herbicide use; the
health inspector might pay a call; they'll have to follow labor laws;
their scales will have to be certified; and the taxman will want to see
their books. Suddenly, a relatively straight-forward and care-free
business will get a lot more complicated, and a lot less fun.
What farmer can't sympathize with that problem?
a moment the problems now contemplated by growers of illegal marijuana
in Northern California.
They have dreamed for years that their prized crop would be made legal
and they could grow and sell it openly. If Californians approve a ballot
initiative this November, they may finally get their wish.
So, dude, what's the problem?
Big agriculture. At least that's what some illicit growers in Humboldt
County recently told county officials and community leaders.
The Northern California community has long been known as a primo
destination for those involved in alternative crop production.
Humboldt's wet and mild climate, its remote landscape and the liberal
live-and-let-live viewpoints of the citizenry have made the area one of
the most grower-friendly places in the West.
Growers, governmental officials and community leaders met last month to
discuss how the area might capitalize on its unique position if voters
legalize marijuana. As one might expect, the ideas were big. They want
to turn Humboldt County into the Napa Valley of legal weed, offering
tours and tastings to discriminating users.
Whether they possess sharp business savvy or a heightened sense of
paranoia from sampling too much of their own product, the growers worry
that legalization might end up being bad for them. They're worried that
big, corporate agriculture will move into the business. Before you know
it, marijuana will be growing like, well, weeds, across the fertile
farmland of the Central Valley. As every farmer knows, when everyone
starts growing a crop its price falls as the market adjusts to increased
supply. That could force the little guy out of the business.
Before you know it, the business will be dominated by big, "corporate"
farmers and the small growers will lose their way of life. Could Roundup
Ready seed and government support programs be far off?
We doubt it. What now-illicit growers really fear is the regulation and
taxation that comes with legalization. They'll need water rights; the
state will monitor their fertilizer, insecticide and herbicide use; the
health inspector might pay a call; they'll have to follow labor laws;
their scales will have to be certified; and the taxman will want to see
their books. Suddenly, a relatively straight-forward and care-free
business will get a lot more complicated, and a lot less fun.
What farmer can't sympathize with that problem?
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
MEDICAL MARIJUANA CLUB
Laguna Woods for Medical Cannabis presents, Village Cannabis, a new club
for residents which will have its first meeting on April 10, at 11:30
a.m. Clubhouse 3, Dining Room 1. This club was formed by residents to
help educate our community about the cannabis plant, its use as
medicine, food, fiber, and oil seed. Many of our residents have turned
to this age old natural medicine with their doctors' advice to help
treat various ailments including cancer, MS, GI disorders, epilepsy,
migraine, chronic pain, depression and a host of other maladies. Even
though cannabis has been legal for 14 years in California for medicinal
use with a doctor's recommendation, patients who use it still face
discrimination by those who refuse to accept that medical science has
shown cannabis is one of the safest, effective medicines available.
Village Cannabis will work to end discrimination and prejudice through
education and outreach. Unlike Laguna Woods for Medical Cannabis, which
is a patient only collective that helps its members obtain cannabis at
low cost, Village Cannabis is open to any resident who is interested in
learning about this amazing plant and its many uses.
The entire executive board will be formed at this meeting and those who
wish to run for office will throw their hats in the ring. Elections will
follow.
A free lunch will be provided by Laguna Woods for Medical Cannabis who
will be on hand to answer questions and sign up members for its
collective.
Lonnie Painter
for residents which will have its first meeting on April 10, at 11:30
a.m. Clubhouse 3, Dining Room 1. This club was formed by residents to
help educate our community about the cannabis plant, its use as
medicine, food, fiber, and oil seed. Many of our residents have turned
to this age old natural medicine with their doctors' advice to help
treat various ailments including cancer, MS, GI disorders, epilepsy,
migraine, chronic pain, depression and a host of other maladies. Even
though cannabis has been legal for 14 years in California for medicinal
use with a doctor's recommendation, patients who use it still face
discrimination by those who refuse to accept that medical science has
shown cannabis is one of the safest, effective medicines available.
