Dispensaries

Referendum Would Challenge L.A. Pot Dispensary Law

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 15, 2010 Dispensaries, Legislation

A medical marijuana dispensary on Santa Monica Boulevard offers prizes.

Medical marijuana advocates are gathering signatures for a voter referendum to block a recently passed Los Angeles law that will shut down hundreds of pot dispensaries.

The referendum is designed to overturn the city’s medical marijuana dispensary ordinance before it takes effect in May, reports The Associated Press.

The group is looking for 27,425 signatures by Monday to get the issue on the ballot. Organizer Dan Halbert, who runs the Rainforest Collective in Mar Vista, said it’s going to be close.

Halbert’s dispensary opened last year, and is one of around 700 that would have to close under the ordinance, which caps the number of pot shops at 70.

The law has a loophole for about 128 dispensaries that registered in 2007, before the City Council instituted a moratorium.

Marijuana collectives reportedly outnumber both public schools and Starbucks outlets in Los Angeles.

Bill Calls For Five Marijuana Dispensaries In Vermont

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 12, 2010 Dispensaries, Legislation

Graphic: Darwinek

A state Senate panel voted 3-2 Thursday to support a bill that would allow the establishment of five medical marijuana dispensaries to serve the needs of 169 Vermonters who have registered with the state as cannabis patients, reports Nancy Remsen of the Burlington Free Press.

Supporters on the Senate Government Operations Committee argued that patients with permission to use marijuana shouldn’t be forced to deal with criminals as they try to obtain cannabis to help cope with debilitating medical conditions.

Opponents claimed Vermont couldn’t afford the new oversight and enforcement expenses that would come with the establishment of dispensaries, which would be called “compassion centers.”

The bill must be reviewed by at least one more Senate committee before it comes before the full Senate for a vote, Remsen reports.

Despite the split committee vote, the bill might receive a push from Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin (D-Windham).

“I’d like to see it pass,” Shumlin said. “We get calls in my office from elderly Vermonters, sick people, who have followed the law and ask us what a drug dealer looks like so they can get the medicine they need.”

Marijuana Patients To Legislators: Please Give Safe Access A Vote

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 11, 2010 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Graphic: Cannabis Culture

A group of medical marijuana patients Thursday held a press conference in Boston to ask lawmakers to support legalizing medical marijuana in Massachusetts.

The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Health is currently considering a bill that would make Massachusetts the 15th state in the U.S. to give seriously ill patients safe and legal access to medical cannabis.

Patients called for the bill to receive a committee vote before a deadline on March 18, after which passage out of committee becomes much more difficult.

“Watching my 29-year-old son struggle with the side effects of brutal chemotherapy treatments was heart wrenching,” said Lorraine Kerz of Greenfield, Mass., who said her son benefited from medical marijuana.

Colorado Medical Pot Evaluation Co. Faces Scrutiny For Selling Patient Info

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 10, 2010 Dispensaries, Medical

Photo: Monroe County, FL Sheriff’s Department

CannaMed, which bills itself as Colorado’s largest medical marijuana evaluation company, is facing scrutiny for selling patient information to dispensaries and grow facilities so that those operations can show they are caring for enough patients to account for the cannabis they have on hand.

While CannaMed’s owner insists that he’s not doing anything wrong, his company could be greatly impacted by legislation now making its way through the State Capitol, reports Joel Warner at Denver Westworld.

Marijuana Dispensaries Coming To Vermont? Committee Votes Thursday

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 9, 2010 Dispensaries, Legislation

Photo: Grateful Meds

An effort to provide eligible patients in Vermont with safe and legal access to medical marijuana could move forward this week when a Senate committee votes on whether to create state-licensed dispensaries for cannabis.

The Senate Committee on Government Operations is scheduled to vote Thursday on a bill which would establish up to five “compassion centers” at which patients could buy medical pot, reports Peter Hirschfield of the Vermont Press Bureau.

