Browsing: Dispensaries

Photo: Rod Sanford/Lansing State Journal
Marijuana dispensary owner Danny Trevino calls Lansing, Mich. police Tuesday after they left a note at the storefront that he uses

​Lansing’s first official medical marijuana dispensary has opened, testing the limits of Michigan’s medical marijuana law. The business, still unnamed, opened last week as city officials work toward drafting a city ordinance to regulate cannabis related businesses, reports Scott Davis at Lansing State Journal.

“It gives peace of mind that there is a place where I can go to buy it,” said Darryl Brija, 52, a state-certified medical marijuana patient who has a degenerative back disease. “It’s a good thing for people who can’t grow it themselves.”

Photo: Colorado Statesman
Colorado State Sen. Chris Romer: “If you all don’t clean up your own house, we’re going to clean it up for you”

​Colorado State Sen. Chris Romer (D-Denver), one of the co-sponsors of HB 1284 and SB 109, bills in the Legislature which would effectively eliminate most medical marijuana dispensaries in the state, shocked audience members at a meeting April 15 when he used the phrase “auditors with guns” dozens of times when describing the regulatory regime he envisions.

Romer discussed the bills at a meeting of the Medical Marijuana Business Alliance on April 15 at Loews Hotel in Denver. Members of the Cannabis Therapy Institute (CTI) were in attendance, and on 4/20, the People’s Cannabis News released a video of the event with Romer’s speech (see the video below).
Romer started on a threatening note. “If you all don’t clean up your own house, we’re going to clean it up for you,” he told the medical marijuana advocates. “Certainly if we send in some auditors with guns, we’re gonna clean it up really fast.”

Photo: Joe Amon/The Denver Post
Thousands gathered in the park across from the Colorado State Capitol in Denver to support the legalization of marijuana, April 20, 2010.

​Colorado state lawmakers at the Capitol on Tuesday toughened regulations for the booming medical marijuana industry as clouds of smoke wafted from a pro-pot really across the street.

The House ultimately passed a bill to create rules for marijuana dispensaries, focusing largely on licensing requirements, tax policy and signage rules, reports John Ingold at The Denver Post.

Photo: Executive Healthcare

​The D.C. Council will vote Tuesday, April 20, on a much-anticipated proposal to allow chronically ill patients to receive a doctor’s recommendation to use marijuana medically, and buy it from a city-licensed dispensary.

Under the bill, which has already passed two committees, patients who suffer from HIV, glaucoma, cancer, or a “chronic and lasting disease” and who get a doctor’s recommendation will be allowed to possess up to two ounces of marijuana, defined as a “30-day supply,” reports Tim Craig at The Washington Post.

Photo: Orange County Sheriff’s Department
Andrew VanMourick, 21, of Dana Point, California, was taken into custody along with three other suspected pot thieves.

​Three men tunneled into a California medical marijuana dispensary, according to police — the second burglary at the same location in two weeks.

A recently installed alarm system inside the dispensary alerted deputies to the break-in, said Jim Amormino, Sheriff’s Department spokesman, reports Salvador Hernandez of The Orange County Register.
The three men tunneled their way into the dispensary from an adjoining business, according to police. They began stacking cannabis plants near the back door of the dispensary when the alarm sounded, sending deputies to the location, Amormino said.
The deputies arrived to see three men running from the dispensary.

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.

Photo: Phoenix New Times
Protesters at the Phoenix Global Marijuana March 2008

​The Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project Wednesday submitted more than 250,000 signatures to the Arizona Secretary of State’s office in order to place medical marijuana on the November ballot in Arizona.

The initiative requires 153,365 signatures to qualify for the ballot. Once the initiative qualifies, Arizona voters will be asked on November 2 to vote yes on the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act, which would allow terminally and seriously ill patients who find relief from marijuana to use it with their doctor’s approval.

Photo: Idaho Moms 4 Marijuana

​Idaho Rep. Tom Trail (R-Moscow) is proposing a measure that would make Idaho the 15th station in the nation to legalize the medical use of marijuana for patients with chronic illnesses.

The bill would allow patients with illnesses like cancer, AIDS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, muscular dystrophy, glaucoma and multiple sclerosis to have access to legal marijuana grown and distributed through state-monitored dispensaries, reports KLEW.
According to Trail, the legislation would be “the most restrictive medical marijuana law in the nation” because it would permit doctors to recommend it only for a list of serious chronic illnesses.
The law, in what unfortunately may become a trend after New Jersey’s Legislature passed a similar measure, would also forbid patients from growing their own marijuana. Patients would be limited to two ounces of dispensary-purchased pot per month.

Graphic: NORML

​When supervisors in Placer County, California voted last week to ban medical marijuana dispensaries, they relied heavily on the information contained in a “White Paper on Marijuana Dispensaries” from the California Police Chiefs Association. Trouble is, the cop-sponsored “White Paper” is an inaccurate, nasty bit of propaganda which bears little resemblance to the truth, according to medical marijuana advocates.

The toxic little screed, published last year, argues that dispensaries are linked to “marijuana crimes” and violence, reports Peter Hecht at The Sacramento Bee.
As Hecht reports, here’s a sample of the kinds of, er, “information” contained in the cops’ ‘ “White Paper”:

Graphic: Medical Marijuana Blog

​The Maryland Senate on Saturday voted 35-12 to pass SB 627, a bill that would allow qualified patients to use medical marijuana with their doctor’s recommendation, and receive safe access to their medicine through state-licensed dispensaries.

The bill now moves to the state House. The General Assembly’s session ends Monday night.
“I’m very proud of my Senate colleagues today for voting to provide some of our most vulnerable residents with the compassion and care that they deserve,” said Sen. David Brinkley (R-Frederick), the bill’s sponsor and a two-time cancer survivor.
1 104 105 106 107 108 118