Search Results: cobb (9)

KNDU
You did a really shitty job of reporting this story, Chloe.

​”More crimes are linked to people with medical marijuana cards.” That’s the lead and the headline that bubble-headed bleached blond Kennewick, Washington TV news reporter Chloe Beardsley went with, just because a small-town police sergeant told her so — of course, without any proof. No numbers, no statistics, just the word of a pot-hating local lawman.

Sadly, the depressingly shoddy, almost entirely fact-free work by “NBC Right Now” reporter Beardsley — and, by extension, her employer, TV station KNDU — often seems more the norm than the exception when we’re counting on mainstream media to report on the medical marijuana question.
Incredibly, no patients or patient advocates were interviewed for this story, despite the fact that medical marijuana patients are apparently to blame for a huge crime wave. Wouldn’t it have been interesting, newsworthy, or at least balanced and professional to maybe interview one of the group who is being accused of being responsible for all these terrible things? You’d think.

Photo by Jack Rikess
The environmental damage of a grow like this is hard to calculate.

​By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town
Northern California Correspondent

Here’s a story about unreal estate that could only happen behind the Green Curtain.

Only in Mendo, where your business is your own and few questions are asked on a good day, could a story like this happen. I thought only in Mendocino County could three tattooed guys rent 50 acres to legally grow marijuana from a guy who didn’t own the land. That is, until I found out how long this one guy’s been doing it. Now I can only wonder how many more are out there.

Photo: MyFoxMaine
Starting January 1, medical marijuana patients in Maine are required by law to register with the state.

​More than 400 residents of Maine have applied to be medical marijuana patients under a new state law. Starting January 1, Mainers must be registered with the state before legally using cannabis medicinally.

For the past decade in Maine, ever since voters approved medical marijuana in 1999, patients had needed only a doctor’s authorization to use cannabis medicinally.
Applications flooded into the Maine Department of Health and Human Services in the final days and weeks of 2010, with hundreds more expected in the next several weeks, reports John Richardson at The Portland Press Herald. State officials said that expect to register 1,200 or more patients by the time the initial rush is over this spring.
“Everybody’s coming in at the last minute,” said Catherine Cobb, director of licensing and regulatory services for the health department. “We’ve been hammered.”

Graphic: Reality Catcher

​Maine’s medical marijuana program took a big step towards safe access for patients Friday, with the announcement of three licensed, non-profit corporations to grow and sell marijuana.

Northeast Patients Group, a recently formed corporation with roots in California, was selected to establish four of the eight approved dispensaries. The nonprofit organization will establish facilities in Portland, Thomaston, the Augusta area and the Bangor area, reports Meg Haskell at Bangor Daily News.
Aroostook County will be served by Safe Alternatives for Fort Kent, and western Maine will be served by the Remedy Compassion Center.
With 27 separate applications to start one dispensary in each of Maine’s eight public health districts, the state approved only six. According to state officials, the criteria for approval included applicants’ experience and proposed plans for record keeping, inventory control, security and patient education.
No applicant was approved for the districts that serve York County and Washington and Hancock counties., said applications for these regions failed to meet the state’s dispensary standards.

Graphic: Reality Catcher

​Maine will announce on Friday which of seventeen applicants will get the eight dispensary slots as part of the state’s medical marijuana law.

The prospective dispensaries said they will charge anywhere from $200 to $400 an ounce for medicinal cannabis, reports John Richardson at the Waterville Morning Sentinel. The state has not set any limits on prices, but said it is “reviewing” the pricing information as part of the application process.
Many of the shops will also provide massage, acupuncture and yoga as extra services, the Morning Sentinel reports. One plans to organize knitting and quilting groups. Another wants to hire a pastry chef to turn marijuana into gourmet organic edibles.
While the Maine medical marijuana market is untested, since there have been no state-licensed dispensaries until now, most prospective dispensary owners said they expect to sell at least $1 million worth of cannabis in the first full year of operation, starting July 1, 2011.

Photo: Bangor Metro

​Maine’s efforts to provide approved patients with safe, legal access to medical marijuana continued Monday in the State House, where health officials are trying to fine-tune the rules and procedures. Two months ago, Gov. John Baldacci signed a bill into law that creates eight licensed medical marijuana dispensaries throughout the state, along with a state registry of patients authorized to use and possess cannabis.

Some patients, however, say the registration fees required to enroll in the system are too expensive and the amounts allowed are too low, reports A.J. Higgins at The Maine Public Broadcasting Network.

Photo: WABI

​Maine’s new dispensary law augments the medical marijuana law already in place for more than a decade, finally giving patients a legal way to obtain cannabis. But patients and caregivers who want legal access to medical marijuana will have to register for an ID card.

Earlier this month, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it is accepting applications from nonprofit corporations to become dispensaries under Maine’s Medical Use of Marijuana Act, responding to a dispensary law passed by voters.
In July, eight dispensaries will be selected by DHHS, reports Adrienne Bennett of WABI-TV.

Graphic: Digital Journal

​Maine officials will accept applications starting this week fro residents who want to register as medical marijuana patients under the state’s new distribution system. But some who are already using marijuana under the current rules say they are in no hurry to put their names on the list.

Rules created after last November’s statewide referendum allow eight non-profit medical marijuana dispensaries to be set up in Maine, reports John Richardson at the Kennebec Journal. Prospective dispensary owners have until June 25 to file applications and business plans under guidelines posted last week.
All individuals who want to use medical marijuana must register with the state by January 2011, under the new rules. Applications will be posted online as soon as Tuesday, May 11, ac cording to Catherine Cobb, director of licensing for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

Graphic: Maine Medical Marijuana

​Maine’s new medical marijuana dispensary law, passed by voters last November, is chiefly known for its creation of dispensaries where cannabis patients can safely buy their medicine. But a lesser known part of the law, which requires patients and growers to register with the state, is being called an invasion of privacy by some advocates.

State officials say the registry will keep patients who enroll from being charged with marijuana offenses. But some patients said they are going to boycott the registry when it opens in July, reports Josie Huang of The Maine Public Broadcasting Network.