Photo: Westword
Attorneys Bob Hoban (left) and Rob Corry, joined by patients, speak at a news conference today about the CannaMart lawsuit.

​Four medical marijuana patients and two caregivers in Centennial, Colo., have announced a lawsuit against the city for forcing the closure of CannaMart, a pot dispensary, Westword reports.

The plaintiffs will argue that cities like Centennial “are prohibited from imposing land use restrictions on local businesses when such restrictions infringe upon the rights upheld by the state Constitution as ‘matters of statewide concern’.”
The group says it’s the first time in Colorado history that a coalition of patients and caregivers will sue a municipal government to reopen a dispensary.
According to Bob Hoban, one of the attorneys representing the patients and caregivers bringing the suit, a ruling in the case could turn out to be precedent-setting. “This isn’t something we’re looking at as a test case, something to throw against the wall to see if it sticks,” he told Westword. “It’s something where we believe the court is almost compelled to come down on our side because of the Constitutional issues at stake.”

Photo: Coaster420, Wikimedia Commons
Wisconsin medical marijuana users are closer than they’ve ever been to that first legal bowl.

​​Lawmakers and marijuana advocacy groups are pushing for Wisconsin to join the 13 other states where medical marijuana is legal. Bills to do so were introduced last week in the Senate and Assembly.

“The time for Wisconsin to become the 15th state to allow patients to use pot to make their lives a bit more comfortable is long past due,” Dave Zweifel, editor emeritus of The Capital Times, editorializes.

Gary Storck of Madison, a prominent leader in the movement to legalize medical marijuana and co-founder (along with Jacki Rickert) of Is My Medicine Legal Yet?, told the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune he vaporizes pot to treat glaucoma and a heart condition. Storck said there is a groundswell of public support and Democrats, who control the Legislature, have been friendlier to past efforts to legalize the herb.
Storck has been pushing for decades to get the Wisconsin Legislature to legalize marijuana for medical purposes, according to the Capital Times. “We’re not criminals; we’re just trying to get on with our lives,” Storck said.

Greenhouseseeds.nl
Mighty Super Lemon Haze extended for another year its reign over the Dutch pot scene at this year’s Cannabis Cup Awards.

​A heady sativa, Super Lemon Haze, repeated as the favorite Dutch coffeeshop strain at the 22nd Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam. It won last year as well, as reported at CelebStoner.com, and is the first strain to repeat since the Green House’s Super Silver Haze in 1999. 

Vanilla Kush from Barney’s placed second in the competition for the top prize. Headband Kush from Green Place finished third.

Both the Green House and Barney’s continued to dominate the Cup as the two powerhouses have for a decade. The last shop to win the Cup other than the Green House or Barney’s was The Noon with the legendary Blueberry, all the way back  in 2000.



Graphic: Reality Catcher
Mendocino County’s regulations on collective medical marijuana grow-ops and dispensaries are being hammered out Monday.

​Historically weed-friendly Mendocino County’s debate over regulating medical marijuana dispensaries continues Monday at 3 p.m., when the Human Services Advisory Committee of the County Board of Supervisors meets. The committee has been working since spring to hash out the county’s marijuana cultivation rules.

Supervisor John McCowen, who along with Supervisor Kendall Smith sits on the committee for monthly meetings, said the process has been delayed by numerous speakers opposed to the county regulating dispensaries.
“People are opposed to what the committee is doing, and they’re doing everything they can to impede our work,” McCowen told the Ukiah Daily Journal. “I suspect the real intent is that they are not in favor of any regulation that might actually apply to them,” he said.
“Interfering with the ability of the committee to make a decision would prevent regulation,” he said.

Photo: Coaster420, Wikimedia Commons
Dispensary grade Purple Goo.

​Despite District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis’ recent dispensary crackdown, there are towns in the San Diego area that aren’t so pot-unfriendly. In Fallbrook, California, the newest member of the Chamber of Commerce is a medical marijuana dispensary.

Dispensary co-founder Bob Riedel said he joined the chamber for the regular reasopns: getting involved in the community and networking, according to the North County Times. The dispensary will even be one of the sponsors for Fallbrook’s Dec. 5 Christmas parade, having kicked $500 into the chamber’s parade fund.

Photo: Chmee2, Wikimedia Commons

​According to an assistant prosecutor in Michigan, the new medical marijuana laws there, passed by voters last year, are starting to create some unforeseen problems.

