Community to Help Regulaate Cannabis

Supervisors defer to public on medical marijuana

By Jason Sweeney
Oakland Tribune
Posted: 07/23/2009 04:24:00 PM PDT

SAN LORENZO — The crowd attending Wednesday night's forum on medical
marijuana didn't seem satisfied with proposed changes to Alameda
County's marijuana ordinance.

So county Supervisors Alice Lai-Bitker, Nate Miley and Gail Steele took
what seemed to be a logical step: They appointed members of the
community to draw up suggestions for changes.

No deadline was set for the group's work.

Miley singled out Susan Beck, secretary of the Cherryland Community
Association and one of the more outspoken forum participants, to lead
the community effort.

Beck said Thursday that she would like to see the county adopt an
ordinance that would serve patients, improve business districts and
protect youths and at-risk populations.

"The current model, from what we can tell, attracts a lot of patients
from outside the area," she said. "We don't want to be the central
distribution point for marijuana for this entire region of California."

Beck said her group is working with the San Lorenzo Village Homes
Association on a model for medical marijuana distribution in the
county's unincorporated areas.

Wednesday's well-attended meeting was a follow-up to an April 22 meeting
at which the county supervisors sought community input in preparing to
redraft the current medical marijuana ordinance. County counsel is
revising the ordinance in response to guidelines set last fall by state
Attorney General Jerry Brown.

Speakers at Wednesday's meeting voiced opinions both for and against
medical marijuana. Some homeowners said they thought dispensaries were
being forced into their community, while other speakers asking for safe
access to medical cannabis.

Assistant County Counsel Donna Ziegler outlined the proposed changes to
the ordinance, which include disclosure of where marijuana is being
cultivated — a requirement not in effect now. Also, the minimum
distance between dispensaries was set at 3,000 feet, which is the
current distance between the two remaining dispensaries.

Community members asked for a three-mile minimum.

The revisions retained the current number of permits at three, and
grandfathered in the two existing permits owned by We Are Hemp, 913 E.
Lewelling Blvd., on the border of Ashland, Cherryland and San Lorenzo,
and Cherryland's Garden of Eden, 21227 Foothill Blvd.

Miley said a third permit would be granted only after the two existing
dispensaries demonstrate that they are operating in compliance with
regulations.

Jason Sweeney covers San Lorenzo. Reach him at 510-293-2469.

Ventura County Dispensary Fights Back!

Marijuana shop fights Westlake in court

By Christy Fenner

Originally published 04:20 p.m., July 23, 2009
Updated 04:20 p.m., July 23, 2009

The Westlake Village City Council voted unanimously Wednesday night to
extend the city's temporary moratorium on marijuana distribution
facilities.

The council's 5-0 vote came one day after lawyers for Amazing
Healing Supply, a marijuana distribution facility in the city, announced
that they plan to ask a court on Friday to issue a restraining order to
block the city from interfering with the business.

The business contends that it did not violate the city's zoning
ordinance when it began operating May 30 in a business park on La Baya
Drive.

City officials imposed an initial, 45-day moratorium on July 8 after
learning that the business had opened in the city.

The council's vote this week will extend the moratorium by a period
of 10 months and 15 days, giving city officials time to study their
zoning ordinances and adopt changes before the moratorium expires.

Westlake Village will oppose the business's legal challenge, said
City Attorney Terence Boga.

"The city will go to court and fight for our position," Boga
said. "In the interim, Amazing Healing Supply is closed and will
stay closed until a judge says otherwise."

The business is represented by the law offices of Snyder and Dorenfeld
in Agoura Hills.

In its petition filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Amazing
Healing Supply says it is "a medical marijuana collective as defined
by Proposition 215," the ballot measure approved by California
voters.

After the business opened, representatives of the city's planning
department notified it on June 17 that it was in violation the
city's municipal code and had to suspend operation immediately. The
business appealed to the City Council, which held a public hearing July
8 and turned it down, and then passed the initial moratorium.

