A Sonoma County judge’s ruling invalidating the county’s medical marijuana dispensary ordinance has given rise to a bumper crop of new pot clubs, renewing debate about public safety and health risks.
Since Superior Court Judge Robert Boyd’s injunction Dec. 7 in the case of a Guerneville club, at least six dispensaries have opened on the outskirts of Santa Rosa, Cotati, Forestville and elsewhere in unincorporated Sonoma County.
In addition, a number of more transient clubs are appearing, taking advantage of the lack of county regulations prescribing where and when dispensaries can operate and what security measures must [...]
Letters will be sent this week to the operators of at least 400 medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, ordering them to close by June 7.
“It will inform (operators) that a new ordinance is going into effect, and it is our understanding that their establishment is operating outside compliance and will be required to shut down,” said Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for the City Attorney’s Office.
The letters will be sent today or Wednesday, he said in a Los Angeles Daily News report.
Los Angeles Times coverage
Mailing list for compliance letters (L.A. Times)
Business Week coverage
The ordinance that [...]
I am deeply concerned that a few bigoted demagogues want to seize control of the city of Morro Bay and prevent a medical cannabis dispensary from opening here, Ali Jordan-Brown writes in a letter to the New Times SLO (San Luis Obispo) editor.
I spoke at the city council meeting on March 8 in support of the dispensary. Each city council member spoke in support of this dispensary at that meeting, except Carla Borchard, who declared war at the meeting of the Morro Bay Merchants association meeting two days later. Since then, Rick Grantham has decided [...]
For much of his life, Richard Lee needed neither liberation nor a cause.
The Oakland medical pot entrepreneur, who spent $1.3 million to qualify this November’s initiative to make recreational pot use legal in California, once lived for thundering his Harley-Davidson motorcycle down Texas highways.
His father, Bob Lee, said his son used to ride to a Houston airport, climb into an ultralight airplane and soar above the rice fields, “playing tag with the seagulls.”
Lee’s close friend Kurt Calivoda, with whom he worked in a Houston stage lighting business, remembers a wiry, athletic man “who could climb [...]
Sitting behind a glass case on the counter of Less Smoke Shop on Eureka Way in Redding is a marijuana alternative that is potent, won’t show up on drug tests and is perfectly legal.
It’s called Black Mamba.
Sold in round, quarter-ounce, clear plastic containers, the substance looks similar to the dried herbs Aunt Molly would stir into her spaghetti sauce, Amanda Winters reports in the Redding Record-Searchlight. But officials say the herbal blend has the power to increase blood pressure, cause paranoia, agitation, hallucinations and get users very, very high.
In the Midwest, where the substance is [...]
Talk about murky.
The economic impact, the potential social and legal landscape, even the split between the pro and con sides in the squabble over the initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot to legalize marijuana for recreational use in California – they’re all about as clear as smoke from a bong, Kevin Fagan writes in the San Francisco Chronic-le.
Most medicinal-marijuana advocates think it would be just fine if good-time tokers joined their legal crowd. Others worry it might ruin the purity of using pot as medicine.
Some associated with law enforcement think it’s time to treat weed [...]
The city of Sacramento is considering a tax on medicinal marijuana dispensaries as it grapples with yet another massive deficit.
Faced with a $43 million gap for the upcoming fiscal year, the pot tax is one source of revenue city officials are exploring. A tax on private parking lots and an increase in the city’s business operations also are being investigated, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Sacramento would be the second city in the state to enact a special tax on pot shops, behind Oakland. San Jose and Berkeley are exploring the issue.
City officials are looking at either [...]
Tehama County drug agents arrested a Los Molinos man who owns a hydroponics shop in Corning this week on suspicion of marijuana sales, saying a year-long investigation showed he was trafficking marijuana to Kansas.
Jason Labonte, 42, sold $10 “starter plants” three times to Tehama Interagency Drug Enforcement Task Force agents over the past year, said Eric Maher, special agent supervisor for the task force. Maher said agents arrested Labonte Wednesday while he was negotiating the purchase of 25 pounds of pot from them.
Labonte owns Advanced Hydroponics in Corning, the Redding Record-Searchlight reports.
Corning Observer coverage
Agents found [...]
The Chico Enterprise-Record saves the best for last from staff writer Toni Scott and her “Politics of Pot” series. Good writing and sourcing distinguish this article from the usual newspaper fare, and it’s nice to see the E-R tackle a big project in this age of shrinking newsrooms.
==================
CHICO — Though Kris Kidd hasn’t received as much as a parking ticket in more than five years, the 42-year-old Chico resident says she is forced into criminal behavior on a routine basis, simply to relieve her pain.
Kidd, who holds a graduate degree and has an extensive resume [...]
If California’s medical marijuana trade were just one big harmonious smoking circle, attorney Daniel Marc Bornstein might be out of business.
The veteran civil litigation lawyer formed Confidential Mediation Services so that marijuana dispensaries, cultivators and patients can resolve disputes, Peter Hecht writes in his “Weed Wars” blog.
Bornstein offers himself as a peace facilitator for a trade that isn’t always comfortable with settling things the old-fashioned way of going to court and suing.
So Bornstein, who has offices in San Francisco and Beverly Hills, says he is the man to call when a dispensary selling weed for [...]
Recent Comments