Village Cannabis will work to end discrimination and prejudice through
education and outreach. Unlike Laguna Woods for Medical Cannabis, which
is a patient only collective that helps its members obtain cannabis at
low cost, Village Cannabis is open to any resident who is interested in
learning about this amazing plant and its many uses.
The entire executive board will be formed at this meeting and those who
wish to run for office will throw their hats in the ring. Elections will
follow.
A free lunch will be provided by Laguna Woods for Medical Cannabis who
will be on hand to answer questions and sign up members for its
collective.
Lonnie Painter
'NJ Weedman' has high hopes after pot bust
Ed Forchion doesn't deny it. There was a pound of marijuana -
"high-grade California Kush" - in the trunk of his rent-a-wreck when he
was stopped in Mount Holly on Thursday night by a state trooper.
The dreadlocked Rastafarian - better known as "NJ Weedman," who ran
unsuccessfully for New Jersey governor and U.S. and state representative
on the Marijuana Party ticket - was released from the Burlington County
jail on Tuesday after posting $50,000 cash bail for drug possession and
distribution charges.
He didn't get intend to be arrested, said Forchion, 45. "But now that
I've been charged, it feels like destiny. That's exactly what I wanted
to do."
Forchion, who moved from Browns Mills two years ago to open a
medical-marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles called the Liberty Bell
Temple, said he returned to South Jersey last week "to spend a little
time in the courts."
Forchion has been a vocal critic of the New Jersey law, passed in
January, that legalized marijuana use by patients with cancer, AIDS,
glaucoma and other debilitating diseases.
"I was coming home on a mission to file some paper work and challenge
it," Forchion said on Tuesday.
The criminal statute in New Jersey states that marijuana has no
medicinal value, he said. The new measure does recognize a medical use
for the drug, but only gives "a certain class of people" permission to
use it.
Forchion said the law violates the equal protection clause of the 14th
Amendment.
His arrest on Thursday gives him the opportunity to take his stand to
the New Jersey courts, he said.
"I'm going to fight," Forchion said, acknowledging that he could be
sentenced to seven years in prison if convicted. "I'm not afraid to go
to jail. I think I can win."
Forchion was driving a rented 2001 Pontiac Grand Am Thursday after 10
p.m. when he pulled up to a stop light on Route 38. He said he had been
visiting his children in Burlington County and was headed to Camden
County, where he planned to stay with other relatives.
A trooper who pulled alongside Forchion said the Pontiac rolled into the
intersection before the light turned green, said Sgt. Steve Jones, a
state police spokesman.
After stopping the Pontiac, the officer smelled burnt marijuana and saw
a glass smoking pipe on the rear floor. Forchion also had two
outstanding warrants, one for non-payment of child support and another
for a delinquent traffic fine, Jones said.
Forchion says the pound of marijuana troopers found in a suitcase was
for personal use. He denies he had any intention of selling it.
"A pound of marijuana is like a carton of cigarettes to me. What do they
think I was going to do? Sell nickel bags on the corner?" he scoffed.
"I'm the Weedman."
"high-grade California Kush" - in the trunk of his rent-a-wreck when he
was stopped in Mount Holly on Thursday night by a state trooper.
The dreadlocked Rastafarian - better known as "NJ Weedman," who ran
unsuccessfully for New Jersey governor and U.S. and state representative
on the Marijuana Party ticket - was released from the Burlington County
jail on Tuesday after posting $50,000 cash bail for drug possession and
distribution charges.
He didn't get intend to be arrested, said Forchion, 45. "But now that
I've been charged, it feels like destiny. That's exactly what I wanted
to do."
Forchion, who moved from Browns Mills two years ago to open a
medical-marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles called the Liberty Bell
Temple, said he returned to South Jersey last week "to spend a little
time in the courts."
Forchion has been a vocal critic of the New Jersey law, passed in
January, that legalized marijuana use by patients with cancer, AIDS,
glaucoma and other debilitating diseases.
"I was coming home on a mission to file some paper work and challenge
it," Forchion said on Tuesday.
The criminal statute in New Jersey states that marijuana has no
medicinal value, he said. The new measure does recognize a medical use
for the drug, but only gives "a certain class of people" permission to
use it.