In a written report to the council, the city's staff said the zoning
ordinance "does not specifically list marijuana distribution
facility as a permitted use or conditionally permitted use in any zoning
district. As a result, such use is deemed to be prohibited."

The petition filed in court by Amazing Healing Supply states that the
city "does not require a business permit for the operation of a
business similar to the petitioner's business." The document
also states that when it began operating, the city had an applicable
zoning ordinance allowing such a businesses to operate in the business
park zone where it is located.

Amazing Healing Supply asks the court to allow it to re-open and to
order the city to pay its legal expenses as well as "other relief as
the court deems proper."

Angel Raich Update

subject: Angel Raich's brain tumor growing & new brain tumors. I am not
well!

Hello Everyone,

My brain tumor is growing and I have several new brain tumors growing...
The tumor is shrinking on the inside but growing on the outside and now
has several new tumors growing around it! I am in a complete state of
shock! Feel free to pass this email on!

As some of you know I have not been well for a while and it's because of
my brain tumor. In the past few months, I have spent much time in bed
very ill and very sick from the radiation side effects from my radiation
treatment over 2 years ago. In the past few weeks I have been extremely
ill from the tumor. I was not suppose to see my brain tumor specialist
until August but due to my condition I went early and it's a good thing
I did. Here's what is wrong!

Tuesday of this week I went & had an MRI and saw my brain tumor
specialist. I knew something was not right for months and never said a
thing to anyone! Then when in the MRI tube I knew something was
different with the tumor by the sound of the machine it was different.
When my specialist walked into the room he was alone with a nurse with
this different look on his face. Normally he walks in with like 10
doctors & students with was a tip off too. I think he was in as much
shock as I was with what was on the MRI.

Here's what he said, my tumor is growing and now has new several
tumors growing around it. It's growing on a nerve in my brain that
effects the whole right side of my head, lose of sensation, muscle
strength, in my left eye, nose, side of my face, left side of my tongue,
mouth, chin, throat, neck, chewing, and swallowing maybe a few other
things. In the past 4 months I have been having an increasing problem
eating, chewing, and swallowing. In March I weight for the first time
114 pounds, Tuesday of this week I weighted 106 pounds, and today at the
doctor I weighted 103 pounds. Sometimes, when I put food in my mouth or
drink something my eyes roll back in my head, my face droops, and my
speech slurs for 30 minutes sometimes much longer and sometimes shorter.
Its not just a problem with eating its I go through bouts of vomiting
and diarrhea for days. The headaches have gotten much worse, they are
there all the time but they get worse throughout the day, and the
headaches control many symptoms! There are many days I am so sick I
can't get out of bed!

Last July I started having complications where my eyes roll back in my
head and my face droops like a stroke my speech slurs, and other things.
That has not stopped and has become a big concern to my doctor. I am
having many symptoms going all the way down my neck to my shoulder too.
The problem with the tumor growing is that its putting pressure on my
optical nerve and other cranial nerves with I am concern is dangerous
due to the important of some of these cranial nerves, they control even
breathing... He will not be doing radiation again because radiation
treatment failed!

My doctor said, I am the first patient to fail this type of radiation
treatment on the Cyberknife radiation machine. My brain tumor special is
named John Adler at Stanford hospital and he is one of the best brain
tumor special/surgeons in the USA. He even created the Cyberknife. I am
one of his favorite patients and he was really concerned. He said, he
had not seen one of these tumors do what mine is doing so he seemed
puzzled or worried. He said, it's outside the statistics, I then said,
hello, I am always outside of the statistics, he then said, don't remind
me! He showed me the tumor and it is growing quite a bit. He wants to
watch it for the next 3 months, October 27th I go back to see him and
another MRI and if my symptoms do not go away and if the tumor grows and
does not shrink I will have to have surgery on my brain tumor, a tumor
that is non-operable will leave me with no other choice. There are many
many problems or really concerns with that surgery. One is which, I
can't take drugs!!!! How is that going to work???? I then reminded him
of my drug complications and asked how the hell are we going to get me
through a surgery??? He stared a minute and then said, well we are going
to have to get a really good anistiologist on board to help us figure
that one out...

