Dispensaries

Judge Orders California City To Let Marijuana Dispensary Open

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 13, 2012 Dispensaries, Medical, News

This Wonka Umpa Lumpa ($20 gram, $450 an ounce) is among the strains available at Desert Heart Collective. A judge on Tuesday morning ordered the city of Rancho Mirage to issue a certificate of occupancy to the collective

A Riverside County, California judge ruled in favor of a medical marijuana dispensary on Tuesday, ordering the city of Rancho Mirage to have the building inspected for code violations and to issue a certificate of occupancy.

Desert Heart Collective, co-owned by four people, opened in 2010 and was later shut down by the city, reports Erik Sandoval at KESQ. The owners filed a $2 million lawsuit against

Rancho Mirage on February 3, 2011.

Rancho Mirage has a city ordinance prohibiting storefront medical marijuana dispensaries “due to the significant negative secondary effects that such dispensaries have been found to create — such as increase crime,” City Attorney Steve Quintanilla claimed in a written statement. (He’s mistaken or lying; the shops have been shown to create no such thing.)

DEA, Police Raid Upland, California Marijuana Dispensary

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 12, 2012 Dispensaries, News

Jennifer Cappuccio Maher/San Bernardino Sun

A federal DEA agent enters G3 Holistic on Monday morning, March 12, 2012, in Upland, California. Federal agents served a search warrant at the medical marijuana dispensary, which has been at odds with the city for a couple of years.

The Drug Enforcement Administration at 9:30 on Monday morning served a search warrant at G3 Holistic, Inc., a medical marijuana dispensary that has been at odds with the city of Upland, California for a couple of years.

Seized in the raid were at least 25 pounds of marijuana and 89 pounds of medicated edible products containing cannabis, according to the DEA, report Canan Tasci and Melissa Pinion-Whitt of the San Bernardino Sun.

No arrests have been made.

DEA spokeswoman Sarah Pullen confirmed that a search warrant had been served at G3 and that the federal agency has been “working with” California Attorney General Kamala Harris’s office.

Safe Access: If A Cannabis Patient Is Cut Down Mid-Disease, Does Anyone Hear It?

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 10, 2012 Culture, Dispensaries, Medical

death + taxes

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

Resonate

res·o·nate/ˈrezəˌnāt/

Verb: 1. Produce or be filled with a deep, full, reverberating sound.

2. Evoke or suggest images, memories, and emotions.

Picture the State of California in your mind. Now imagine the Attorney General taking a pair of Federal scissors and cutting along the dotted line below and above California’s largest city, leaving Los Angeles as an island. Not content to stop there, Cali’s Top Law Dog is now on a serrated blood trail with Federal Fiskars in hand.

She continues undercutting the will of the People by lopping off areas of California like a mad child decapitating paper dolls. Soon, if she has her way, all of California’s dispensaries will be gone.

Outdated Tax Code Calls Marijuana Dispensaries Drug Traffickers

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 9, 2012 Dispensaries, News

Veterans Today

Seattle Seminar Saturday March 10th to Educate Attorneys, Accountants and Cannabis Business Owners How to Prepare Their Businesses for Possible IRS Audits under the Current 280E IRS Tax Code

The Internal Revenue Service is using tax audits to rule that state-sanctioned cannabis businesses are deemed “drug trafficking organizations” under Section 280E of the IRS code which was created decades ago. Through this definition of the tax code, the IRS is denying legitimate businesses from making normal deductions such as rent payments, payroll, insurance, and other usual business expenses incurred, and demanding large taxes and fines on the industry.

Colorado DEA Chief Dismisses Medical Value Of Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 9, 2012 Dispensaries, Medical, News

The Denver Post

Special Agent Barbra Roach, DEA: “By federal law, marijuana is illegal. There is no medical proof it has any benefit.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration’s new regional chief in Denver, Barbra Roach, wasted no time in offending Colorado. Claiming that marijuana has “no known medical value,” she also said that she will find a place to live that does not allow medical marijuana businesses.