Forchion said the law violates the equal protection clause of the 14th
Amendment.
His arrest on Thursday gives him the opportunity to take his stand to
the New Jersey courts, he said.
"I'm going to fight," Forchion said, acknowledging that he could be
sentenced to seven years in prison if convicted. "I'm not afraid to go
to jail. I think I can win."
Forchion was driving a rented 2001 Pontiac Grand Am Thursday after 10
p.m. when he pulled up to a stop light on Route 38. He said he had been
visiting his children in Burlington County and was headed to Camden
County, where he planned to stay with other relatives.
A trooper who pulled alongside Forchion said the Pontiac rolled into the
intersection before the light turned green, said Sgt. Steve Jones, a
state police spokesman.
After stopping the Pontiac, the officer smelled burnt marijuana and saw
a glass smoking pipe on the rear floor. Forchion also had two
outstanding warrants, one for non-payment of child support and another
for a delinquent traffic fine, Jones said.
Forchion says the pound of marijuana troopers found in a suitcase was
for personal use. He denies he had any intention of selling it.
"A pound of marijuana is like a carton of cigarettes to me. What do they
think I was going to do? Sell nickel bags on the corner?" he scoffed.
"I'm the Weedman."
Monday, April 5, 2010
Oakland pot lab fills oversight need
OAKLAND – The mere existence of the Steep Hill Lab presents a
pointed question: How safe is the marijuana provided to hundreds of
thousands of medical pot users in California?
How safe is the marijuana provided to hundreds of thousands of medical
pot users in California?
The Oakland laboratory, started in 2008 by two former growers, has
tested 12,000 pot samples to assure marijuana businesses that their
product isn't tainted by dangerous toxic molds or pesticides.
Nearly 50 medical marijuana dispensaries and pot-growing networks
contract with the lab, California's most renowned cannabis testing
location.
Tens of thousands of dollars in medical marijuana can be rendered
useless if samples are found to contain toxins that could trigger
respiratory infections, sinusitis or worse.
There is no Food and Drug Administration for marijuana. So the private
lab fills a profitable niche in a trade operating without regulatory
oversight.
"This is a success story of self-regulation," said Addison DeMoura,
Steep Hill Lab's co-founder. "We want people to produce cannabis that
they would give to the dearest person they love."
No state rules in California require medical marijuana be tested. While
few pot businesses want a rap of toxic weed, no inspection regimen
ensures they remove tainted products.
Steep Hill Lab says 3 percent of the pot it tests has unsafe mold levels
under general guidelines for herbal products. Eighty-five percent shows
traces of mold.
The medical pot community has cause for seeking assurances that the
marijuana being peddled is free of toxins that can develop during
growing, drying or packaging.
A 2008 guidebook, "The Marijuana Medical Handbook," warns of
Aspergillus, a mold that can appear in marijuana and numerous other
agricultural products. It can be dangerous for seriously ill people,
such as AIDS and cancer patients using pot to treat nausea or other side
effects.
"There have been reports of aspergillosis, a lung infection caused by
inhalation of spores from the Aspergillus fungus," wrote California
marijuana researchers Dale Gieringer and Ed Rosenthal and Washington
physician Gregory Carter.
A 1988 study published by the American College of Chest Physicians
focused on a pot-smoking leukemia patient in Philadelphia whose death
was hastened by an infection caused by moldy marijuana.
Recently, tests on pot that undercover police officers bought from a Los
Angeles dispensary revealed an insecticide, bifenthrin, that registered
170 times "tolerable" guidelines set by the Environmental Protection
Agency for human food or animal feed.
"You may have no idea what it's been treated with," said Assistant Los
Angeles City Attorney Asha Greenberg. Authorities speculated the
dispensary sold pot smuggled across the border or grown illicitly.
A new medical pot dispensary ordinance in Los Angeles requires testing
for pesticides or "any other regulated contaminants" for foods or drugs.
Dr. Donald Abrams, chief of oncology at San Francisco General Hospital
and a researcher in state-funded studies on marijuana's usefulness for
chronic pain, said most medical pot in California is safely grown and
poses no health risk.
"That whole story of people getting fungal infections from inhaling
marijuana is a old wives' tale," he said.