As I said, I am in a state of shock and I have been very ill. I am very
lucky in that Saturday I had a little bit of energy and my friends took
me to see Gregg Allman. One of my friends was Gregg's manager for 30
years. Gregg himself gave me a back stage pass. Saturday night when I
was in his dressing room he lined in and said I heard a lot about you, I
said I have heard lots about you too. He said, he wanted my cell phone
number and called me after the show from his bus on his way to SF. He
asked me to come hang out, and he wanted to take me shopping. The got me
a massage too with was really great. We hit it off and realized we had
so much in common and I stayed with him from Sunday-Wednesday. After my
doctor appointment his was sooo sweet, kind, caring southern gentleman!
He took such great care of me and was very supportive. (He told me he
met Tom Allman too & had something Tom gave him. Gregg says hello!) He
wants me to call him Gregory so if you hear me say Gregory that's why.
Gregory said if I have surgery he will come and camp out at my house for
a bit. Before I went to the doctor Gregory said, he wanted me to go to
Georgia to come visit him at his home in Savanna. But I am just not sure
how traveling will be yet…So I am not sure what I will do yet

My other rock-in-roll friends are talking about having a benefit to
raise funds because there's some tumor treatments over in Germany
they would like me to check out, that help one of their wife's who
was dying of cancerous tumors and this treatment gave her an extra 10
years on her life, plus I need a new mattress since mine is getting
valleys from being in bed so much and it's causing my body to hurt
more, and effects my neck and shoulders, not comfortable at all. The new
mattress is for my special bed frame (it's like a hospital bed the
head and knees raise up is $1,500.00-1, 600.00 dollars. I need really
badly cause it's effecting my neck and shoulders in a really bad way. I
am still in a state of shock, today I was very angry and I always get
angry before I cry...

Many people are asking me what I need and I know I need things, and will
need things in the future! I am just not sure what I need because I am
in such a state of shock and will let you all know what you can do to
help when I get there... One thing for sure I have to set my affairs in
order in case I do dye… I need a will and a crematory, service fees
covered, just in case! I really want to go to congress and yell at them
for not making it so I can be legal under federal law! I am so angry my
work is not done yet but I had no choice but to keep slowing down. I
want to go to the state where that David Evens is who is from Drug Free
America and kick is ass in the media and squash him for getting in my
face on the Supreme Court steps and telling me to dye, for getting on
many radio stations for bashing me for my tumor, bashing me all over in
many states even as recent as this year... This man has been using me to
try to keep patients from getting medicine in other states. I want to
hold a debate on TV and kick is butt back for all the things he has said
about me behind my back. Maybe I should sue him for slander or lying
about me!!! Yeah! I will look into that! Or maybe not… Just angry.
Sorry I am rambling...

I have to say for the first time I am extremely scared!!!! I do not want
to dye! My activist head is wanting to scream at all the people who
stood in my way to have my medicine as it means more to me now more than
ever before.

I have been hiding my illness from everyone and I guess a bit from
myself too. For the last couple years since I lost my case and had
radiation on my tumor I have been missing in action for the most part
and I pushed many of you away not because I didn't like you, or
didn't want to be around you but because my health was failing and I
knew it! I just adopted a new statement, that I would live every day as
if it was my last, and I have been doing my best in the last couple
years to do that. Ever since I got out my wheelchair I have been living,
every moment as a hardcore activist, I gave up everything, my friends
outside the movement, my family that turned their back on my for doing
the work, & my dad said I was dead to him for doing it! Knowing he does
not give a shit about me has been hard in the past 6 years. After I lost
my case and had radiation I was not able to work and realized really
fast how little people in the movement really cared about me as a
person. I became such a name many people just forgot about me which hurt
me to the core! That was the moment I realized maybe I should care more
about myself and less about the people in the movement… This may
have been not true on their part but it was how it looked, felt, and
seemed on my end. So I pushed back the way I have done all my life and I
went missing in action.

