Dispensaries

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DEA Agents Raid San Diego Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 13, 2012 Dispensaries, News

Medical marijuana patient advocates protest outside Golden West Collective on Thursday as it is raided by DEA agents and San Diego Police.

Federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided three medical marijuana dispensaries in San Diego at exactly 4:20 p.m. on Thursday, acting on a “landlord law” that was put into action after a crackdown announced by the U.S. Attorney’s office last October.

Landlords who rent to dispensaries were warned to evict their tenants are face prosecution and forfeiture of their property, reports Tony Shin at NBC San Diego.

Dozens of heavily armed agents with battering rams raided Golden West Collective on University Avenue in North Park on Wednesday, with the dastardly assistance of the San Diego Police Department and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, acting contrary to the wishes of voters and in violation of California state law. Masked gunmen swarmed into the medical facilities, forcing ailing patients to the floor and breaking down doors and smashing windows.

AZ Governor Directs State To License Marijuana Dispensaries

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 13, 2012 Dispensaries, Legislation, News

THC Finder

Giving up her idea of suing the federal government over Arizona’s medical marijuana law, Governor Jan Brewer said Friday she is directing the state health department to start accepting applications for cannabis dispensaries.

A suit filed by Brewer and her attorney general was dismissed by a federal judge on January 4. The complaint, filed back in May, sought “clarification” on whether state employees who license medical marijuana dispensaries could themselves face federal prosecution.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton ruled that state officials faced no such threat, and threw the suit out. The governors of Washington and Rhode Island have cited similar reasons — claiming they feared state employees would be federally prosecuted — for vetoing or delaying dispensaries in their states.

Feds Announce Colorado Medical Marijuana Crackdown

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 12, 2012 Dispensaries, Medical, News

Releaf

Some on Colorado’s medical marijuana scene have speculated that the fact that the Rocky Mountain State’s medicinal cannabis law is part of their state constitution — or maybe the state’s vigorous regulatory scheme — protected them from the ongoing federal crackdown. Looks like it’s time for a new theory.

The U.S. Attorney’s office today announced a crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries in Colorado, the most aggressive federal law enforcement action yet against the cannabis-centered businesses in that state, reports John Ingold at The Denver Post.

U.S. Attorney John Walsh sent letters to 23 dispensaries which his office claimed are located with 1,000 feet of schools. The dispensaries were told they had 45 days to close or face criminal prosecution and property forfeiture.

“When the voters of Colorado passed the limited medical marijuana amendment in 2000, they could not have anticipated that their vote would be used to justify large marijuana stores located within blocks of our schools,” Walsh lied in a statement announcing the crackdown. (I get really weary and annoyed with this threadbare “the poor ignorant voters didn’t know what they were voting for” argument.)

Vermont Marijuana Dispensaries Expected By Summer

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 12, 2012 Dispensaries, Medical, News

The Weed Blog

Vermont’s first medical marijuana dispensaries could be slightly delayed by Tropical Storm Irene, but are expected to begin to open this summer.

A law passed last year authorized up to four privately run cannabis dispensaries, and gave the state Public Safety Department the authority to create rules for them, reports Terri Hallenbeck at the Burlington Free Press.

Those rules should be ready in the next couple of weeks, according to testimony from Francis Aumand, director of the Division of Criminal Justice Services, to the Senate Government Operations Committee on Wednesday.

Aumand said he wasn’t sure he could make a June 2 deadline for issuing certificates to applicants interested in running the dispensaries, because of Vermont’s procedures for vetting those rules. However, he said it shouldn’t take “much longer” than that.

Medical Marijuana Trial Judge Recuses Himself For Alleged Bias

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 11, 2012 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Rory Murray/OC Weekly

Sentencing for medical marijuana defendants Joe Grumbine and Joe Byron — convicted of cannabis sales in relation to a pair of dispensaries in Long Beach, California and another in Garden Grove — has been delayed. In an unexpected, 11th-hour move, Long Beach Superior Court Judge Charles D. Sheldon removed himself from the case Wednesday morning, citing allegations of his biased behavior in the courtroom and admitting he made a serious error in sending a complimentary letter to the prosecutor prior to sentencing.

