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The Daily Chronic

Nine medical marijuana collectives are claiming in court that the Long Beach Police Department is using illegal, unconstitutional tactics to put them out of business.

The nine collectives and two men are seeking an injunction and damages for Fourth Amendment violations and “judicial deception,” reports Matt Reynolds at Courthouse News Service.

Lead plaintiff Green Earth Center sued the city of Long Beach and five of its police officers — David Strohman, Oscar Valanzuela, Aldo Decarvalho, Chris Valdez and Douglas Luther — in federal court.

The Weed Blog

By Eugene Davidovich
 
Imperial Beach, California City Council member Brian Pat Bilbray on Friday issued an official endorsement in support of Proposition S, a voter initiative slated to appear on the November 6 ballot in the city. 
 
“With my sister having to use medical marijuana to treat her stage three melanoma this issue is very emotional and personal for me and my family,” Bilbray said. “If the federal government is not going to take it up upon themselves to start regulating, allow the FDA to actually look at it so it can be put in pharmacies, then it is up to the states to do exactly what they have done.”
 
If passed, Prop S would repeal the city’s current prohibition on medical marijuana dispensaries and replace it with strict zoning and operational requirements that would allow for a limited number of patient collectives and cooperatives to open in industrial and commercial zones of the city. Those that open would have to meet all operational and zoning requirements laid out in the measure including video cameras, centrally monitored alarm systems, overnight security, as well as strict non-profit operation.

Where’s Weed?

Barring a miracle, all medical marijuana dispensaries will be banned from Long Beach, California on August 12.

Law enforcement officers gave an update on the city’s current medical marijuana law — which includes an exception allowing 18 dispensaries — during Tuesday’s City Council meeting, reports Jonathan Van Dyke at Gazettes.com.
The Council voted in February to ban collectives, with a six-month exemption for the dispensaries that had gone through a long and torturous approval process — even including a lottery, for Christ’s sake — for the past several years.
On Tuesday, the question was whether the city ever wanted to offer another extension to the existing dispensaries, or whether the initial six-month exemption was intended as a grace period for the shops to “wind down” operations.

Rory Murray/OC Weekly

​Sentencing for medical marijuana defendants Joe Grumbine and Joe Byron — convicted of cannabis sales in relation to a pair of dispensaries in Long Beach, California and another in Garden Grove — has been delayed. In an unexpected, 11th-hour move, Long Beach Superior Court Judge Charles D. Sheldon removed himself from the case Wednesday morning, citing allegations of his biased behavior in the courtroom and admitting he made a serious error in sending a complimentary letter to the prosecutor prior to sentencing.

Judge Sheldon — who throughout the trial, put on one of the most unseemly displays of anti-marijuana bias in memory — denied the allegations, reports Nick Schou of OC Weekly. “The court is not biased in favor of any party or counsel,” he claimed, responding to a recusal motion by defense attorneys Christopher Glew and Allison Margolin. The recusal motion included a laundry list of Judge Sheldon’s objectionable statements.