In the past two years I have been very ill with bouts of bouncing back,
but never really gaining my footing. I am very sorry for pushing you all
away, I did it as a way to hide so you could not see me cry, see me in
such pain, see me giving up at times, see me greave, freak out, and so I
did not have to tell anyone who sick I have really been and in the last
year it has gotten worse! I hide and struggled to be normal, struggled
to do my work, struggled to see out my own eyes when they roll back. I
spent some time after my case not knowing where I belong in the movement
not strong enough to run a business on my own. I want to write my book
with a ghost writer just in case I do dye from these tumors. I don't
want someone else telling my story because they do not know many things
about me or the case behind the scenes that other are unaware of.
Again, I am sorry for hiding from you all! Hiding from myself, yet
knowing something was wrong. I am lucky that I have one of the best
doctors in the USA.

I will keep you all posted! I will send you another email after I come
out of shock. I no longer live in Oakland or Alameda County. I moved to
Orinda into a very small in-law unit. My cell phone is 510-915-6069 and
my email is angel@angeljustice. org sometimes email is hard because I
can't always see well and sometime it's hard to talk on the
phone because of my headaches but please feel free to keep in touch as I
am sure I will need support if it keep heading towards brain surgery or
worse…

Much love,

Angel McClary Raich

------------ --------- --------- --------- ---------

Angel McClary Raich
Email: angel@angeljustice. org
Cell: 510-915-6069
Yahoo IM: angelraich@yahoo. com
My Website: www.angeljustice. org
US Supreme Court Case
No. 03-1454: Raich v. Gonzales 2004

Cartels Ruining Cannabis for Consumers

Editorial: Marijuana not 'harmless' drug

Chico Enterprise-Record
Posted: 07/24/2009 12:07:49 AM PDT

Our view: The presence of Mexican drug cartels is growing in the hills
of Northern California. We shouldn't make it easy for them.

It's almost marijuana harvest season, which means it's now marijuana
eradication season. For the small minority who declare law enforcement
should just leave those "poor pot farmers" and their "harmless" drug
alone, we say just the opposite: "Go get 'em."

Two marijuana busts in the last week illustrate part of a growing trend
in Northern California the past few years. The huge plantations hidden
in the hills aren't usually operated by homegrown local guys. They've
all learned to manage medical marijuana co-ops ... but that's an
editorial for another day.

No, the pot plantations now are increasingly run by Mexican citizens
with ties to increasingly violent Mexican drug cartels. They come to
Northern California because the mountains are great places to run the
illegal operation. There's abundant sun, water and hundreds of square
miles of public land. It's easy to get far off the beaten track, miles
from the nearest road, and squat on five acres where the chance of
seeing another human being over the course of three to six months is
next to nothing.

The farmers are well-outfitted and well-armed. They have camps with most
of life's necessities. They are given guns and told to guard the crop
from "pot pirates." They also use the guns to kill deer to augment the
food supply.

Killing deer and defiling the land with human waste are only a small
part of the problem. The bigger issue is that by squatting on public
land, they endanger others who would use it — for example, hunters,
anglers, hikers, horseback riders and off-highway vehicle enthusiasts
— if they stray too far off the beaten path.

Then there's the most important issue of letting Mexican drug cartels
get a foothold here. An interesting story in Wednesday's newspaper from
the Associated Press talked about how Mexican drug traffickers are
branching out like never before.

The story said the cartels have spread to 47 countries, including the
United States.

If their existence is not threatened here, they will stay here. Despite
the best efforts of local, state and federal agents, the cartel
operatives are getting bolder.

Instead of just planting on public land in national forests, they are
branching out into private land.

