Search Results: trutanich (27)

The Weed Business

Court of Appeal Rejects Municipal Dispensary Bans
City of Los Angeles will soon vote on whether to enact an outright ban similar to the County ban just rejected
In a landmark decision, a California court has affirmed the legality of medical marijuana dispensaries under state law, and rejected bans imposed by cities and by Los Angeles County.
The Second District Court of Appeal in California issued the decision on Monday in County of Los Angeles v. Alternative Medicinal Cannabis Collective (AMCC). In particular, the court held that Los Angeles County’s “complete ban” on medical marijuana is “preempted” by state law and, therefore, void.
The AMCC decision reverses a preliminary junction granted to the County by the Los Angeles Superior Court in May 2011.

Los Angeles Dragnet

​Among all the tinhorn dictators who rail against California’s liberal medical marijuana laws, Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich — notorious for his rabid anti-cannabis stance — stands out for his constant hotdogging and grandstanding on the issue.

Officials with three law enforcement organizations said they have yet to formally decide whom to back — if anyone — in this year’s race for Los Angeles district attorney, reports Jack Leonard at the Los Angeles Times. Trutanich, the obvious frontrunner, is now in political hot water after falsely claiming several key supporters, including the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Association, the Los Angeles School Police Association, and the National Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.

LBCA

​The fate of the entire American medical marijuana community could depend on decisions made by the City of Long Beach. The recent court ruling of Pack v City of Long Beach could take cannabis medicine away from ailing citizens and lead to lost jobs, lost tax revenue, and increased crime rates.
On Wednesday, December 7, the Long Beach Collective Association (LBCA) submitted amendment language to the mayor, Long Beach City Council, and city attorney, which recommends language that would allow the current ordinance to remain functional under the evolving California law.
This “third option” was drafted by the LBCA’s legal team at the request of Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal and several other council members at the November 1 council meeting.

AIDSOVERSIXTY
This numbskull, Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar, wants to ban medical marijuana dispensaries in the nation’s second-largest city

​Some members of the Los Angeles City Council want to ban medical marijuana patients’ cooperatives and collectives outright.

Patients and other community members have been working with the council to promote, develop, and implement sensible regulations for the city since 2005, according to Americans for Safe Access (ASA). Banning patients’ associations now — as suggested by Councilman Jose Huizar — means the City Council would turn its back on the large majority of local patients who rely on cooperatives and collectives for safe access to medicine.
“If they do a complete ban, where are the patients going to get their medicine?” said Yamileth Bolanos, president of the Greater Los Angeles Collective Alliance, reports John Hoeffel at the Los Angeles Times. “Medical marijuana is going to stay in the city no matter what. [Huizar is] choosing to have the gangs and cartels running it rather than having the very best operators that they can.”

Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen “Nuch” Trutanich’s office was “vocal” in its criticism of last month’s RAND report showing that crime went up in neighborhoods when dispensaries were forced to close — so RAND took their own report off their website on October 11, and officially retracted the report today, Monday, October 24.

​After “vocal criticism” from the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, the RAND Corporation on Monday officially retracted its study “Regulating Medical Marijuana Dispensaries: An Overview with Preliminary Evidence of Their Impact on Crime,” which was released in September.

Two weeks ago, RAND had pulled the study off its website and posted a notice that “This document has been withdrawn pending further review.” Toke of the Town broke that story before it hit the national newswires.
“The L.A. City Attorney’s office has been the organization most vocal in its criticism of the study, questioning its methods and conclusions,” RAND media relations guy Warren Robak told Toke of the Town on October 11.

RAND Corporation
If your science upsets the powers that be — like, for instance, rabidly anti-marijuana Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich — then obviously there’s something wrong with science, not with the powers that be.

Report Comes Down After Heavy Pressure From L.A. City Attorney’s Office — But It’s Still Available For You To Read: See Link At End Of Article

A September report from the RAND Corporation showing that crime rates went up in neighborhoods where medical marijuana dispensaries were forced to close created lots of media interest and comment — and it apparently made someone very uncomfortable.

