Dispensaries

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Maine Criticizes ‘California Style’ Marijuana Dispensary

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 27, 2011 Dispensaries, News

It’s often hard to know exactly what government bureaucrats want from medical marijuana dispensaries. Despite the fact that voters in 16 states (and the District of Columbia) have decided for themselves to allow the medicinal use of cannabis, it seems that stuffed-shirt anti-pot types always find objections to the existence of places where patients can actually, you know, get marijuana.

When the shops are quick-and-easy, in-and-out types of places where one just goes in, makes the donation or payment, and gets the medicine, they’re criticized as “drug dealers, not health establishments.” And when the dispensaries attempt — as is now the case in Maine — to offer additional services to their seriously ill patients, they’re told that isn’t OK, either.

A dispensary scheduled to open next month in Portland, Maine, is designed as a “California style” wellness center, promoting a free coffee and tea bar, acupuncture clinics, support groups, counseling and a “welcoming vapor lounge,” reports Tom Bell at the Portland Morning Sentinel.

President Obama: An Unexpected Enemy Of Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 26, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

As an Illinois state senator, Presidential candidate, and President, Barack Obama has made numerous statements in support of marijuana policy reform, and vowed not to waste Justice Department resources by going after medical marijuana dispensaries.
Obama had called using federal agents to go after patients and providers who are abiding by state laws in states where medical marijuana is legal “is not an efficient use of our resources.”
So when Obama won the Presidential election in 2008, supporters had hoped that patients abiding by state laws could use marijuana for medical purposes without fear of government intrusion.

Crackdown: Cali Marijuana Dispensaries Turning To Delivery

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 26, 2011 Dispensaries, News

WeedMaps

Online dispensary locator WeedMaps shows a plethora of medical marijuana delivery services available in Los Angeles

A growing trend in California’s billion-dollar medical marijuana industry — which has recently come under attack from the federal government — is the presence of delivery-only dispensaries to deal with an legal environment that is increasingly precarious for storefronts.

Threats of property forfeiture against landlords, lawsuits and raids have made brick-and-mortor locations less attractive to the collectives, reports David Downs at the San Francisco Chronicle.

“When you have a storefront, you’re on the map,” said Oakland defense attorney William G. Panzer, who represents recently raided Northstone Organics, a delivery service based in Ukiah, Mendocino County in the heart of the Emerald Triangle. “You don’t have those issues with a delivery service. No one’s going to know about it.”

Deputies Give Marijuana Back To Dispensary Under Court Order

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 24, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Cafe Press

Why, thank you, officer, and Merry Christmas.

Deputies returned two pounds of seized cannabis to a California dispensary on Friday after a court ruled that the marijuana had been improperly confiscated.

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department confiscated two pounds of marijuana from Common Roots Collective during a shakedown, I mean “inspection, on December 1. But the dispensary’s lawyer argued that the deputies violated federal law, since authorities, including code enforcement officers, had entered the property on an inspection order and not a search warrant, reports CBS 13.

The court ruled in favor of the dispensary three weeks later.

“The police are being kind enough to return it to us before Christmas,” said attorney John Fuery.

A Cannabis Christmas Wish… A Marijuana Chanukah Hint

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 22, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Sarah Rice/SFGate

Lynnette Shaw ran Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana — the first in the state to be licensed, back in 1997. Now the Feds have shut it down.

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

It’s really easy these days to be negative about cannabis. The Feds are waving their guns around like old-time Western town bullies. Playing with the tin-horns and the dandy Easterners alike, making them dance to a tune that we thought was long gone.

They sit outside protecting the saloon, leaning back in their chairs, keeping the weak and poor in the sight of their weapons, not necessarily to shoot them, just scare ’em a little.

In the Golden State, where it must seem that progress burns bright, I mean, how can you complain when you can have your medicine, including edibles and anything else that’s on the menu delivered right to your door? What in the world could those spoiled Californians have to gripe about?

How about the closing of Lynnette Shaw’s Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana dispensary in Fairfax? As most know by now, Lynnette’s dispensary was the first to be licensed in California back in ’97. The closure of this landmark is incredibly distressing.

