Search Results: council/ (13)

Denver has come a step closer to allowing late-night dispensaries.

Under state law, dispensaries can stay open until midnight, as they do in Edgewater and Glendale. For the last several months, Denver City Council’s special marijuana committee has discussed extending those hours. At a meeting on April 3, councilmembers settled on 10 p.m. as a closing time, which mirrors Aurora rules, and moved the proposal to the full council.


Voters in Washington D.C. may (likely) decide to legalize the possession of up to two ounces, the home cultivation of six plants, and retail sales of cannabis next month with Initiative 71. But if that happens, Washington D.C. council says don’t expect it to go into effect right away.
Council member David Grosso has been arguably the most pro-cannabis city leader, but he cautions that if the ballot initiative passes, council will take their time implementing things to make sure it is done right. Even if that is a year from now.


Philadelphia police have their own agenda, and don’t care about what the people or their city council has to say. In just one month after city council approved a measure decriminalizing small amounts of pot, cops arrested 264 people for pot possession according to data pulled by Philadelphia Magazine.
Granted, the decriminalization measure won’t go into effect until September and the number is down significantly from 476 people one year ago, but it’s clear the cops aren’t giving up their ability to harass people just yet.

Berkeley Patients Group, the largest medical marijuana dispensary in Berkeley, California, was sued by the federal government on Friday in an attempt to shut down the cornerstone collective and seize the property, according to a press release delivered today by Americans for Safe Access.
The feds accuse Berkeley Patients Group of breaking federal law by selling herb. And in a move that has been used with undeniable effect up and down the state of California, they’ve targeted BPG’s landlord and threatened her with asset and property seizure if she does not immediately evict her tenants.

Grow Light Gallery

The Chicago City Council on Wednesday voted to decriminalize possession of marijuana with an overwhelming 43-2 vote. The measure was backed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Under the new ordinance, police officers in Chicago, the third-largest city in the United States, can issue a written violation for possession of 15 grams or less of cannabis, rather than making an arrest, reports Reuters. People who are caught with under half an ounce of marijuana will now face fines between $250 and $500, instead of being arrested.
The measure will help raise revenue for the city, according to supporters, as well as saving money on enforcement and incarceration and freeing up police to pursue more important matters. Unfortunately, officers would still have the authority to arrest people, even for small amounts of marijuana, rather than ticket them. Does anyone really believe that a few rabidly anti-pot assholes in the police department won’t give the whole force a bad name?

Steve Hunter/Kent Reporter
A woman opposes the Kent City Council’s proposed ban on medical marijuana dispensaries and collective gardens prior to a May 14 Council committee meeting. The full council votes June 5 on the ban, which is expected to pass.


By Anthony Martinelli
Sensible Washington

“We’re getting dozens and dozens of phone calls and emails and most are from medical marijuana patients…. The number in favor [of the ban]I can count on one finger.”
This is a quote from Kent City Council President Dennis Higgins, in an interview with the Kent Reporter,  in regards to the council’s plan to ban all medical cannabis safe access points within the city. 
The vote is scheduled for Tuesday, June 5, and the ban is seen as a sure thing: The vote is planned to fall at 4-3, according to Higgins in the same interview. 

Graphic: Cafe Press

​​Classes are being offered in California and elsewhere which combine two kinds of relaxation and centering: yoga and marijuana.

The 4:20 Remedy Yoga Class at Brazilian Yoga and Pilates in Atwater puts together “two of hippy-dippy California’s favorite feel-good, vaguely medicinal pastimes,” reports Amanda Lewis at LA Weekly.
Yoga teacher Liz McDonald noticed that many of her private clients showed up high to practice yoga, so she decided to offer a class specifically catering to a cannabinated clientele.
She conceived of the class as “a gathering of creative minds, a very non-judgmental place where all are welcome,” McDonald said. “Do I really want a couple of uptight conservatives in here? Ideally, no, but … my business welcomes all types of people, especially those tight-asses that may need it most!”

Photo: Courtesy Don Skakie
Don Skakie, Yes End Penalties WA: “Removing marijuana penalties will not conflict with federal law”

​When it comes to cannabis law reform, what’ll it be, Washington? Your choices are YEP and NAW. (The respective acronyms stand for Yes End Penalties and New Approach Washington.)

The new kid on the block, Washington state cannabis reform group Yes End Penalties Washington (YEP WA), will announce a new marijuana legalization drive at 11 a.m. Thursday on the North Steps of the Legislative Building at the State Capitol in Olympia.

Initiative sponsor and Lacey City Councilman Ron Lawson will announce “Initiative to the Legislature 505,” which would remove cannabis-related civil and criminal penalties for adults in Washington state. Supporters of I-505 will speak at the event.
Yes End Penalties WA is inviting news media and interested members of the public to attend and compare YEP to NAW.
“Removing marijuana penalties will not conflict with federal law, avoiding preemption and empowering the people of Washington state to step away from the fear of speaking for cannabis reform and directing their legislators to create fair and evenhanded regulation that benefits the public, rather than special interest groups and based on fact and science, not misinformation or ‘reefer madness’ propaganda,” said YEP’s Don Skakie.

Photo: Brian Grimmer
Patient activist Brian Grimmer: “Once the dispensary/co-op situation is figured out at the state level, we will work with the city council to begin the process of opening a dispensary in Ellensburg”

​Ellensburg, Washington has joined the short, but growing, list of cities in the Evergreen State which have decided to allow medical marijuana collective gardens.

On Monday night, the city council unanimously adopted an emergency ordinance on the issue to allow patients to grow cannabis collectively for medical use, reports Aaron Hilf at KNDO.
However, the same emergency ordinance which allows collective marijuana gardens also places a six-month moratorium on medical cannabis dispensaries.
The collective marijuana gardens must be indoors and at least 300 feet from schools, along with other zoning regulations.

“We really wanted to be able to move quickly so that if someone did want to come forward there was a framework within the city, an application process within the city, and zoning within the city that allowed them to become a collective,” said Mayor Bruce Tabb.
For an eminently reasonable $25 permit fee, along with a doctor’s medical marijuana authorization, patients in Ellensburg can now get together and grow cannabis for medicinal use.

Photo: Adrian Rushton/Colchester Gazette

​There was some more ominous saber-rattling from federal drug warriors Wednesday as a U.S. Attorney strongly warned Oakland that big industrial marijuana farms are illegal, and that the Department of Justice is considering “civil and criminal legal remedies” if the city goes ahead with its plans to permit them.

In a letter [PDF] obtained by The Bay CitizenU.S. Attorney Melinda Haag warned that the DOJ is “concerned” about Oakland’s “licensing scheme that permits large-scale industrial marijuana cultivation and manufacturing as it authorizes conduct contrary to federal law and threatens the federal government’s efforts to regulate the possession, manufacturing, and trafficking of controlled substances.”
The central point of Haag’s letter was clear: Marijuana is illegal under federal law.
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