Search Results: dispensary crackdown (104)

Photo: Michael Goulding/The Orange County Register
A woman leaves the Evergreen Holistic Collective in Lake Forest, California. The collective is one of 11 remaining in the city, which is trying to shut them all down

​A federal judge is expected on Monday to hear arguments on whether four marijuana patients can use the Americans with Disabilities Act to prevent two Orange County, California cities from closing medical pot dispensaries.

The lawsuit, being filed against Lake Forest and Costa Mesa on behalf of Orange County residents Marla James, Wayne Washington, James Armantrout and Charles Daniel DeJong, alleges the cities’ efforts to shut down dispensaries deny them access to public services, reports Erika I. Ritchie at The Orange County Register.

Graphic: How Weed Won The West

​Is How Weed Won The West an entertaining film? Yes, absolutely. You won’t get bored watching it.

The film takes a compelling look at California’s Emerald Triangle, one of the major marijuana production areas in the world, and looks at the scene in dispensary-heavy Los Angeles, where things are in flux just before what looks to be a major crackdown on the horizon.
Additionally, the jack-booted tactics of San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis are rightly called to task.
Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance, certainly one of the most intelligent and articulate spokesman for drug reform policy in the United States, thankfully gets plenty of screen time, along with Don Duncan of Americans for Safe Access (ASA) and cultivation legend and multiple Cannabis Cup winner Bret Bogue.
And yeah, to be honest it was a thrill to see one of my SF Weekly “Chronic City” articles during the film, sharing the screen with Alex Jones.

But is it, on balance, a valuable film for the movement? That depends.

Photo: Monica Almeida/New York Times

​District Attorney Steve Cooley has been promising for months to “get tough” with marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles County, and this week, he followed through.

The media-loving, trash-talking D.A. charged dispensary owner Jeff Jones — who, maybe not coincidentally, is also an outspoken medical cannabis advocate — with 24 felonies, including selling and transporting marijuana, as well as money laundering, reports Richard Gonzales of NPR.
Cooley, who infamously said last year that “approximately zero” of L.A.’s dispensaries are operating legally, is now basing what looks to be misguided political ambition upon a quixotic quest to drive the pot shops out of business.
Bail for Joseph was set at more than half a million dollars, an amount usually reserved for violent criminals, according to Joseph’s attorney, Eric Shevin.
“They made an example of him,” Shevin said. “He’s a very outspoken, well-known advocate of marijuana, so he sends a stronger message to the community than the many other dispensary operators that no one even talks about.”

Photo: Daniel Beaman Photography
Kush House dispensary in Venice Beach. Hundreds of pot shops, including all 14 in Venice, will be forced to shut down under L.A.’s new dispensary law.

​With the Los Angeles City Council expected this week to give final approval to a new law which would result in hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries being forced to close, some are wondering exactly how the city will enforce the crackdown.

Last week, L.A. City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who thinks the city is overreacting to the dispensaries, quizzed city officials on how they plan to shut down the pot shops that aren’t among the fortunate 140 allowed under the new law, reports Frank Stoltze of KPCC.
1 9 10 11