The two busts last week near Forest Ranch — plantations totaling
about 6,000 and 2,500 plants — were both on forested private land.

The gardens were three to four acres in size and the landowner had no
idea they were there, drug agents say.

On Tuesday, another plantation was busted on private land north of
Oroville near Oregon City. The landowner had no idea the plantation was
there.

It was discovered when alert residents called the Sheriff's Office to
report that strangers were seen walking where they shouldn't have been
with high-caliber rifles.

Eradication teams arrested two Mexican citizens, confiscated a loaded
7mm rifle, found dead deer and removed 986 marijuana plants.

The pot growers seem to be losing their fear at the same time we are
losing drug agents and deputies to watch the hills.

Shame on all of us if we allow that to happen.

Let's give local pot eradicators our appreciative support.

The Raids Keep Coming...

Humboldt Drug Task Force raids SoHum grow houses, business

Donna Tam/The Times-Standard
Posted: 07/24/2009 01:15:15 AM PDT

The Humboldt County Drug Task Force led a raid Wednesday on three
suspected Southern Humboldt grow houses and a business, resulting in the
arrest of three residents.

Ann Edwards, 49, of Benbow, owner of Folk Art in Garberville, is
believed by authorities to be associated with all properties, according
to a press release. Edwards, along with Cheryl Cacopardo, 53, and Robert
Delgrande, 41, was arrested on suspicion of cultivation and possession
of marijuana for sale. They were booked into the Humboldt County Jail.

Financial documents have been seized from Edward's business.

Agent Jack Nelsen said additional search warrants are being served on
Edwards' financial accounts today. The task force is investigating
whether Edwards' business may have been laundering money related to the
grow houses.

"That's what we're looking at, is the possibility, we're not
alleging that at this point," he said. The task force has been
following the case for the last three or four months.

Agents, assisted by the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office, Eureka Police
Department and the Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement,
reportedly discovered a total of nearly 700 marijuana plants growing in
the residences located on the 7900 and 7400 Block of Benbow Drive, and
the 200 block of Fairway Drive.

When authorities arrived at the 7900 block residence, owned by Edwards,
officers reportedly saw a white man run from a greenhouse into a wooded
area.

The unidentified man was not located, but Edwards was taken into custody
without incident.

Officers located two greenhouses reportedly being utilized to cultivate
160 marijuana plants and numerous documents allegedly related to the
sales of marijuana inside the house. Officers found recently harvested
plants being processed in an additional structure on the property that
was being used as an indoor grow and processing area.

Officers also allegedly found approximately 10 pounds of marijuana
packaged and about 26 pounds still being processed, along with packaging
material and a triple beam scale.

Authorities arrested Cacopardo and Delgrande inside the residence on the
7400 block of Benbow Drive. Inside, authorities reportedly found a
loaded Glock 9mm handgun, a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun,
approximately one pound of processed marijuana, scales, packaging
material and 174 indoor marijuana plants.

At the Fairway Drive property, also owned by Edwards, officers allegedly
found approximately 10 pounds of processed marijuana, packaging material
and 344 indoor marijuana plants.

Donna Tam can be reached at 441-0532 or dtam@times-standard .com.

http://www.times- standard. com/localnews/ ci_12905606

Marijuana and Murder

Police remove marijuana from scene of Kerman double murder

30 to 40 marijuana plant removed from home

By Richard Morales
By KSEE 24 Staff

Story Published: Jul 23, 2009 at 3:29 AM EDT
Story Updated: Jul 23, 2009 at 3:41 AM EDT

Watch The Video (2:48) -
http://www.ksee24. com/news/ local/51469667. html?video= YHI&t=a

Kerman Police removed more than 30 marijuana plants from the home of a
couple killed in home invasion robbery Wednesday night. It all began
that morning at a home at El Mar Lane and 4th Street in Kerman.
Ironically, the home was under surveillance by police when 3 men went
inside and allegedly shot and killed a couple in their 60s who lived in
the home.

