| Susan Sanchez/LA Weekly. |
Earlier this month we got the 2013 numbers for how many marijuana dispensaries in the city of L.A. have filed to pay a special city collective tax. It reflects how many weed retailers are in L.A. And it was higher than any other number we had seen in nearly five years: 1,140. This despite repeated city crackdowns and a new law, passed last year, that limits the number of shops in town to the 135 or fewer that were legit during a 2007 city “moratorium.”
In a move that somehow attracted very little media attention last week, a Washington state appeals court upheld a previous decision allowing the County of Kent to ban all medical marijuana-related collective cannabis gardens and growing operations.
In doing so, they may very well have driven the final nail into the coffin of true, legal medical marijuana in the same state that joined Colorado in 2012 as becoming the first two in the country to legalize recreational weed smoking.
Backers of the California Cannabis Hemp Initiative have been given the go-ahead from the state to begin collecting the required 504,760 signatures needed to get their legalization bill before voters this fall.
If approved, the measure – dubbed the Jack Herer Initiative — would legalize cannabis use for adults 21 and up, allow for licensed and taxed cannabis retail sales, loosen restrictions on doctors recommending medical cannabis for minors, restrict drug testing for pot by employers and forbid any state funds from going toward enforcement of federal marijuana laws. But that’s a big “if”. The signatures must be collected by Aug. 18, and that’s not going to be cheap or easy to achieve.
Want to smoke Canadian weed? Head to Uruguay. Or, at least that will be the case if a proposed deal to re-up Uruguay’s soon-to-be-legal supply with B.C. buds goes through. But Uruguayans looking to get down on some God Bud probably shouldn’t hold their hits in too long, as the deal would likely violate a bucketful of international drug treaty violations.
Still, you can’t fault a nation for trying.
| Big photos and more below. |
It was a Happy Halloween at Lightshade Labs, judging by this photo from the store’s Facebook page. But it’s probably an even happier March, since two Lightshade branches are among the latest shops licensed by the City of Denver to sell recreational marijuana. In the two-plus weeks since our last update, Denver has okayed seven more stores, bringing the official total to 54. All of them are included here in this list compiled by Westword’s Michael Roberts, along with photos, videos, links and excerpts from reviews of the ones visited by Westword marijuana critic William Breathes. Count them down below.
Washington patients have been under attack by their state legislature, which has pushed a bill that would pretty much end the state’s medical marijuana program and force patients into the highly-taxed recreational model. House Bill 2149 deservedly should die a quick death.
And at least state Sen. Ann Rivers recognizes the flaws. Late last week Rivers introduced Senate Bill 5887 which addresses some of the major issues patients have with the other bill – though it still needs some tweaking to be palatable to Washington medical marijuana supporters.
California has allowed for the compassionate use of marijuana since 1996. And while the state has become known for it’s medical pot tolerance, the industry has gone unchecked since it’s inception. Despite some cities and municipalities banning marijuana collectives, the system seems to work well for everyone involved.
Except, of course, the government. But a California lawmaker wants to change that, and has introduced a bill that would establish state oversight on the industry while butting into the business of doctors and their patients.
Americans are sick of the current federal stance on marijuana and increasingly favor decriminalization and legalization. But that shouldn’t mean that there should be a major shift in federal pot policy, according to Drug Enforcement Administration deputy director Thomas Harrigan.
Harrigan told a House subcommittee dubbed “Mixed Signals: The administrations stance on marijuana” this week that science should trump public opinion and that states should be wary of changing their laws. He said that the country “can’t abandon science and fact in favor of public opinion.”
| The Mile High City. |
Legal marijuana sales have been going on in Colorado now for just about two months, and so far the sky hasn’t fallen. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Marijuana taxes are pumping money into state coffers and (despite high prices) the shops have all operated without any federal intervention.
Want to know which ones are open and what they are like? Our friends at the Denver Michael Roberts at the Denver Westword has been compiling a list of all 47 recreational dispensaries in the city so far, including links to reviews of most of the shops themselves. Page down for more.
