From NORML’s Stash blog comes this Friday speech by Paul Armentano given at the Students for Sensible Drug Policy international conference in San Francisco. Rarely do you see the word “fuck” mixed in with Gandhi references, but Armentano’s call for young adults to contribute their time and effort is timely and important.
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My name is Paul [...]

Seeking to overturn the city’s medical marijuana ordinance even before it takes effect, a loose-knit coalition of Los Angeles collectives is quietly gathering signatures to force a referendum on the law.
The scrappy, largely volunteer effort faces a Monday deadline to turn in 27,425 valid signatures, reports John Hoeffel of the Los Angeles Times.
Update:
Times: Petition [...]

Filling in the last blank in the city’s medical marijuana ordinance, Los Angeles officials Friday recommended a number of fees dispensaries would have to pay to operate. Although the City Council passed the law in January, it cannot take effect until the council approves the fees.
In addition to standard charges for inspections and research, officials [...]

Sacramento officials Thursday night presented a plan to cap the number of marijuana dispensaries in the city at a dozen and impose strict requirements for their operations.
Faced with a packed room of pot shop owners and medical marijuana advocates, City Manager Gus Vina asked for measured input on “an emotional issue,” the Sacramento Bee’s Peter [...]

Over the passionate objections of a neighboring church congregation, the Cotati City Council said Wednesday that a medical marijuana dispensary can open on the city’s west side.
(Where the hell is Cotati? Click here for map.)
The Mercy Medical Dispensary Collective will be the first such business in Cotati, where last year a dispensary’s application was rejected [...]

Gotta break out this quote from a would-be dispensary operator: “Limiting it to two (dispensaries in Santa Cruz) is a slap in face to the medical marijuana community. I see it as Jim Crow and nothing else. We’ve gone from being criminals to second-class citizens.” Read on…
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The Santa Cruz City Council preliminarily approved a new [...]

Although Martinez has had an ordinance allowing medical marijuana dispensaries on the books for 10 years, it has never approved one.
In the past few months, several groups seeking to open dispensaries have approached Martinez. In response to Police Chief Tom Simonetti’s call for a ban on the facilities, the city’s Public Safety Subcommittee has been [...]

If you haven’t checked out the Sac Bee’s “Weed Wars” blog, take a look. Bee reporter Peter Hecht offers this snippet about Californians’ mass consumption of the green stuff. By my math, 16 million ounces equals 1 million pounds, a small fraction of the estimated 8.6 million pounds grown here last year. We’re a major [...]

The Morro Bay City Council voted Monday to move ahead with drafting regulations that would allow medical marijuana to be sold in the city.
The council voted 4-1 to form a subcommittee, which would bring an ordinance back to the council in 60 to 90 days. City Attorney Rob Schultz has drafted a preliminary set of [...]

Last fall, when dozens of medicinal marijuana users went to the Ventura City Council to urge it to show compassion and give them a legal place to get their medicine, the council responded just as every other community in Ventura County had in the past: It said no.
But then the council did something unexpected, the [...]