But Abrams said Steep Hill may help establish dosing protocols for
marijuana so that users can know how much they should smoke.
The lab tests potency levels for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the
psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, and for other compounds known for
pain-reducing effects.
"This is attempting to standardize a botanical product and let the buyer
understand what they are purchasing in this medicine," Abrams said.
DeMoura, a marketing representative and former pot dispensary operator
from Stanislaus County, started the lab with David Lampach, a former
Wall Street equities trader and marijuana cultivator from Mendocino
County.
Lampach operates a gas chromatography machine that separates marijuana
compounds for testing and a mass spectrometer that identifies
ingredients and potency.
"This is the gold standard for measuring active agents," he said.
Debby Goldsberry, co-founder of the Medical Cannabis Safety Council, a
Bay Area group of pot growers, dispensary operators and researchers,
said the science of testing marijuana remains limited.
"What Steep Hill has done is push this issue forward," said Goldsberry,
whose Berkeley Patients Group marijuana dispensary is also working on a
testing regimen.
As a result of tests from Steep Hill, Harborside Health Center, a
cannabis club that serves 47,000 medical users at dispensaries in
Oakland and San Jose, lists THC levels for each pot strain it provides.
"For the first time in the 3,000-year history of human cannabis
consumption," it proclaims in promotional materials, "patients will be
provided with a scientific assessment of the safety and potency of
products prior to ingesting them."
Steep Hill client Andy Rehm, whose Green Pi kitchen in Berkeley bakes
"Big Bang Brownies" for pot users, once turned away a grower whose weed
"smelled like butane."
He sent the lab samples when another cultivator dropped off pot for the
first time. "Addison (DeMoura) called and said, 'Don't use it' " –
it was positive for unsafe mold, Rehm said.
"We're not trying to scare people," said Dr. Janet Weiss, a toxicologist
who works with the Steep Hill Lab. "We're saying this industry should
join the rest of the world in what food and drugs are required to do. It
shouldn't be a buyers beware market."
pointed question: How safe is the marijuana provided to hundreds of
thousands of medical pot users in California?
How safe is the marijuana provided to hundreds of thousands of medical
pot users in California?
The Oakland laboratory, started in 2008 by two former growers, has
tested 12,000 pot samples to assure marijuana businesses that their
product isn't tainted by dangerous toxic molds or pesticides.
Nearly 50 medical marijuana dispensaries and pot-growing networks
contract with the lab, California's most renowned cannabis testing
location.
Tens of thousands of dollars in medical marijuana can be rendered
useless if samples are found to contain toxins that could trigger
respiratory infections, sinusitis or worse.
There is no Food and Drug Administration for marijuana. So the private
lab fills a profitable niche in a trade operating without regulatory
oversight.
"This is a success story of self-regulation," said Addison DeMoura,
Steep Hill Lab's co-founder. "We want people to produce cannabis that
they would give to the dearest person they love."
No state rules in California require medical marijuana be tested. While
few pot businesses want a rap of toxic weed, no inspection regimen
ensures they remove tainted products.
Steep Hill Lab says 3 percent of the pot it tests has unsafe mold levels
under general guidelines for herbal products. Eighty-five percent shows
traces of mold.
The medical pot community has cause for seeking assurances that the
marijuana being peddled is free of toxins that can develop during
growing, drying or packaging.
A 2008 guidebook, "The Marijuana Medical Handbook," warns of
Aspergillus, a mold that can appear in marijuana and numerous other
agricultural products. It can be dangerous for seriously ill people,
such as AIDS and cancer patients using pot to treat nausea or other side
effects.
"There have been reports of aspergillosis, a lung infection caused by
inhalation of spores from the Aspergillus fungus," wrote California
marijuana researchers Dale Gieringer and Ed Rosenthal and Washington
physician Gregory Carter.
A 1988 study published by the American College of Chest Physicians
focused on a pot-smoking leukemia patient in Philadelphia whose death
was hastened by an infection caused by moldy marijuana.
Recently, tests on pot that undercover police officers bought from a Los
Angeles dispensary revealed an insecticide, bifenthrin, that registered
170 times "tolerable" guidelines set by the Environmental Protection
Agency for human food or animal feed.
