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Fined $500 A Day, California Dispensary Asks City To Lay Off

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

C3 Collective
A sample of the wares at Walnut Creek’s C3 Collective.

​Five hundred bucks a day adds up fast. Brian Hyman, director of the only medical marijuana dispensary in Walnut Creek, California, can tell you that.

Hyman’s dispensary, the C3 Collective, has been fined $500 a day by Walnut Creek since shortly after opening in June.
As people discover all the time, once you’re in city government’s crosshairs, they can find something to for which to harass you. In C3’s case, the official reasons have been things like violation of a general nuisance clause in the city code that prohibits any organization that violates federal law.
Sounds reasonable enough, until you remember that federal law recognizes no such thing as medical marijuana. Seems even if the Obama Administration is reluctant to enforce federal marijuana laws, Walnut Creek isn’t willing to back down.
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U.S. Anti-Drug Aid Slow To Arrive In Mexico

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By on Global, Legislation, News

DEA
“Drug money” and cartel weapons seized by the Mexican Federales and the DEA

​Promised security help from the United States for Mexico’s drug war, including helicopters and scanners for contraband detection, has been held up by bureaucratic red tape and is slow in arriving, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Ken Ellingwood reports in the Los Angeles Times.

The GAO examination said that just $26 million, or 2 percent of the nearly $1.3 billion appropriated for security aid, had been spent by the end of September.
The multi-year Merida Initiative is intended to help Mexican officials, who are locked in a bloody three-year offensive against illegal drug cartels. The Mexicans have complained that the promised American help has been too slow to reach them.
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DEA Arrests Dispensary Owner In L.A.; First Since Obama Ordered Feds To Back Off

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By on Dispensaries, News

Graphic: Cooljuno411
It’s an unhappy day in Southern California: The DEA has arrested a dispensary owner in L.A.

​A Los Angeles marijuana dispensary owner was arrested by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) because they say he tried to open two pot shops while awaiting sentencing on a drug charge, which had been forbidden by a judge in the case.

Dennis Romero at L.A. Weekly reports that 42-year-old Virgil Grant III was arrested at an L.A. dispensary, as confirmed by DEA spokeswoman Sarah Pullen. According to terms set by the judge, Grant wasn’t supposed to be around dispensaries before his sentencing next month.
Pullen said Grant is scheduled to appear in court Friday afternoon to explain why he was trying to open two dispensaries while on bond.
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Oregon: Jack Herer Benefit Event Friday In Portland

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By on Culture, News

Photo: Hemp News
Jack Herer has worked for decades for this community. Let’s show him what we can give back.

​Everyone is invited to a benefit event Friday, Dec. 4 at 8 p.m. at the Village Ballroom in Portland for hemp legend and author, Jack Herer.

The Village Ballroom is at 700 N.E. Dekum Street. Not so coincidentally, that means it is directly above the Oregon Cannabis Cafe, Oregon NORML’s spiffy new medical marijuana patient resource center that has received an avalanche of publicity since opening last month.
The Herer benefit is organized by The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation (THCF), and is co-sponsored by Oregon NORML and Texas-based Waco NORML.
“We are joining together to raise money for Jack Herer, who suffered a heart attack after delivering a passionate speech on stage at the Portland Hempstalk Festival this past September,” said THCF’s Paul Stanford.
Jack is recovering in Eugene, Ore., and making positive strides daily, according to Stanford. “He is a fighter and will surely overcome this obstacle to see the hemp plant restored to its rightful place in society,” Stanford told Toke of the Town.
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Washington State Considering Expanding Medical Marijuana Use

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By on Legislation, Medical, News

Photo: Coaster420
Washington state health officials are considering expanding the categories for which medical marijuana may be used.

​Washington State health officials are on the verge of deciding whether patients suffering from depression or certain anxiety disorders should be allowed to use medical marijuana as part of their treatment, Molly Rosbach at The Seattle Times reports.

Washington’s medical marijuana law, adopted by voter initiative in 1998, limits the legal use of medical marijuana to patients who have been diagnosed with a “terminal or debilitating medical condition.”
That includes patients with cancer, HIV, multiple sclerosis, hepatitis C and several other diseases causing pain or nausea  “unrelieved by standard medical treatments and conditions.”
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Study: Marijuana Can Help Fight Alcohol And Prescription Drug Abuse

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By on Medical, News

Photo: Selkem
What the doctor ordered?

