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N.J. Medical Marijuana Program Open To Patients

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical, News

ImageShack

Doctors Able to Register Patients and Patients Will Receive ID Cards 
State Website Updated With Comprehensive Information Including Interactive Map for Finding Doctors 
Patients, Families and Advocates Celebrate Long-Awaited Milestone
It’s been a long wait — too long, for many patients who never lived to see the day — but legal medical marijuana is coming to New Jersey.
The New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act reached will reach a major milestone on Thursday when the New Jersey Department of Health and Human Services opens the patient registration process. Doctors who are treating qualifying patients will then be able to enter those patients into the patient registration system.
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Government Can Spy On You, No Warrants Needed: Court

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By on News

BGR

After 246 Years, Court Legalizes Spying On Americans By Feds

The United States federal government can spy on the communications of Americans without warrants and without fear of being sued, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday. The decision reversed the one and only case that ever successfully challenged former President George W. Bush’s Terrorist Surveillance Program.

“This case effectively brings to an end the plaintiffs’ ongoing attempts to hold the executive branch responsible for intercepting telephone conversations without judicial authorization,” wrote a three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals [PDF].
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One More Month: LA Pot Dispensary Ban Starts September 6

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By on Dispensaries, News

LA UNFD

Medical marijuana patients in Los Angeles only have one more month of safe access to cannabis before a hare-brained scheme to ban dispensaries in the sprawling city goes into effect on September 6.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed the City Council’s ban last Thursday, reports Dennis Romero of L.A. Weekly, and the ordinance was published on Monday, giving it 31 days — until Thursday, September 6 — to take effect, according to the City Clerk’s office.
While the hapless City Council has taken five years of wrangling with the issue since their 2007 moratorium — giving a convincing portrayal of clueless incompetence — it seems that now they’re on the way to banning dispensaries, they’ve suddenly found a new sense of purpose.
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Bill Introduced To Protect Landlords Of Marijuana Dispensaries

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Jeff Malet Photography
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-California): “We should be protecting and implementing the will of voters, not undermining our democracy by prosecuting small business owners who pay taxes and comply with the laws of their states in providing medicine to patients in need”

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Seven Initial Co-Sponsors Introduce HR 6335 to Stop Unfair Land Grabs by DOJ
Late on Thursday, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) and seven initial co-sponsors introduced HR 6335, the States’ Medical Marijuana Property Rights Protection Act, in an attempt to stop the seizure of property from landlords of state law-compliant medical marijuana businesses. The introduction of HR 6335 comes less than a month after U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag served an asset forfeiture lawsuit against the landlord of Harborside, a medical marijuana dispensary in Rep. Lee’s district of Oakland.
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Why Does The Government Want To Shut Up Bryan Epis?

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By on Growing, Medical, News

NORML
Bryan Epis has been silenced by the federal government as a condition of his sentencing agreement

Editor’s note: Recently, a remarkable resolution was reached on a federal medical marijuana case involving Bryan Epis, a California cannabis club operator, under which Epis had to agree not to be involved in marijuana activism. Epis’s attorney, John Balazs, has contributed his thoughts about the case below in a guest post which is reprinted here with his permission.

By John Balazs
Attorney
Bryan James Epis is a well-known medical marijuana activist who is believed to be the first person to be tried in federal court for cultivating marijuana for medical purposes after the 1996 ballot initiative that legalized medical marijuana in California. Although only 458 plants were found at his residence, the government extrapolated from a disputed spreadsheet to project that his “conspiracy” to grow marijuana was for at least 1,000 plants, the threshold to trigger a mandatory minimum 10-year sentence. 
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Two More SF Marijuana Dispensaries Fold In Federal Crackdown

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By on Dispensaries, News

Chris Roberts/S.F. Examiner
Catherine and Steve Smith founded HopeNet 14 years ago and have diligently gone by state and city laws

The ranks are thinning. Two more of San Francisco’s most well-known medical marijuana dispensaries closed their doors permanently on Tuesday, both due to the federal government’s crackdown in states which have legalized the medicinal use of cannabis.

HopeNet and the Vapor Room both announced they would shut down due to threatening letters sent to their landlords by the federal government, reports Joe Rosato Jr., of NBCBayArea.com.
“The Justice Department sent out landlord one of those nasty letters,” HopeNet cofounder Catherine Smith said. “So this is our D-Day; we have to leave.”
HopeNet was founded 14 years ago by Smith and her husband on Ninth Street in San Francisco’s South of Market. The business has long been regarded as an excellent example of a working, legitimate medical marijuana dispensary which carefully abides by state and city laws. Smith worked alongside city officials, serving on the Medical Marijuana Task Force and helping craft S.F.’s groundbreaking city ordinance on medicinal cannabis.
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California Pharmacy Shutdown Hoax Revealed

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By on News

AAHA Trends Today

It was a hoax — but it was hoax to make a point.
The San Diego chapter of Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a nationwide cannabis advocacy group, working with LGBT activism group Canvass for a Cause and as part of the The Yes Men’s “Yes Labs” project, released a series of satirical press releases on Tuesday which indicated that U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy would begin targeting pharmacies for closure using asset forfeiture proceedings.
The purpose of the action was to draw attention to the U.S. Attorney’s harmful efforts to deny patients access to doctor-recommended medical cannabis.
“Just as the closure of retail pharmacies, like CVS or Walgreens, is poor public health policy, so is the federal government’s crackdown on medical cannabis dispensaries,” said Eugene Davidovich of San Diego ASA. “Pharmacies, like medical cannabis dispensaries, play an essential role in our communities as they help the sick and dying treat and manage various medical conditions.”
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Shutdown Of Pharmacies A Hoax; Group Takes Responsibility

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By on News

FAC
U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy has made it her personal mission to shut down safe access to medical marijuana in Southern California

The “Cease and Desist” orders and “official” press release announcing the federal closure of pharmacies in San Diego — purportedly originating from the office of U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy — are indeed fake.
“This hoax was conducted in retaliation against U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy for her insubordination against the Obama Administration and Government of the United States of America,” said Dexter Haight of the Federal Accountability Coalition (FAC), which took responsibility for the hoax.
According to the FAC, Duffy’s superiors, President Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, have both pledged that Federal resources would not be used to shut down medical marijuana dispensaries operating in compliance with state law. Despite this pledge to the American public, U.S. Attorney Duffy has used Federal power to target medical marijuana dispensaries with asset forfeiture.
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Billboard Takes MT Legislators To Task Over Medical Marijuana

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By on Legislation, Medical, News

MTCIA
“Through their repeal efforts, the legislature ignored the will of the people and claimed to be abiding by it all at the same time,” said Chris Lindsey, president of the Montana Cannabis Industry Association

A billboard reading “Welcome to Yellowstone County, Where the Will of the People Doesn’t Count” now appears on Montana Avenue in Billings, Montana. The billboard encourages Montanans to vote against IR-124, a voter initiative appearing on this year’s ballot that allows voters keep or reject the current medical marijuana law.
The billboard was placed by the Montana Cannabis Industry Association (MTCIA), best known for its legal challenge to the current medical marijuana law. The new law repealed the popular and controversial voter initiative which put medical marijuana on the books in 2004.
 
“Through their repeal efforts, the legislature ignored the will of the people and claimed to be abiding by it all at the same time,” says Chris Lindsey, president of the MTCIA. “First, they rushed to repeal the original law and leave patients with nothing.
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