"You may have no idea what it's been treated with," said Assistant Los
Angeles City Attorney Asha Greenberg. Authorities speculated the
dispensary sold pot smuggled across the border or grown illicitly.
A new medical pot dispensary ordinance in Los Angeles requires testing
for pesticides or "any other regulated contaminants" for foods or drugs.
Dr. Donald Abrams, chief of oncology at San Francisco General Hospital
and a researcher in state-funded studies on marijuana's usefulness for
chronic pain, said most medical pot in California is safely grown and
poses no health risk.
"That whole story of people getting fungal infections from inhaling
marijuana is a old wives' tale," he said.
But Abrams said Steep Hill may help establish dosing protocols for
marijuana so that users can know how much they should smoke.
The lab tests potency levels for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the
psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, and for other compounds known for
pain-reducing effects.
"This is attempting to standardize a botanical product and let the buyer
understand what they are purchasing in this medicine," Abrams said.
DeMoura, a marketing representative and former pot dispensary operator
from Stanislaus County, started the lab with David Lampach, a former
Wall Street equities trader and marijuana cultivator from Mendocino
County.
Lampach operates a gas chromatography machine that separates marijuana
compounds for testing and a mass spectrometer that identifies
ingredients and potency.
"This is the gold standard for measuring active agents," he said.
Debby Goldsberry, co-founder of the Medical Cannabis Safety Council, a
Bay Area group of pot growers, dispensary operators and researchers,
said the science of testing marijuana remains limited.
"What Steep Hill has done is push this issue forward," said Goldsberry,
whose Berkeley Patients Group marijuana dispensary is also working on a
testing regimen.
As a result of tests from Steep Hill, Harborside Health Center, a
cannabis club that serves 47,000 medical users at dispensaries in
Oakland and San Jose, lists THC levels for each pot strain it provides.
"For the first time in the 3,000-year history of human cannabis
consumption," it proclaims in promotional materials, "patients will be
provided with a scientific assessment of the safety and potency of
products prior to ingesting them."
Steep Hill client Andy Rehm, whose Green Pi kitchen in Berkeley bakes
"Big Bang Brownies" for pot users, once turned away a grower whose weed
"smelled like butane."
He sent the lab samples when another cultivator dropped off pot for the
first time. "Addison (DeMoura) called and said, 'Don't use it' " –
it was positive for unsafe mold, Rehm said.
"We're not trying to scare people," said Dr. Janet Weiss, a toxicologist
who works with the Steep Hill Lab. "We're saying this industry should
join the rest of the world in what food and drugs are required to do. It
shouldn't be a buyers beware market."
Oakland pot lab fills oversight need
OAKLAND – The mere existence of the Steep Hill Lab presents a
pointed question: How safe is the marijuana provided to hundreds of
thousands of medical pot users in California?
How safe is the marijuana provided to hundreds of thousands of medical
pot users in California?
The Oakland laboratory, started in 2008 by two former growers, has
tested 12,000 pot samples to assure marijuana businesses that their
product isn't tainted by dangerous toxic molds or pesticides.
Nearly 50 medical marijuana dispensaries and pot-growing networks
contract with the lab, California's most renowned cannabis testing
location.
Tens of thousands of dollars in medical marijuana can be rendered
useless if samples are found to contain toxins that could trigger
respiratory infections, sinusitis or worse.
There is no Food and Drug Administration for marijuana. So the private
lab fills a profitable niche in a trade operating without regulatory
oversight.
"This is a success story of self-regulation," said Addison DeMoura,
Steep Hill Lab's co-founder. "We want people to produce cannabis that
they would give to the dearest person they love."
No state rules in California require medical marijuana be tested. While
few pot businesses want a rap of toxic weed, no inspection regimen
ensures they remove tainted products.
Steep Hill Lab says 3 percent of the pot it tests has unsafe mold levels
under general guidelines for herbal products. Eighty-five percent shows
traces of mold.
The medical pot community has cause for seeking assurances that the
marijuana being peddled is free of toxins that can develop during
growing, drying or packaging.
