Dispensaries

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N.J. Medical Marijuana Program Gets The Green Light

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 6, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Almost two years after the law was passed, New Jersey lawmakers finally announced last week that the state’s medical marijuana program — the most restrictive medicinal cannabis law in the United States — would be fully functional sometime in 2012.

Gov. Chris Christie had issued a surprise announcement in July that the state would go forward with its often-stalled medical marijuana program, reports John Farley at Thirteen.

The Garden State’s medicinal cannabis program has been in transition for months now. In 2010, the State Senate passed the Compassionate Care Act, which required the state to license six medical marijuana dispensaries.

But even though an overwhelming 86 percent of New Jersey voters support medicinal cananbis, Christie put the program on hold, seeking assurance from federal officials that state marijuana workers and doctors would not be prosecuted, reported the Star-Ledger.

Science vs Stigma: Putting A Human Face To The War On Pot

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 5, 2011 Culture, Dispensaries, Products

SCIENCE VS. STIGMA-TRAILER from Dave Wilkinson on Vimeo.

The new documentary film Science vs. Stigma does a wonderful thing: It puts a human face on some of the collateral damage from the War On Drugs. The film does this by allowing medical marijuana patients to share their struggles to safely access an unjustly demonized medicinal herb that helps them.

True stories and scientific research reveal the difficult lives of patients who require the ancient medicinal plant, cannabis, which is now legal in some states, but still so demonized that it cannot even be named in an advertisement.

The medicinal components of cannabis have been shown to be effective in treating dozens of conditions, but patients who are ill and disabled are still senseless persecuted and socially stigmatized.

Orange County Sheriff’s Dept. Says All Sales Of Marijuana Illegal

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 2, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical, News

THC Finder

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department has announced it considers all sales of marijuana to be illegal — whether they are for profit or not, and whether they are for medical use or not, despite the fact that medicinal cannabis has been legal in California for 15 years.

In response to questions regarding a search warrant served on half-a-dozen collectives and more than a dozen other locations and persons on November 8, Sheriff’s Lt. David Doyle told Greggory Moore at the Long Beach Post that “the CUA and MMPA do not authorize sales of marijuana,” and therefore all cash-for-cannabis transactions are illegal.

Marijuana Gold Rush: Documentary Examines Weed Business

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 1, 2011 Culture, Dispensaries, Products

Rialto Cinemas

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

The Weed Wars are on, and at stake are television ratings. In the next couple of weeks we’ll start to see the bounty of this year’s harvest of cannabis-centric TV hitting the airwaves.

The ever-present Steve DeAngelo has his reality series starting on the Discovery Channel a la Kiss’s Gene Simmons: depicting a world class guy with the weight of the world on his shoulders yet he has time to take his kid to Little League. Just a regular guy and family man who happens to like to bang the gong at the end of the day. America won’t believe their eyes.

This Friday the National Geographic Channel is joining the Cannafest with the premiere of Marijuana Gold Rush. Depicting the many highs and a few lows of this past year’s emerging dream of bringing cannabis into the mainstream, going from the boardrooms of New York to our own Mendocino County’s Emerald Cup, with the participants not knowing what really is to come.

Montel Pleads Case For 2 Medical Marijuana Facilities In D.C.

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 1, 2011 Dispensaries, Growing, Medical

NBC Washington

Montel Williams pleads his case Wednesday night at a neighborhood meeting in the basement of Israel Baptist Church in Northeast D.C.

Former TV talk show host Montel Williams wants to open two medical marijuana facilities — a cultivation center and a dispensary — in the District of Columbia. On Wednesday, he pleaded his case before a crowd of 150 residents in the basement of Israel Baptist Church in Northeast D.C.

Williams has applied for two cultivation center licenses on nearby Queen’s Chapel Road in D.C., reports NBC Washington.

Judge Won’t Stop Federal Crackdown On Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 30, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical, News

Village Voice Media

A federal judge has rejected the request of medical marijuana providers to stop U.S. Attorneys from filing charges against them or seizing their property.