“It is not surprising that in Colorado, where voters have approved medical marijuana, some find her comments more than a little offensive,” reports Scot Kersgaard at The Colorado Independent.

“By federal law, marijuana is illegal,” Roach — who is replacing Jeff Sweetin, who was promoted to run the DEA’s training center in Virginia — told The Denver Post. “There is no medical proof it has any benefit,” she said, ignoring literally hundreds or thousands of medical studies.

Roach told the Post that marijuana is illegal despite Colorado’s constitutional amendment which allows it for medicinal use. She didn’t return subsequent calls seeking further comment.

Legal Marijuana’s Top 10 Greatest Hits

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 8, 2012 Dispensaries, Medical, Products

Courtesy of Strain Exchange

WeedMaps put together all its medical marijuana dispensary listings and came up with Legal Weed’s Top 10 Greatest Hits, based on the number of locations where each strain is sold.

No Marijuana Dispensary In Colorado Is Safe: Federal Prosecutor

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 5, 2012 Dispensaries, News

THC Finder

There is no such thing as a safe harbor for medical marijuana dispensaries in Colorado, according to the federal prosecutor there.

U.S. Attorney John Walsh on Friday sent a letter to a lawyer representing medical marijuana dispensaries, saying safe harbor doesn’t exist for any such shops because marijuana remains illegal under federal law, reports the Associated Press.

Walsh and medical marijuana attorney Robert Corry have exchanged several letters regarding the locations of dispensaries and how far they must be from schools in order to be safe from federal raids.

Judge Denies Challenge Of Long Beach Medical Marijuana Ban

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 2, 2012 Dispensaries, Legislation, News

THC Finder

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Friday denied an injunction against Long Beach’s ban on medical marijuana dispensaries.

Opponents of the two-week-old law sought the injunction after a panel of Fourth Appellate District judges on Wednesday ruled that Lake Forest officials couldn’t use that city’s noise abatement ordinance as a wholesale ban on medicinal cannabis dispensaries and collectives, reports the Long Beach Press Telegram.

Lake Forest officials are allowed to use their nuisance ordinance to regulate the dispensaries and collectives, but they can’t just declare them all a nuisance, thereby banning them, according to the decision in Lake Forest v. Evergreen Holistic Collective.

Marijuana Dispensaries Coming To R.I.: Gov., Legislature Agree

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 1, 2012 Dispensaries, Medical, News

Releaf

Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee has reached a compromise with the Legislature under which medical marijuana dispensaries will be allowed to open in the state

Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee and the Legislature on Thursday agreed to allow medical marijuana dispensaries to open in the state after negotiating a compromise. Chafee had blocked the dispensaries from opening, fearing they would violate federal law and result in DEA raids in the state.

Three dispensaries already picked by the state to distribute medicinal cannabis could open soon after the General Assembly endorses the compromise, reports the Associated Press.

According to lawmakers, state health officials will be directed to limit the amount of marijuana dispensaries may possess to answer concerns that larger shops would run afoul of the federal Controlled Substances Act, which outlaws any amount of marijuana for any purpose.

Chafee, even while slamming the Obama Administration’s crackdown on medical marijuana, put on hold the licensing of the three dispensaries last year after the state’s U.S. Attorney warned that operators of the shops could face federal charges. Chafee had joined Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire in asking the federal government to reclassify marijuana from its current status as a Schedule I substance, meaning the feds regard pot as having no medical value and a high potential for abuse.

Colorado Senate Considers Medical Marijuana Vendor Training

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 1, 2012 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

examiner.com

Medical marijuana dispensaries looking for more professional respect would like to see a “responsible medical marijuana vendor” designation currently being considered in the Colorado Senate.

The designation would give dispensary owners the option of training employees similarly to that already available for the liquor business, reports the Associated Press.

Employees would be trained in handling cannabis and identifying medical marijuana patient IDs. Dispensaries which give “responsible vendor” training to all their employees could get a break if they face state sanctions for a regulatory misstep later.

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