A 2008 guidebook, "The Marijuana Medical Handbook," warns of
Aspergillus, a mold that can appear in marijuana and numerous other
agricultural products. It can be dangerous for seriously ill people,
such as AIDS and cancer patients using pot to treat nausea or other side
effects.
"There have been reports of aspergillosis, a lung infection caused by
inhalation of spores from the Aspergillus fungus," wrote California
marijuana researchers Dale Gieringer and Ed Rosenthal and Washington
physician Gregory Carter.
A 1988 study published by the American College of Chest Physicians
focused on a pot-smoking leukemia patient in Philadelphia whose death
was hastened by an infection caused by moldy marijuana.
Recently, tests on pot that undercover police officers bought from a Los
Angeles dispensary revealed an insecticide, bifenthrin, that registered
170 times "tolerable" guidelines set by the Environmental Protection
Agency for human food or animal feed.
"You may have no idea what it's been treated with," said Assistant Los
Angeles City Attorney Asha Greenberg. Authorities speculated the
dispensary sold pot smuggled across the border or grown illicitly.
A new medical pot dispensary ordinance in Los Angeles requires testing
for pesticides or "any other regulated contaminants" for foods or drugs.
Dr. Donald Abrams, chief of oncology at San Francisco General Hospital
and a researcher in state-funded studies on marijuana's usefulness for
chronic pain, said most medical pot in California is safely grown and
poses no health risk.
"That whole story of people getting fungal infections from inhaling
marijuana is a old wives' tale," he said.
But Abrams said Steep Hill may help establish dosing protocols for
marijuana so that users can know how much they should smoke.
The lab tests potency levels for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the
psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, and for other compounds known for
pain-reducing effects.
"This is attempting to standardize a botanical product and let the buyer
understand what they are purchasing in this medicine," Abrams said.
DeMoura, a marketing representative and former pot dispensary operator
from Stanislaus County, started the lab with David Lampach, a former
Wall Street equities trader and marijuana cultivator from Mendocino
County.
Lampach operates a gas chromatography machine that separates marijuana
compounds for testing and a mass spectrometer that identifies
ingredients and potency.
"This is the gold standard for measuring active agents," he said.
Debby Goldsberry, co-founder of the Medical Cannabis Safety Council, a
Bay Area group of pot growers, dispensary operators and researchers,
said the science of testing marijuana remains limited.
"What Steep Hill has done is push this issue forward," said Goldsberry,
whose Berkeley Patients Group marijuana dispensary is also working on a
testing regimen.
As a result of tests from Steep Hill, Harborside Health Center, a
cannabis club that serves 47,000 medical users at dispensaries in
Oakland and San Jose, lists THC levels for each pot strain it provides.
"For the first time in the 3,000-year history of human cannabis
consumption," it proclaims in promotional materials, "patients will be
provided with a scientific assessment of the safety and potency of
products prior to ingesting them."
Steep Hill client Andy Rehm, whose Green Pi kitchen in Berkeley bakes
"Big Bang Brownies" for pot users, once turned away a grower whose weed
"smelled like butane."
He sent the lab samples when another cultivator dropped off pot for the
first time. "Addison (DeMoura) called and said, 'Don't use it' " –
it was positive for unsafe mold, Rehm said.
"We're not trying to scare people," said Dr. Janet Weiss, a toxicologist
who works with the Steep Hill Lab. "We're saying this industry should
join the rest of the world in what food and drugs are required to do. It
shouldn't be a buyers beware market."
pointed question: How safe is the marijuana provided to hundreds of
thousands of medical pot users in California?
How safe is the marijuana provided to hundreds of thousands of medical
pot users in California?
The Oakland laboratory, started in 2008 by two former growers, has
tested 12,000 pot samples to assure marijuana businesses that their
product isn't tainted by dangerous toxic molds or pesticides.
Nearly 50 medical marijuana dispensaries and pot-growing networks
contract with the lab, California's most renowned cannabis testing
location.
Tens of thousands of dollars in medical marijuana can be rendered
useless if samples are found to contain toxins that could trigger
respiratory infections, sinusitis or worse.