U.S. District Judge Sandra Brown Armstrong ruled in her Oakland courtroom that the medical marijuana collectives hadn’t shown they would suffer “immediate, irreparable harm” without the court order, reports Henry K. Lee of the San Francisco Chronicle.

“The court is sensitive to the desires of individuals to use medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation, as permitted by California law,” Armstrong wrote in her 27-page ruling, filed this week. “Nevertheless, marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and in Congress’ view, it has no medicinal value.”

The judge also said she doubted that the collectives would win lawsuits trying to stop the Obama Administration’s crackdown on dispensaries.

Marijuana distributors, patients and dispensary landlords filed lawsuits in all four of California’s federal districts in October, accusing the Department of Justice of violating an agreement to not go after them if they complied with state law.

Hey, Arkansas: Are You Ready To Legalize Medical Marijuana?

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 30, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

THC Finder

There’s an initiative afoot in Arkansas to put medical marijuana legalization on the ballot in November 2012.

Arkansans for Compassionate Care is circulating a petition to allow the sick and dying to legally use cannabis medicinally with a doctor’s authorization for 16 different serious or chronic diseases and disorders such as cancer, chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, and HIV/AIDS.

The program would allow for 30 nonprofit dispensaries across the state. Those who live more than five miles from the nearest dispensary would be allowed to get a marijuana-growing permit.

“If we collect 62,500 signatures, the initiative will appear on the 2012 Presidential ballot in Arkansas,” Shannon Steece of Arkansans for Compassionate Care told Toke of the Town. “Currently we have less than 20,000 unvalidated signatures.”

Washington, R.I. Governors Ask Feds To Reclassify Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 30, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical, News

Seattle Weekly

Washington Governor Christine Gregoire: “Has anybody died from marijuana?”

Washington Governor Christine Gregoire and Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee have asked the federal government to reclassify marijuana as a drug that can be prescribed by doctors and filled by pharmacists, in a move that would require the federal Food and Drug Administration to conduct new studies.

The move by the governors gives new political muscle to the debate on the legal and medicinal status of marijuana, which has been raging across an American cultural divide for decades, reports Michael Cooper at The New York Times.

“The divergence in state and federal law creates a situation where there is no regulated and safe system to supply legitimate patients who may need medical cannabis,” the governors wrote on Wednesay to Michele M. Leonhart, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

“In the year 2011, why can’t medical cannabis be prescribed by a physician and filled at the drug store just like any other medication?” Gregoire said on Wednesday, reports Vanessa Ho at SeattlePI.com.

Medical Marijuana Bill Introduced In Wisconsin

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 30, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Medical Marijuana Blog

The “Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act,” which would let seriously ill Wisconsin residents use marijuana to treat their illnesses, has again been introduced to the state Legislature.

The bill, LRB-2466/1, introduced at a Wednesday press conference by sponsor Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison), would allow patients to grow small amounts of marijuana to treat specific conditions, as well as permit the establishment of regulated and licensed cultivation and distribution centers within the state.

Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Waunakee) is co-sponsoring the bill in the Wisconsin Senate. A similar bill was introduced last session but did not pass. Now Republicans control both the Senate and the Assembly and political observers say it’s unlikely to pass this time, either.

Rep. Pocan was joined on Wednesday by patients and medical professionals who support the right to have safe access to medicinal cannabis.

Banking Problems Could Kill Medical Marijuana In Colorado

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 28, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, News

CreditCards.com

Colorado medical marijuana business owners are desperately writing letters to every bank in the country asking if they can please, oh please, just have a bank account.

About 150 dispensary owners across the state are looking for banks that will take their accounts, said Tanya Garduno, president of the Colorado Springs Medical Cannabis Council and owner of Medical Cannabis Center, reports Monica Mendoza at InsuranceNewsNet.

The medical marijuana industry has already survived regulations, licensing, security and thick stacks of almost impenetrable rules and legalese.

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