| IMCC from Google Maps. |
An Inglewood marijuana dispensary that was the first pot shop in Los Angeles county, according to its owner, was shut down by police today and will likely close for good.
Paul Scott of IMCC Wellness Center says numerous police officers showed up shortly after 1 p.m. and raided his store. He told us that cops at the scene said the other dispensaries in Inglewood — he estimated there were 3 of them — would also be put out of business today. LA Weekly has the full story.
| Wikimedia commons/Dnd523. |
| Dr. Sanjay Gupta. |
Arguably the most well-known doctor in the United States this week has announced that he is now in favor of legalizing medical cannabis and that he was wrong to speak out against medical marijuana in the past.
CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanja Gupta says that five years ago, the research he was seeing just wasn’t there to prove that cannabis was a beneficial substance in America. At the time, Gupta rallied against cannabis, even penning an article in 2009 titled “While I Would Vote No on Pot”. But he now says his position was flawed, and it was mostly at due to his own willful ignorance on the matter.
| Attorney General Eric Holder. |
Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday told NPR that too many people are in jail for nonviolent drug crimes and that there is a great need for federal drug sentencing reform in the United States.
“The war on drugs is now 30, 40 years old,” Holder told NPR. “There have been a lot of unintended consequences. There’s been a decimation of certain communities, in particular communities of color.”
“Medical marijuana may be right for you.” That is all the sign out in front of doctor Brian Murray’s office said Wednesday afternoon, and there was a line out the door according to the Chicago Tribune.
Murray is the first physician to open up his doors in the city specifically for diagnosing patients who think they might benefit from medical cannabis. The only issue is: medical marijuana won’t be available legally for some time in the state.
Back in May, Colorado marijuana attorney Brian Vicente, who co-authored Colorado’s Amendment 64, expressed supreme confidence that state voters would approve taxes on recreational pot sales in the 30 percent range this November. But a lot has changed since then, including dozens of recreational cannabis-sales bans in communities such as Colorado Springs.
While some observers feel these developments could endanger the tax measure, Vicente disagrees. Denver Westword has the full details.
A medical marijuana proposal in Arkansas is one step closer to reality today after the state attorney general gave approval to the official title and popular name of the bill: The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act.
As we told you back in July, the original proposal had been turned down by the attorney general for being too vague – notably language stating that patients would not be allowed to grow their own cannabis.
| Michael Beasley putting up a jumper. |
It’s a wonder that Phoenix Suns forward Michael Beasley has ever gotten away with smoking weed.
Scottsdale police arrested Beasley early Tuesday morning after finding marijuana in Beasley’s possession during a traffic stop, which is at least the fifth time that someone has caught Beasley with weed. Phoenix New Times has the full story.
A man who attempted to help unload 566 kilograms of smuggled marijuana to Laguna Beach from a Mexican boat in February has been sentenced to prison.
Kevin Anthony Gilbert, who attended East Los Angeles College and played football, sought a punishment of no more than 30 months in prison because he argued he played a minor role in the crime; he didn’t even know how much he would be paid for unloading the pot. OC Weekly has the rest.
We’re of the belief that the marijuana-ignorant just need the facts to help them understand this plant. Like the costs: nearly $7.7 billion in annual enforcement costs and $1 billion simply to prosecute all just for cannabis.
The folks over at Top-criminal-justice-schools.net put together this interesting infographic on cannabis decriminalization across the U.S. to help us keep it all together.
Last week, Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey told city council members that there were “twelve homicides related directly to medical marijuana.” He subsequently said the figures were “loose” and didn’t all occur in MMJ facilities. But when contacted by Westword, Morrissey’s office did indeed come up with a roster of twelve deaths in ten separate incidents that prosecutors believe were related to pot.
Denver Westword has the full story.