Search Results: how to avoid (281)

Photo: The Globe and Mail
Marc Emery, the Prince of Pot, might not be taking another bong rip for awhile.

​Two Vancouver MPs are criticizing a decision to support the extradition of marijuana activist Marc Emery, the self-styled “Prince of Pot,” to the United States.

The Prince of Pot has been out on bail for the past six months. With the period of his release expiring, Emery surrendered himself to authorities Monday at the Vancouver courts.
Emery was arrested in 2005 as part of a joint Canada-United States law enforcement operation. He was charged in connection with an alleged online marijuana seed-selling business based in Vancouver, British Columbia, reports Stephen Thomson at the Vancouver Straight.

Graphic: Maine Medical Marijuana

​Maine’s new medical marijuana dispensary law, passed by voters last November, is chiefly known for its creation of dispensaries where cannabis patients can safely buy their medicine. But a lesser known part of the law, which requires patients and growers to register with the state, is being called an invasion of privacy by some advocates.

State officials say the registry will keep patients who enroll from being charged with marijuana offenses. But some patients said they are going to boycott the registry when it opens in July, reports Josie Huang of The Maine Public Broadcasting Network.

Photo: Paul Rodriguez, The Orange County Register

​​A federal judge has rejected a request by four Orange County, California medical marijuana patients for a temporary injunction preventing the cities of Lake Forest and Costa Mesa from shutting down marijuana dispensaries.

The four patients — Marla James, Wayne Washington, James Armantrout and Charles Daniel — argued through their lawyer, Matthew Pappas, that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) gives disabled people a federally protected right to use medical marijuana if such use is legal under state law, report Erika I. Ritchie and Ellyn Pak at The Orange County Register.
The patients were asking the judge to temporarily stop the cities from taking further action against dispensaries; bar the cities from violating the rights of qualified patients under the ADA; avoid damages for past actions in violation of the ADA; and award attorneys’ fees.

Photo: Medical Marijuana Blog

​The Los Angeles City Council gave final approval Friday to a fee schedule for medical marijuana dispensaries, adding the last element to the years-long effort to regulate pot shops in the city.

The council approved the measure by a 9-1 vote, with Councilman Bill Rosendahl continuing to oppose the measure, which he said is too restrictive, reports Rick Orlov at the Los Angeles Daily News.

Photo: LA Kush

​The Los Angeles City Council voted 9-1 Friday to approve final amendments to a local medical marijuana dispensary ordinance it passed earlier this year.

Conspicuously absent from the final ordinance was a controversial provision that caused medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) to file a lawsuit against the city. The ordinance previously required dispensary operators to find a new location within seven days after the law took effect, which ASA argued was a violation of due process.
Although Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed the dispensary ordinance into law on February 3, the city was required to adopt a supplemental permit fee ordinance before the law could take effect.

Graphic: Reality Catcher
See those two little red counties? Those are the heart of redneck California, ladies and gentlemen. Sutter and Colusa counties are the only two in the state still violating state law by refusing to issue medical marijuana ID cards.

​​Fourteen years after Californians voted to legalize the medicinal use of marijuana, two counties — in violation of state law — are still refusing to issue official identification cards to cannabis patients.

The Sutter County Board of Supervisors’ rejection of a plan Tuesday night left the county as one of only two in the state, along with Colusa County, without such a program, reports Howard Yune at the Yuba Appeal-Democrat.
Senate Bill 420, passed in 2003, directs California counties to issue ID cards to patients using medical marijuana with a doctor’s approval. Unfortunately, SB 420 doesn’t list specific sanctions against counties that refuse to do so.
The plan voted down by the myopically marijuana-phobic Sutter County supervisors was so reasonable, so middle of the road, that even the county sheriff endorsed it.

Graphic: StoptheDrugWar.org

​From the creators of the classic, Busted: The Citizen’s Guide to Surviving Police Encounters [2003], our friends at Flex Your Rights are releasing their new achievement, 10 Rules for Dealing with Police, on March 22.
The 40-minute educational drama is narrated by the legendary trial lawyer William “Billy” Murphy, Jr. (from HBO’s The Wire), 10 Rules depicts innocent people dealing with heavy-handed policing tactics used every day in the United States.
Through extensive collaboration with victims of police abuse, legal experts and law enforcement professionals, Flex Your Rights has developed a powerful multi-lingual (English, Spanish & Arabic) resource that provides proven survival strategies for dealing with racial profiling and police abuse.
Do you know what your rights are if you’re stopped by police? Most people don’t, and the consequences can be severe.

Graphic: 300zxFreak

​Two zealously anti-pot Los Angeles police officers on Wednesday warned Hawaii it could “see an increase in crime” if it legalizes medical marijuana dispensaries and softens its marijuana laws.

“It’s so bad in L.A.,” claimed Sgt. Eric Bixler of the Narcotics Division of Los Angeles Police Department. Bixler said law enforcement officers there “deal daily with the effects” of California’s Proposition 215, which allows patients and caregivers to possess and cultivate marijuana for personal medical use, reports Melissa Tanji at The Maui News.
People driving while smoking, and teens buying marijuana at dispensaries to resell on the street are just some of the problems caused by California’s medical marijuana law, the officers claimed.
Of course, since they’re good honest cops, we have to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they really believe nobody in California history ever drove a car while high until the medical marijuana law passed in 1996. Maybe they’re just a little slow in getting around to actually reading the language of the law, which prohibits sales to anyone without a doctor’s recommendation to use pot.

Graphic: Reality Catcher

​A Rhode Island state Senate commission has recommended that an ounce or less of marijuana be decriminalized in the state.

The panel, chaired by state Sen. Joshua Miller (D-Cranston), voted Tuesday to approve a 24-page final report concluding that marijuana law reform would save Rhode Island money by avoiding “costly arrests [and]incarcerations due to simple possession of marijuana,” reports Katherine Gregg of The Providence Journal.
The report says that Rhode Island could take its lead from Massachusetts, where adults 18 or older caught with an ounce or less of pot are required only to pay a $100 civil fine “that goes directly to the municipality in which the penalty was issued.”

Photo: julianabrint
I heart marijuana in D.C.

​As the District of Columbia Council meets Tuesday afternoon to hear testimony on the legalization of medical marijuana, they’ll be hearing different opinions from people on the same side of the argument, reports Martin Austermuhle at DCist.

Some advocates believe the legislation introduced in late January is too restrictive and unnecessarily limits access to marijuana for qualifying patients in D.C.
The bill would set up five dispensaries where patients with approved conditions and a note from their primary care physician could buy a 30-day supply of marijuana.
The dispensaries would be required to be at least 1,000 feet from any school or youth center. Patients would be required to pay registration fees.
The proposal does not live up to the spirit of the 1998 voter initiative that approved medical marijuana in D.C., according to some advocates.
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