There is no Food and Drug Administration for marijuana. So the private
lab fills a profitable niche in a trade operating without regulatory
oversight.
"This is a success story of self-regulation," said Addison DeMoura,
Steep Hill Lab's co-founder. "We want people to produce cannabis that
they would give to the dearest person they love."
No state rules in California require medical marijuana be tested. While
few pot businesses want a rap of toxic weed, no inspection regimen
ensures they remove tainted products.
Steep Hill Lab says 3 percent of the pot it tests has unsafe mold levels
under general guidelines for herbal products. Eighty-five percent shows
traces of mold.
The medical pot community has cause for seeking assurances that the
marijuana being peddled is free of toxins that can develop during
growing, drying or packaging.
A 2008 guidebook, "The Marijuana Medical Handbook," warns of
Aspergillus, a mold that can appear in marijuana and numerous other
agricultural products. It can be dangerous for seriously ill people,
such as AIDS and cancer patients using pot to treat nausea or other side
effects.
"There have been reports of aspergillosis, a lung infection caused by
inhalation of spores from the Aspergillus fungus," wrote California
marijuana researchers Dale Gieringer and Ed Rosenthal and Washington
physician Gregory Carter.
A 1988 study published by the American College of Chest Physicians
focused on a pot-smoking leukemia patient in Philadelphia whose death
was hastened by an infection caused by moldy marijuana.
Recently, tests on pot that undercover police officers bought from a Los
Angeles dispensary revealed an insecticide, bifenthrin, that registered
170 times "tolerable" guidelines set by the Environmental Protection
Agency for human food or animal feed.
"You may have no idea what it's been treated with," said Assistant Los
Angeles City Attorney Asha Greenberg. Authorities speculated the
dispensary sold pot smuggled across the border or grown illicitly.
A new medical pot dispensary ordinance in Los Angeles requires testing
for pesticides or "any other regulated contaminants" for foods or drugs.
Dr. Donald Abrams, chief of oncology at San Francisco General Hospital
and a researcher in state-funded studies on marijuana's usefulness for
chronic pain, said most medical pot in California is safely grown and
poses no health risk.
"That whole story of people getting fungal infections from inhaling
marijuana is a old wives' tale," he said.
But Abrams said Steep Hill may help establish dosing protocols for
marijuana so that users can know how much they should smoke.
The lab tests potency levels for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the
psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, and for other compounds known for
pain-reducing effects.
"This is attempting to standardize a botanical product and let the buyer
understand what they are purchasing in this medicine," Abrams said.
DeMoura, a marketing representative and former pot dispensary operator
from Stanislaus County, started the lab with David Lampach, a former
Wall Street equities trader and marijuana cultivator from Mendocino
County.
Lampach operates a gas chromatography machine that separates marijuana
compounds for testing and a mass spectrometer that identifies
ingredients and potency.
"This is the gold standard for measuring active agents," he said.
Debby Goldsberry, co-founder of the Medical Cannabis Safety Council, a
Bay Area group of pot growers, dispensary operators and researchers,
said the science of testing marijuana remains limited.
"What Steep Hill has done is push this issue forward," said Goldsberry,
whose Berkeley Patients Group marijuana dispensary is also working on a
testing regimen.
As a result of tests from Steep Hill, Harborside Health Center, a
cannabis club that serves 47,000 medical users at dispensaries in
Oakland and San Jose, lists THC levels for each pot strain it provides.
"For the first time in the 3,000-year history of human cannabis
consumption," it proclaims in promotional materials, "patients will be
provided with a scientific assessment of the safety and potency of
products prior to ingesting them."
Steep Hill client Andy Rehm, whose Green Pi kitchen in Berkeley bakes
"Big Bang Brownies" for pot users, once turned away a grower whose weed
"smelled like butane."
He sent the lab samples when another cultivator dropped off pot for the
first time. "Addison (DeMoura) called and said, 'Don't use it' " –
it was positive for unsafe mold, Rehm said.
"We're not trying to scare people," said Dr. Janet Weiss, a toxicologist
who works with the Steep Hill Lab. "We're saying this industry should
join the rest of the world in what food and drugs are required to do. It
shouldn't be a buyers beware market."
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