Judge Sheldon — who throughout the trial, put on one of the most unseemly displays of anti-marijuana bias in memory — denied the allegations, reports Nick Schou of OC Weekly. “The court is not biased in favor of any party or counsel,” he claimed, responding to a recusal motion by defense attorneys Christopher Glew and Allison Margolin. The recusal motion included a laundry list of Judge Sheldon’s objectionable statements.

Mendocino County Suspends Medical Marijuana Permit Program

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 10, 2012 Dispensaries, Growing, News

Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat

Matthew Cohen takes cuttings from marijuana plants in order to clone them at the Northstone Organics Cooperative, in Redwood Valley, in 2010

Mendocino County, California’s unique, income-generating medical marijuana growing permit program has been suspended pending the outcome of a Southern California court case challenging the legality of issuing permits for activities that are illegal under federal law.

“We’re waiting to hear something,” said Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman, reports Glenda Anderson at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

The permits — popular in the medical marijuana community for the peace of mind they fostered — allowed medicinal cannabis collectives to grow up to 99 plants, with a fee structure including inspections and zip-tie identification markers for each plant.

Dispensary Closure Protesters To Feds: Cannabis Is Medicine

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

The Petrelis Files

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

An estimated crowd of 50-60 loyal medical marijuana supporters made their presence known at the Federal Building on Golden Gate Avenue this morning in San Francisco to show their solidarity for the dispensary, Market Street Coop that is being forced to close at 7pm today.

Market Street Coop is the last of the dispensaries in the San Francisco/Marin County area that was served by the Justice Department with the so-called infamous, ‘Five Letters.’

Toke of the Town was able to “obtain” one of those letters.

The Five Letters refer to the documents sent out by U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, Melinda Haag, starting in October of last year to landlords of dispensaries, threatening asset forfeiture. All five dispensaries that received those letters have had to close.

Two of the dispensaries, Divinity Tree and Medithrive. have been able to make the lateral move to a delivery service as many pot shops have had to do in order not to lose everything. The Market Street Coop doesn’t have that kind of wiggle room.

Judge Nixes Lawsuit Challenging AZ Medical Marijuana Law

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 5, 2012 Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Council of Conservative Citizens

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton: Gov. Jan Brewer and her Attorney General “have not shown that any action against state employees in this state is imminent or even threatened”

A federal judge on Wednesday granted an American Civil Liberties Union request to throw out a lawsuit filed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer seeking to strike down the state’s voter-approved medical marijuana law that would allow sick patients to access important medicine.

Gov. Brewer, a notorious opponent of medical marijuana, argued in the May lawsuit that state officials fear federal prosecution for implementing the law — this in spite of the fact that Arizona’s former top federal prosecutor specifically said publicly that the federal government “has no intention of targeting or going after people who are implementing or who are in compliance with state law.”

Maryland Could Give Green Light To Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 3, 2012 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Medical Marijuana Blog

A medical marijuana bill, House Bill 15, has been filed in the Maryland General Assembly, and would establish cannabis dispensaries for the seriously ill. But a state panel charged with making recommendations on medical marijuana last month failed to find consensus, instead presenting two divergent plans.

Their report, released in December, outlines competing plans to implement Maryland’s medical marijuana law, which was passed last April and does not take the step of actually legalizing cannabis outright. The Legislature will be left to decide which of the two plans — if either — will be chosen for the distribution of medicinal cannabis in the state, reports Erin Cox at Hometown Annapolis.

R.I. House Speaker To Ask Feds For Marijuana Guidance

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 28, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Steven Senne/AP

Rhode Island Speaker of the House Gordon D. Fox: “I think it’s been too long and there have been too many people waiting”

Rhode Island’s Legislature legalized medical marijuana back in 2006. Three years later, in 2009, the Legislature overrode a gubernatorial veto to allow medicinal cannabis dispensaries in the state with an overwhelming 68-0 vote in the House and 35-3 in the Senate.

That certainly seems clear enough, and it’s been a couple of years now. Haven’t they had time to get that program up and running for seriously ill patients? But, well, you know how silly the federal government can be, when it comes to that oh-so-dangerous boogie bear “marijuana.” It’s still against federal law, doncha know? So please don’t get any wacky ideas about the people trying to run things.

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