Last week, we reported that the first recreational marijuana shop to open in Aurora, Colorado — and at least dispensary did indeed making its debut yesterday. But that’s not the only item on our cannabis calendar. There are plenty more events in Denver to keep you occupied this week if you happen to be in town, plus more for you to pencil in for the rest of the month.
Medical marijuana patients in Connecticut now have the ability to purchase medical cannabis from a licensed dispensary after the Healing Corner and Arrow Alternative Care opened their doors Monday afternoon after nearly two years of waiting.
The centers, two of six in the state, opened their doors to long lines yesterday after finally receiving product from Theraplant, one of four state-licensed pot farms legally allowed to supply the dispensaries.
| Eric Hood/OC Weekly. |
According to a Santa Ana Police Department investigator, 17 medical marijuana dispensaries were visited by police in the past week. 42 tickets were issued to dispensaries operating in violation of the city’s 2007 ban on pot clubs, three of which–Wax City, Emerald, and Wax-R-Us–have now closed. The operation came in the wake of a July 15 city council meeting in which councilmembers voted to appropriate $500,000 for ongoing anti-pot enforcement actions.
A proposed law to provide statewide regulations for marijuana dispensaries was once firmly opposed by the cannabis community.
It sought to outlaw concentrates like wax, and it would have limited what kind of doctors could recommend weed as well as what form of pot they could prescribe. No longer. The bill by Southern California Sen. Lou Correa has been worked over so much that a key liberal Democrat, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, has jumped aboard as a “principal co-author,” his office announced.
Dennis Romero at the LA Weekly has more.
A proposed law to begin strict, statewide regulation of marijuana dispensaries would allow edibles and concentrates (wax, honey oil, dabs, shatter) to be sold legally in California dispensaries.
An earlier version of the bill proposed by Sen. Lou Correa would have banned concentrated cannabis products, often blamed for home-lab explosions triggered by butane extraction processes. Medical marijuana advocates have been dead set against the legislation.
While cities across California continue to put bans in place on medical cannabis businesses and even home cultivation, Desert Hot Springs is taking a different approach: tolerance.
Leaders in the small town north of Palm Springs – currently the only other city in the county that allows for medical marijuana shops – unanimously approved allowing medical pot shops in the city this week, agreeing that allowing the industry would help both medical patients as well as city coffers.
| TexTexin/Flickr |
Two former Los Angeles County Sherriff’s deputies were charged, booked, and released this week on $50,000 bail a piece, stemming from accusations that they had illegally planted firearms during an alleged bust at a southern California medical marijuana dispensary back in 2011.
Facing charges ranging from obstruction of justice and altering evidence, to perjury and filing false police reports, Julio Cesar Martinez (39) and Anthony Manuel Paez (32) are scheduled to be arraigned later this year, on June 17th. If convicted, they could face up to seven years in state prison.
| The Mile High City. |
Legal marijuana sales have been going on in Colorado now for just about two months, and so far the sky hasn’t fallen. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Marijuana taxes are pumping money into state coffers and (despite high prices) the shops have all operated without any federal intervention.
Want to know which ones are open and what they are like? Our friends at the Denver Michael Roberts at the Denver Westword has been compiling a list of all 47 recreational dispensaries in the city so far, including links to reviews of most of the shops themselves. Page down for more.
Be careful what you wish for. That is the lesson being realized today by pro-cannabis advocates and activists in America’s Finest City.
| San Diego, California |
Yesterday, on a nearly unanimous 8-1 decision, the San Diego City Council finally cast a meaningful vote on establishing an official medical marijuana business ordinance in the city, laying down a law on pot shops for the first time since the California Compassionate Use Act, commonly referred to as Prop 215, was passed nearly 18 years ago.
Both Colorado and Washington made history in 2012 by becoming the first two states to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults. But while Colorado-based pot shops have been raking in mile-high profits since implementing the new laws at the beginning of this year, folks in Washington are still waiting for the green light to begin their own green rush.
But not everyone in Washington is excited about the controversial new industry coming to their neck of the woods. Nearly three dozen of the state’s 75 largest cities, towns, and municipalities have scrambled to enact ordinances, restrictions, and outright bans to keep any eventual recreational weed stores from opening up in their neighborhood.
As covered by local KING 5 News, a new bill (HB 2144) is in the works that would effectively place a ban on any future bans on pot shops, and it has some city officials hot under the collar.