Maine Legislature To Hold Public Hearing On Marijuana Dispensaries

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 9, 2010 Dispensaries, Legislation

Graphic: MMPI

State Senator Joseph Brannigan has introduced LD 1811, “An Act to Amend the Maine Medical Marijuana Act,” which would finally set the stage for the establishment of medical marijuana dispensaries in Maine.

The Maine Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee will hold a public hearing on the bill on Thursday, March 11 at 1 p.m., in room 209 in the Cross Building. Any resident of Maine is allowed to testify.

Dispensary: Hundreds Of Pot Plants Could Perish After Lockdown

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 5, 2010 Dispensaries, Growing, Medical

Photo: U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

Plants that could help an estimated 2,400 local medical marijuana patients are in danger of dying with the power cut at CannaHelp dispensary after Thursday’s lockdown of the California pot collective’s building, owner Stacy Hochanadel said Friday.

“The just pulled out all the power so the plants are going to die,” Hochanadel said, reports Marcel Honore of The Desert Sun. “The heat, the lack of light, the lack of watering” puts the 400 plants “in danger of being unusable.”

Hawaii Senate Votes To Tax Pot $30/Ounce, Allow Dispensaries

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 3, 2010 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Photo: Cannabis Culture

Medical marijuana would be taxed $30 an ounce and sold at county-licensed “compassion centers” that would grow and sell marijuana to qualified patients and caregivers under a bill passed Tuesday by the Hawaii State Senate.

The bill to allow the sale and taxation of medical marijuana, Senate Bill 2213, was passed by lawmakers as they try to add up enough money to stop the state’s projected $1.2 billion budget shortfall, reports Richard Borreca at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

The marijuana bill, after provoking debate on the Senate floor, eventually passed 20-4.

“I don’t think this is helping to alleviate the drug problem,” said Sen. Norman Sakamoto (D-Salt Lake/Foster Village), who had evidently wandered into the wrong debate.

Windward Oahu Republican Sen. Fed Hemmings said the FDA should test medical marijuana before people sell it.

Marijuana Dispensary Advocates Challenge Restrictive L.A. Ordinance

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 2, 2010 Dispensaries, Legislation

Photo: The Bong Place

A medical marijuana advocacy organization upped the ante on Tuesday, filing a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles, saying that certain provisions in a recently adopted ordinance would shut down virtually all dispensaries in the city.

In order to comply with the local ordinance, passed by the City Council and signed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on February 3, dispensaries must be located at least 1,000 feet from schools, parks, libraries, churches, and other so-called “sensitive uses,” and cannot abut or be across the street from any residence — which excludes almost all commercial areas in the city, according to patient advocacy group Americans for Safe Access.

Dispensaries in “sensitive” areas — which means almost all of them — are required to find a new location within seven days after the ordinance takes effect.

“The dispensary ordinance passed by the Los Angeles City Council might have been reasonable, if not for some onerous provisions,” said Joe Elford, chief counsel with ASA, who filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday.

L.A. Officials Crack Down On Marijuana Dispensaries

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on February 26, 2010 Dispensaries, Legislation

Photo: Monica Almeida/New York Times

District Attorney Steve Cooley has been promising for months to “get tough” with marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles County, and this week, he followed through.

The media-loving, trash-talking D.A. charged dispensary owner Jeff Jones — who, maybe not coincidentally, is also an outspoken medical cannabis advocate — with 24 felonies, including selling and transporting marijuana, as well as money laundering, reports Richard Gonzales of NPR.

Cooley, who infamously said last year that “approximately zero” of L.A.’s dispensaries are operating legally, is now basing what looks to be misguided political ambition upon a quixotic quest to drive the pot shops out of business.

Bail for Joseph was set at more than half a million dollars, an amount usually reserved for violent criminals, according to Joseph’s attorney, Eric Shevin.

“They made an example of him,” Shevin said. “He’s a very outspoken, well-known advocate of marijuana, so he sends a stronger message to the community than the many other dispensary operators that no one even talks about.”

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