When a north Petaluma family nailed a plywood fence around a corral behind their home, families around Happy Acres, a rural neighborhood, began to question what was going on inside. Their suspicions were confirmed Wednesday when Sonoma County narcotics deputies found a flourishing garden of more than 350 marijuana plants hidden behind the plywood. A male resident of the Everett Avenue home was arrested, cited and released on marijuana cultivation and possession charges, said Sgt. Steve Gossett, who runs the sheriff’s narcotics unit. Gossett wouldn’t provide the man’s name, saying the investigation was not yet [...]
Los Angeles officials announced Wednesday that only 41 medical marijuana dispensaries are eligible to stay in business under the city’s restrictive ordinance, a number so low that the city will suspend the winnowing process and ask a judge to rule that it is legal. “It was a surprise,” said Jane Usher, a special assistant city attorney who worked closely with the City Council to draft the complex medical marijuana law and is defending it in court. After a two-month review of dispensary records, the city clerk determined that three-quarters of the 169 dispensaries that applied [...]
Federal and state authorities are “swamped” with cases after targeting pot growers on public lands, said a spokeswoman from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. “It’s harvest season,” said spokeswoman Lauren Horwood. “We have raids going on almost every day.” This week alone, more than 20,000 marijuana plants were eradicated at three grow sites on U.S. Forest Service land near Graniteville, north of Nevada City. Although the sites were being tended, no workers were apprehended during the raids, The Union’s Liz Kellar reports. But federal authorities have been focusing on large-scale marijuana gardens farmed by Mexican nationals, [...]
Wheatland’s zoning laws have to play catch-up with legislation regarding medical marijuana dispensaries, city officials said Tuesday when explaining the need for an interim ordinance. The historic burg of 3,000 is the latest municipality among dozens in the state that have sought to severely restrict or ban medical marijuana dispensaries from operating within its limits. The Wheatland City Council voted 4-0 in favor of instituting a 45-day temporary law, which went into effect immediately, and which prohibits the establishment of medical marijuana dispensaries during that time. “This gives us a breath and allows us to [...]
As many as three medical marijuana dispensaries will be allowed in Stockton under regulations approved Tuesday by the City Council. City leaders for months have reviewed and revised proposed rules for pot shops, Daniel Thigpen reports in the Stockton Record. On Tuesday, attorneys and other medical marijuana advocates mostly spoke favorably of Stockton’s proposed rules before the council took action. Councilman Elbert Holman Jr. cast the lone dissenting vote after expressing concerns about possible increases in marijuana-related crime and violence. Though much language was revised in recent weeks at the request of dispensary supporters, the [...]
Pot leaves are easy to find on Facebook pages. But the nation’s largest social-networking site has decided they cannot appear in advertisements, prohibiting them as “illegal content.” The policy was disclosed Tuesday after a national campaign promoting legalization accused Facebook of censoring political speech, John Hoeffel reports in the Los Angeles Times. The Just Say Now campaign said the popular website rejected its ads after they had run for more than a week. The ads featured the readily recognizable leaf and asked the website’s users to “sign the petition to President Obama to support states’ [...]
A proposal for a medical marijuana clinic in Nipomo fell short Tuesday afternoon after a parade of local residents hammered it relentlessly, linking those who patronize or hang around such dispensaries to everything from murder to burglaries and saying they pose a threat to children. Applicant Robert Brody of Los Angeles found no support from anyone in the community or on the Board of Supervisors as he sought to open his clinic in an industrial park at 425-B N. Frontage Road. Supervisors voted 5-0 against the clinic, the San Luis Obispo Tribune reports, leaving the [...]
The Canna Care medical marijuana dispensary has a truck driving around Sacramento with a sign telling people to vote “no” on the state ballot initiative that would legalize pot for recreational use. George Mull, a lawyer for several Northern California pot shops, is fighting Proposition 19 on claims it threatens protections put in place for medical pot users with the 1996 passage of California’s medical marijuana law. And a Humboldt County dispensary operator complains that the new pot measure simply isn’t needed. “They say they’re legalizing marijuana,” said Stephen Gasparas, who runs the iCenter pot [...]
Kern County supervisors on Tuesday put a 45-day moratorium on the establishment of new medical marijuana collectives or cooperatives in the unincorporated areas of Kern County. They also made it clear they could extend the ban for up to two years, James Burger reports in the Bakersfield Californian. While the moratorium is in place, new medical marijuana businesses will not be allowed to open. Existing collectives or cooperatives will not be allowed to change locations. If they do, they will not be allowed to reopen. “The 22 number is under-inflated. It could be twice that,” [...]
Wheatland officials have drafted an ordinance that would forbid medical marijuana dispensary operators to set up shop within that city’s boundaries. An urgency interim ordinance will go before the City Council today, the Appeal-Democrat’s Nancy Pasternack reports in a story headlined “reefer madness.” If approved, the temporary ban will, “preserve the status quo within the city,” until a long-term zoning law can be established, according to the Yuba County city’s staff recommendation. City Manager Stephen Wright said the impetus for bringing the issue of medical marijuana to the City Council was an anonymous phone call. [...]
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