Four dispensaries failed Wednesday to win a court order to stop Los Angeles from shutting them down when the city’s medical marijuana ordinance takes effect June 7, a decision that suggests officials may not be impeded in their plans to start enforcing the long-awaited law.
City officials had feared a victory would encourage numerous dispensaries to seek similar court orders, reports John Hoeffel of the Los Angeles Times. “The floodgates have been closed,” said Jane Usher, a special assistant city attorney.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David P. Yaffe denied the motions for temporary restraining orders, [...]
Depending on what polls you read, marijuana advocates may be blowing smoke about the chances of a November legalization initiative in California.
One poll, released by the California Public Policy Institute last week, signals voters are split on the measure, with 49 percent in favor and 48 percent opposed.
An April 19 poll, released by the Smith Johnson Research and commissioned by opponents of the measure, found 56.3 voters are opposed to legalization while 36.5 percent of voters supported it.
The measure was certified for addition to the ballot in March with more than the 433,971 signatures needed [...]
A San Francisco jury deliberated less than a day before convicting a 20-year-old man of first-degree murder Wednesday in the robbery and shooting death of a paratransit driver.
Brian Yang of San Francisco testified that he had been forced at gunpoint to take part in the robbery of 46-year-old Gregory Lee Chapman on May 13, 2008, and said another man he knew only as “Shay” had pulled the trigger as Chapman begged for his life.
“I’ve got kids, man,” Chapman said, according to Yang’s account, just before he was shot.
Prosecutors said Yang had been a willing participant [...]
Bud’s note: File this story under “Why cops have a bad attitude about pot.” Seriously, can you blame them?
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Police arrested a 27-year-old man who reportedly tried to hide bags of marijuana in a 6-year-old child’s pants during a traffic stop Wednesday in southeast Fresno.
The man, who also had a 4-year-old child with him, attempted to leave the vehicle on the 500 block of South Chestnut Avenue after being stopped. The man kicked the vehicle’s door open, the Fresno Bee reports, striking a police officer.
He ran from the vehicle but was arrested a short time later [...]
Vancouver’s Prince of Pot Marc Emery pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Seattle Monday to conspiracy to manufacture marijuana.
As part of a plea bargain, Emery, 52, must serve five years in prison for selling marijuana seeds to U.S. customers through his business, Marc Emery Direct.
He will remain in custody at the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac until sentencing on Aug. 27, the Vancouver Sun reports.
Emery’s wife, Jodie, said the deal is the best of his limited options.
“It’s unfortunate that a five-year sentence is what we want for Marc, but the alternative was at least [...]
Gil Kerlikowske is the “drug czar” – the Obama administration’s director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The former Seattle police chief was interviewed last week by the Union-Tribune editorial board. Below are edited and condensed excerpts of the U-T’s “hot seat” interview:
QUESTION : California has had medical marijuana legally available for some years now. It’s become an increasing problem in a lot of cities in recent years. But on the ballot this November is a measure that would essentially legalize marijuana. What’s wrong with it?
ANSWER : The administration is opposed to drug [...]
A Los Osos woman has received $20,000 from the county after her medical marijuana was improperly destroyed by the Sheriff’s Department, her attorney said Tuesday.
San Luis Obispo lawyer Louis Koory said that his client, Kimberley Anne Marshall, 46, of Los Osos, filed a claim against the county after deputy sheriffs searched her home based on a probation search for her son.
Koory stated that deputies located the 18-month supply of marijuana in a locked closet and seized it; they later destroyed it after the District Attorney’s Office decided not to prosecute the case, the San Luis [...]
Redding officials will suspend the Family Tree Care Center cannabis club’s permit for a single day in June after determining the business had violated city medical marijuana collective regulations.
Police Chief Peter Hansen had recommended a three-day suspension for Family Tree after deciding the club had created a nuisance on two occasions in March.
Family Tree appealed the suspension, the Redding Record-Searchlight reports. City Manager Kurt Starman, acting as an administrative judge, narrowed the suspension to one day after deciding Family Tree had taken steps to mitigate the nuisance complaints.
In one case, Family Tree co-owner Hillary Criner [...]
The owner of a Tower District medical-marijuana clinic is the subject of an escalating battle between a sheriff and a judge who both say they have the legal right to decide whether he stays in jail.
Fresno County Superior Court Judge Donald R. Franson on Tuesday sent Rick Morse — who has been jailed and released twice so far — back to jail a third time with a warning to the sheriff that Morse must stay behind bars until his 15-day sentence is up.
Franson earlier had said state law gives him “the inherent power” to keep [...]
An economic-impact analysis prepared for an East Bay entrepreneur underscores one of the truths behind the “Tax Cannabis 2010″ marijuana legalization measure on November’s ballot: It could make some people very, very rich.
Jeff Wilcox of Lafayette, who sits on the ballot measure steering committee, in November formed AgraMed Inc., Josh Richman writes for the Bay Area News Group’s political blog. The nonprofit company commissioned the analysis from Bay Area consulting firm Brion & Associates.
According to an executive summary, the analysis examines AgraMed’s proposal to redevelop a big parcel near Interstate 880 and the Embarcadero in [...]
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