Police chased until the suspects car crashed into another vehicle at
Golden State and Jensen.

Three people in the car were arrested immediately, but a fourth man ran
and was later tracked down and caught.

Kerman police say the home where the couple were killed had been under
surveillance for weeks, suspected of being a marijuana grow house.
Police were planning on raiding the home when the suspects entered the
house.

Neighbors, who identified the couple as Gary and Sandra DeBartolo, were
shocked at the couples death, noting that Sandra worked at the nearby
Kerman High School.

Chico City Council Reviewing Cannabis Garden Laws

City Council discusses how to regulate med-pot grows

There is little talk of creating a dispensary in Chico

By Meredith J. Cooper
meredithc@newsrevie w.com

July 23, 2009

Tuesday night was atypical for the Chico City Council. There were two,
mostly noncontroversial, topics on the agenda, and most of the people in
attendance left before the meeting even started, after Maria Phillips
presented a new city art map and thanked those who helped create it.
Most remarkably, the meeting was adjourned at 8:30—possibly a record
for brevity.

The first topic of discussion was an amendment to a 1996 plan that
outlined projects the city needed to work on to comply with the
Americans with Disabilities Act. All those projects were completed as of
a year ago, announced Capital Project Services Director Tom Varga.
Tuesday he offered up a new list to the council, who approved it
wholeheartedly and unanimously (Councilman Jim Walker was absent).

Then came the item of most interest to the dozen or so people left in
council chambers that night: medical-marijuana dispensary zoning. As
Assistant City Manager John Rucker explained, this topic was brought
before the council by a concerned citizen, Michelle Cooper (he first
announced the name as Meredith Cooper, garnering confused looks from
council members and this reporter, but later corrected himself).

Cooper had written the council because her neighbors were growing pot
outside and the smell had become a nuisance. The subject went to the
council's Internal Affairs Committee, which looked at other cities,
such as Gridley, where outdoor growing is prohibited. The committee did
not see that as a viable option for Chico, however, based on increased
fire danger as well as the possibility of added home-invasion robberies.

"It doesn't make sense to fix an outdoor problem by moving it
indoors," explained Councilman Andy Holcombe, a member of the IAC.

The committee recommended that review of zoning laws be done by the
Planning Services Department to determine an appropriate location for a
med-pot cooperative or collective—after the general-plan update is
completed.

"Why wait a year and a half?" Councilman Larry Wahl asked.

The rest of the council, along with City Manager David Burkland, agreed.

So, now what?

A handful of community members headed for the lectern. One was Paul
Harbison, who explained that he's lived in his house, which is near
both a school and a group home, for 10 years. Two years ago, his
next-door neighbors started growing marijuana, enough for three people
with scripts. The smell is overwhelming.

"I should have the same right as they do to have a livelihood,"
he said. "Their medicine is making me sick."

Harbison's story struck a chord with many on the council, who asked
staff about public-nuisance laws already on the books as well as use
permits and other ways to regulate such grow sites.

One thing that seemed to keep tripping everyone up was the various terms
for different types of sites and the regulations on who can grow
marijuana. For instance, an individual can get a letter of
recommendation from a doctor. That person is then legally allowed to
grow pot. If that person can't grow it at home, he or she can join
up with others with scripts and grow as a collective, or cooperative. If
that person is too sick or unable to grow it, he or she can have a
caregiver grow it instead. Dispensaries, on the other hand, are more
like drug stores. They come with their own list of regulations.

In the end, Councilman Scott Gruendl made a motion to ask the Planning
Department to review Title 19 (zoning) for operating a co-op or
collective, or private grow, during the general-plan process. He also
proposed that the city manager work with staff to create a brochure for
people who receive prescriptions. Wahl added a request that staff come
back to the council in 60 days with "the fixings for an
ordinance"—either a way to regulate within current laws or examples
from other cities that have already confronted this issue.

The council agreed unanimously.