Cali AG Wants Legislature To Clarify Medical Marijuana Law

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 22, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

CowHen.net

California Attorney General Kamala Harris: “Without a substantive change to existing law, these irreconcilable interpretations of the law, and the resulting uncertainty for law enforcement and seriously ill patients, will persist”

California Attorney General Kamala Harris on Wednesday urged state lawmakers to get serious about clarifying the state’s 15-year-old medical marijuana law. According to Harris, gray areas have left law enforcement and patients in a state of perpetual uncertainty.

The attorney general, who was elected with widespread backing from the state’s medical marijuana industry (OK, it wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement, it was more a case of “Anybody But Cooley“), has been under pressure to defend the state’s medicinal cannabis law since October, when the state’s four U.S. Attorneys announced a statewide crackdown on dispensaries.

Dozens of the shops — which the federal prosecutors claimed were fronts for public drug dealing — have since closed, reports Lisa Leff at the Associated Press.

Cannabis Dispensary Builds Christmas Ginger-Hash House

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 19, 2011 Dispensaries, Global, Products

Vancouver Dispensary Society

The Vancouver Dispensary Society’s special Christmas ginger hash-house. Gotta love that little cotton “puff of smoke” comin’ out the chimney!

You can be sure the holidays are just around the corner when a medical cannabis dispensary builds a Christmas ginger-hash house and posts photos of it on Facebook.

Vancouver Dispensary Society, the Facebook page of The Vancouver Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary in British Columbia, Canada, uploaded the photos on Saturday.

“HAVE A MERRY-JUANA CHRISTMAS AND A HASHY NEW YEAR!” the Society posted.

According to the post, the dispensary ginger hash-house’s base is made of Lebanese hash. The house walls and tree are made from Sweet Mountain kief; the windows and door are Lebanese; the snow and snowman are Bubba Kush Powder.

Netherlands Delays Plan To Ban Tourists From Buying Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 16, 2011 Dispensaries, Global, Legislation

THC Finder

The Dutch make lots of money on cannabis tourism — so obviously, that’s a problem they have to fix. Wait a minute…

The conservative government of the Netherlands said on Thursday it is delaying plans to ban tourists from buying marijuana in Dutch “coffee shops” until at least May 2012 — but said it still intends to implement the ban.

Cannabis, contrary to popular belief, is still technically illegal in the Netherlands, but police “tolerate” the possession of small amounts, and pot is sold openly in the coffee shops, reports the Associated Press. Large-scale growers still face possible arrest.

The Dutch Cabinet wants to introduce a “weed pass” system allowing only legal residents of the Netherlands to buy marijuana in the shops.

Berkeley Collective Offers Potent Marijuana ‘Christmas Trees’

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 15, 2011 Dispensaries, Products

Berkeley Patients Care Collective

Presenting the first Christmas Trees that are supposed to catch on fire

The Patients Care Collective (PCC) in Berkeley, California, has been helping medical marijuana patients for more than 10 years now, having originally opened their doors back in 2001. They’re a festive group; during the holidays they help patients celebrate the season with yummy, cannabis “Christmas Trees” augmented with potent concentrates.

“Making our PCC Medicinal Christmas Trees has become a popular tradition for our patients and staff,” Marina Musielak of Berkeley PCC told Toke of the Town Thursday afternoon.

Ammiano Meets US Atty On Medical Pot; Comes Away Frustrated

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 15, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical, News

A meeting between California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (left) and U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag ended only in frustration

California Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) on Tuesday finally got his meeting with federal prosecutor Melinda Haag, the U.S. Attorney for Northern California. But Ammiano left the meeting frustrated and disappointed that Haag doesn’t seem to understand the chaos she’s creating.

“The meeting didn’t result in any changes,” a clearly disappointed Ammiano told Tim Redmond of the San Francisco Bay Guardian. “But it was good that it happened. We cleared the air about the harm that’s being done.”

Haag wasn’t at all clear during the meeting about exactly what she wanted — what, in other words, would end the crackdown, according to Ammiano aide Quintin Mecke.

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