In a highly unusual move for RAND, as of Tuesday morning, the report is no longer available on its site.

Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich’s office was “vocal” in its criticism of last month’s RAND report showing that crime went up in neighborhoods when dispensaries were shut down — so RAND took their own report off their website.

Toke of the Town asked RAND why the report “has been withdrawn pending further review.”
“We took a fresh look at the study based in part upon questions raised by some folks following publication,” responded Warren Robak of RAND Corporation’s media relations department.
“We are continuing our review of the study and have now decided that while the review is pending, we should remove the report from circulation,” Robak wrote.
The L.A. City Attorney’s Office has been the organization most vocal in its criticism of the study, questioning its methods and conclusions,” Robak told me after I asked who, exactly, was “raising questions.”
Why, exactly, a city attorney should have input on the results of a scientific study is a question we should all be asking at this point.

Photo: Medical Marijuana Blog

​The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday will consider amending its medical marijuana ordinance, because one of its obscure provisions unexpectedly disqualified 140 cannabis dispensaries from continuing operations, leaving only 40 shops.

When the council approved the ordinance last spring, it allowed up to 180 dispensaries — those that had registered with the city before a moratorium was imposed in 2007 — to stay open, if they were at least 1,000 feet from homes, schools, religious institutions and other dispensaries, reports NBC Los Angeles.

Photo: KTLA
Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich: Is this hothead serving up quick revenge to dispensaries that dare criticize him?

​A Los Angeles police raid of a Venice medical marijuana dispensary last week — which occurred at a time when L.A. has said it will hold off on pot shop enforcement — happened just hours after an activist criticized the City Attorney on a radio broadcast from the store.

Host Zuma Dogg played audio of his Thursday web radio show for the LA Weekly, reports Dennis Romero. He said, in part, “I’d like to send this one out to Carmen Trutanich” and called the City Attorney “incompetent” and a “moron” for his handling of the city’s medical marijuana ordinance.
Zuma Dogg described his “broadcasting live” location as a Venice collective with “Green” in its title.

Photo: D.Blawg’s Weblog
Palms, California’s K.F.C. (Kind For Cures) dispensary, located at 3516 Hughes Avenue, gained worldwide fame last year when its story and photo went viral on the web.

​The infamous K.F.C. dispensary, a.k.a. Kind For Cures, has reopened in Los Angeles as the city has backed off on its crackdown against allegedly illegal marijuana dispensaries.

A K.F.C. employee confirmed on Monday that the pot shop was once again open for business, reports Dennis Romero at the LA Weekly, our sister blog in the Village Voice Media world.
The MySpace page of the dispensary, based in Palms, California, advertises that it reopened on Thursday, the day after the City Clerk’s office announced it was stopping the crackdown against out-of-compliance pot shops.
“Kind For Cures is re-opening August 26th, 10 a.m. to midnight, 7 days per week!” the MySpace page reads. “Come on in for your favorite flavors!!!”
K.F.C. was one of the dispensaries which shut down after it got a warning letter from City Attorney Carmen Trutanich’s office back in June, threatening $2,500-a-day fines and even possible jail time.
Asked on Monday if Los Angeles is once again basically letting all the pot shops operate, a City attorney’s spokesperson said, “You’re basically correct.”
Read Dennis Romero’s story at the LA Weekly.

Photo: Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times
Budtender Kim prepares an order for a client at Green Oasis, in October 2009. Green Oasis is one of the shops that was shut down under Los Angeles’ restrictive new medical marijuana ordinance.

​Los Angeles city officials announced Wednesday that only 41 medical marijuana dispensaries are eligible to stay in business under the city’s restrictive ordinance. The number is so low that the city said it will suspend the process of narrowing the number of shops, and ask a judge to rule that it is legal, reports John Hoeffel at the Los Angeles Times.

The announcement means that at least 129 of the dispensaries that had been allowed to remain open under the previous moratorium will now be forced to close.

“It was a surprise,” said Jane Usher, special assistant city attorney who worked with the City Council to draft the complex law, and is defending it in court.
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