Trade/lobby group steps up Humboldt County outreach

 Advocates
Jun 282011
 

For Southern Humboldt resident Kristin Nevedal, an avid gardener and a trained herbalist, marijuana is just another plant. ”It doesn’t make sense to me that there’s not access to it, and it doesn’t make sense that you can’t grow it in your backyard,” she said, adding that any herbal plant can be abused if taken improperly. The key is education, Nevedal told Donna Tam of the Eureka Times-Standard. As the medical marijuana industry grows and evolves, residents like Nevedal are bringing their beliefs and craft to the forefront through trade groups such as the Humboldt [...]

Montel Williams partners with Sacramento dispensary

 Advocates, Dispensaries
Jun 142011
 
Montel Williams partners with Sacramento dispensary

Montel Williams has been the face of many things – host of a nationally syndicated television talk show and pitchman for prescription drug assistance products and a fruit-and-vegetable emulsifier. On Monday, Williams appeared in Sacramento to announce a partnership with a new enterprise, a medical marijuana dispensary, Miles Bennett-Smith reports in the Sacramento Bee. In a news conference at the newly renovated offices of the former Capital Wellness Center, Williams spoke about his own battle with multiple sclerosis and why he turned to marijuana to alleviate near-constant neurological pain. “We’ve been caught up in culture [...]

Cannabis advocates speak out at Spring Gathering

 Advocates, Legalization
Jun 122011
 

SAN BERNARDINO — Get out in the community and work with others to legalize marijuana was the message at Saturday’s Spring Gathering, a music festival and medical marijuana expo featuring such artists as Snoop Dog and Cypress Hill. The event also featured a panel discussion where speakers urged those attending to get involved politically and tell nonsmoking friends about the benefits of marijuana, Wes Woods II reports in the San Bernardino Sun. “Everything you can do,” said Stephen Gutwillig, state director of the Drug Policy Alliance, including supporting cannabis movement organizations, sympathetic elected officials, giving [...]

Bud’s Blog: Focus on prohibition laws in 2012, attorney says

 Advocates, Legalization, Marijuana Law
Feb 132011
 

One of the joys of having your own blog is setting your own deadlines. Sure, it’s been a couple of weeks since the California NORML reform conference in Berkeley, but it’s taken that long to figure out my new video-editing software. So the game plan is to play catch-up over the next week or so with fresh videos from that uber-important conference; contact me if you like what you see and/or think I should stick to writing. ;o) Today’s selection features Joe Rogoway, a criminal defense attorney who’s involved with the California Cannabis Initiative, which [...]

Medical cannabis advocates call for dispensary regs

 Advocates, Medical marijuana
Feb 132011
 

Alarmed by a police backlash against pot dispensaries in some California cities, lawmakers and advocates for medical marijuana are calling for statewide regulation of medical cannabis stores and new laws to clarify rules under which they operate. Additionally, some medical marijuana advocates are pushing lawmakers to consider regulations – similar to those in Colorado – that would permit medical marijuana providers to operate as for-profit businesses, Peter Hecht reports in the Sacramento Bee. Currently, under California law, dispensaries providing medical marijuana must operate as nonprofit “collectives” of registered medical marijuana patients who reimburse dispensaries for [...]

British cannabis advocate: Time to confront the lies

 Advocates, Legalization, Opinion
Feb 092011
 

Bud’s note: From across the pond, writer and “proud Welshman” Peter Reynolds offers this fascinating perspective on the challenges that cannabis users face in the U.K. Take note of how “cannabis” has negative connotations in the British media, even though the term is becoming the preferred alternative to “marijuana” in the U.S. =============== Cannabis is a political issue. Make no mistake about it. The scientific, moral, medical and health arguments have all been won. What we need to do now is find a way to make change happen. It’s in the prohibitionists’ interests to keep [...]

Advocates protest San Luis Obispo collective arrests

 Advocates, Dispensaries, Marijuana News
Jan 122011
 
Advocates protest San Luis Obispo collective arrests

A boisterous group of about 60 protesters advocating for medical marijuana rights gathered outside the San Luis Obispo County Courthouse on Tuesday chanting for “safe access” and hoisting signs — including one that read, “It’s medical, not criminal.” The protesters were calling for the dismissal of charges against a dozen people arrested in late December after an investigation by the county’s Narcotic Task Force into alleged mobile marijuana dispensaries, Nick Wilson reports in The Tribune of San Luis Obispo. Prosecutors have chosen not to file charges against three people because of insufficient evidence, but they’ve [...]

Del Real wields cannabis clout in Sacramento

 Advocates, Media
Dec 232010
 
Del Real wields cannabis clout in Sacramento

In early March, the tension among the crowd at Cesar Chavez Park ran thicker than the wafting marijuana smoke. Medical pot patients protested across the street from the old Sacramento City Hall building, decrying a plan to close dozens of dispensaries and impose strict rules on a handful of cannabis stores that might survive. Before suspicious eyes, Max Del Real stepped onto a stage in one of his signature designer black suits, Peter Hecht recalls in “Weed Wars.” “As soon as I got to the microphone,” he recalls, “somebody yelled, ‘Capitalist! Get him off the [...]

New cannabis trade group sets up shop in D.C.

 Advocates, Business, Medical marijuana
Dec 122010
 

WASHINGTON – The cannabis industry has flexed its muscles in 15 states, including California, where it’s legal to smoke marijuana for medical purposes. Now the industry is ready to go to work in Washington, Rob Hotakainen reports in the Sacramento Bee from McClatchy Newspapers’ Washington bureau. A new trade group, called the National Cannabis Industry Association, aims to bring together sellers, growers and manufacturers and to promote pot on Capitol Hill. “Our intent is to be the go-to organization in Washington for this industry,” said Aaron Smith, the group’s executive director. For the past five [...]

Fresno County moves to ban dispensaries

 Advocates, Dispensaries, Marijuana News, Ordinances
Dec 072010
 

After a long and sometimes contentious public comment period, Fresno County supervisors voted Tuesday to draft an ordinance that will ban medical cannabis dispensaries permanently. No formal action was taken in Tuesday’s morning session, which had stretched well past noon before the last speaker was heard, but staff were directed to prepare a ban for later public hearing. Local patients and dispensary operators pleaded to keep the clinics open, while other speakers lashed out in anger over the board’s perceived “ignorance” about medical cannabis. Homeowners in the upscale Fig Garden District added their own objections [...]

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