I know what you’re thinking. “Just another cop speaking fluent whinese.” There’s undeniably a little of that going on, but the talk that the prosecutor gave before the Northwest Zero Tolerance Coalition (that’s a forbidding name for an anti-drug group, if there ever was one!) took an unexpected turn towards the end.
Assistant Prosecutor Bill Dailey, chief of Macomb County’s drug unit, said that the medical marijuana laws are causing a “strain on my personnel because they are out there now, they are recovering marijuana on their traffic stops … It is very, very difficult for them or for us to find out if these folks have a medical marijuana card.”

Photo: Pablo-flores, Wikimedia Commons
Washington judge gives the green light to medical pot patient

​An interesting thing is happening in states which have legalized medical marijuana. There’s an ongoing culture war between cops who hate all marijuana, period, and patients who take the law at its word when it says they can use pot legally. From time to time, the patients win big.

Such is the case in Kent, Washington, where King County Judge Mary Roberts ordered the police department to give 11 pounds of seized marijuana back to Matthew Zugsberger, who holds a valid California medical marijuana card.
After police (with the aid of a trusty drug dog) found the stash in the trunk of Zugsberger’s car last February in the parking lot of a pharmacy in Kent, they arrested the Californian and his girlfriend and seized the weed.
Zugsberger says the cops accused him of importing marijuana from Canada (which does happen a lot in this area, being not far from the B.C. border). “Why the hell would I buy pot from Canada if I have a field of it in my back yard?”, Zugsberger reasonably asked, according to the Seattle P.I.

The California man said he began using marijuana medicinally in 2007 to manage nausea caused by a severe injury sustained while working as a underwater welder in the Gulf of Mexico. After the accident, he was prescribed opiate painkillers; Zugsberger said the drugs gave him liver problems, and he was concerned about becoming addicted to them.

Zugsberger pleaded guilty to misdemeanor possession and was sentenced to three months’ probation. But defense attorney Aaron Pelley wasn’t done with the case. Pelley, who is active with Seattle-based medical marijuana advocacy organization Cannabis Defense Coalition,  filed a petition in August seeking the return of the marijuana to his client, since Zugsberger is a legal medical pot patient.

Photo: Horsma / Hamppuforum, Wikimedia Commons
Sweet Tooth #3 cannabis bud, grown in Finland

​For all the progress toward a European Union, there is still no unified approach to medical marijuana in Europe, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Cannabis is legal for treating certain illnesses in the Netherlands, but Sweden, for example, doesn’t recognize any medical use for the herb at all.
Legal expert Catherine Sandvos of the Dutch Cannabis Bureau (a government agency providing high-quality medical marijuana) told the Journal that cannabis is just “too controversial and too political” to even be on the European agenda.
The Dutch have led the continent in legalizing medical marijuana, which is treated separately from the recreational cannabis available at Amsterdam’s coffee shops.

Canna Care
Canna Care employees were featured on the cover of Health & Fitness magazine last year.

​A Sacramento radio station is currently airing an ad, one of the first of its kind, for local marijuana dispensary Canna Care.

Station K-HITS 921.1 FM is running the ads, which according to News 10 KXTV are the first marijuana ads to run in the Sacramento market.
The ad soft-pedals the message, never mentioning the words “marijuana” or “cannabis,” relying instead on the ability of listeners to decode the following message:
“There’s no need to suffer in silence. Canna Care is here to help. If you’re coping with chronic pain, arthritis, nausea, glaucoma or side effects from chemo, there are reliable alternatives.”
It was the radio station’s decision to keep any specific mentions of pot out of the radio ad, according to Canna Care co-owner Bryan Davies.

Photo: Antoinel, Wikimedia Commons
Could marijuana brownies be the key to treating autism?

​Should parents be allowed to use medical marijuana to treat autistic children if they believe it is more effective than the chemicals offered by pharmaceutical corporations? More and more doctors, and members of the general public, are saying “Yes.”

After Mieko Hester-Perez appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America this week, telling how she believes doctor-recommended medical marijuana brownies saved her son’s life, she received an outpouring of support from TV viewers and commenters on ABC News’ website.
Mieko’s 10-year-old son, Joey, weighed only 46 pounds due to his unwillingness to eat. “You could see the bones in his chest,” she said. “He was going to die.”
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