​A new scientific study published in Harm Reduction Journal suggests that marijuana is a safe and effective substitute for alcohol and prescription drugs.

The study, published by researchers at the University of California, Berkley, showed that 40 percent of marijuana users said they’ve used pot to control their alcohol addictions, 66 percent said they used marijuana instead of prescription drugs, and 26 percent said marijuana helped them stay off harder “street” drugs such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.
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California Court Calls Medical Marijuana Limits ‘Improper’

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By on Legislation, Medical

Photo: Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana
Plant limits may become a thing of the past in California.

​A California court of appeals in San Diego has ruled that the amount of marijuana a medical user can legally possess is a question jurors should decide, and using limits defined in state law is improper.

The unanimous ruling could change the way many medical pot cases are handled at the trial stage, according to legal experts. A ruling is expected soon from the California Supreme Court that deals with a similar issue, SignOnSanDiego reports.
Medical marijuana patient Nathaniel Archer of San Diego was arrested by San Diego police with 98 pot plants in his home, along with 1.72 pounds of dried marijuana. He was convicted in 2007 for cultivating and possessing marijuana and sentenced to probation.
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Norco, CA Decides It Needs More Drug Paraphernalia Laws

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By on Legislation, News

Photo: Polluxx
Not in Norco, or you may get Narco’d.

​Norco, Calif., is proposing a local law against selling drug paraphernalia.

Doing so is already against both state and federal law, but having a city law on top of that would “make it easier for authorities to enforce the regulation,” Norco officials claimed, according to the Press-Enterprise.
Norco officials admit there isn’t a problem with drug paraphernalia being sold in the city. Nobody in recent history has even been cited for the offense. But the bright idea of putting a local law on the books just seemed irresistible after officials noticed neighboring town Corona had passed its own local law.
“The councils of Norco and Corona have been trying to coordinate their responses to regional issues, and drugs are currently a regional issue,” said Lt. Ross Cooper of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department’s Norco station. (Blah, blah, blah.)
Cooper said other cities also have adopted similar ordinances, and Norco wants to spread the anti-drug message. Great idea, Lt. Cooper. Show what a moron you are by wasting the city’s scarce resources going after potheads.
The ordinance would echo a California Health and Safety Code section making it unlawful to sell drug paraphernalia, including water and ceramic pipes, scales and balances, and roach clips for joints.
If passed, the ordinance would become law in 30 days.

Public Hearing On Medical Marijuana In PA Dec. 2

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By on Legislation, Medical, News

Photo: Coaster420
Nugs like this Purple Kush beauty could be legal for medical use if Pennsylvania legislators show some leadership.

​A public hearing on legalizing medical marijuana is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 2, in Harrisburg, Pa., before the House Health and Human Services committee.

Discussed will be House Bill 1393, introduced in April by State Rep. Mark Cohen, D-Philadelphia. According to Cohen, the bill aims to ease the lives of suffering patients, take money away from the illegal drug trade and create about $25 million a year in tax revenue from the sale of marijuana.
“The bill has a 1-in-4 chance of becoming law, but I think that health care groups will lean toward it,” Cohen told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
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Jury Acquits San Diego Dispensary Manager On Pot Charges

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By on Dispensaries, Medical, News

Artwork by Jim Wheeler
Medical marijuana patients win another battle in San Diego

​The manager of a San Diego medical marijuana dispensary was acquitted today of five charges of possessing and selling marijuana for profit.

Jovan Jackson, 31, was convicted, however, of possession of ecstasy and Xanax, according to SignOnSanDiego News Services.
Jackson, who was arrested after a pair of raids at Answerdam Alternative Care in Kearny Mesa last year, began to weep quietly as the verdicts were read in the courtroom of Judge Cynthia Bashant.
The verdicts ended a weeklong trial in San Diego Superior Court. According to SignOnSanDiego, the jury foreman said afterward that the lack of clarity in California’s medical marijuana law was a major reason for the acquittals.
Medical marijuana advocates said the verdicts were a rebuke to San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and local law enforcement. Aggressive medical marijuana enforcement has been a priority for Dumanis’ office.
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