Wife of suspect in murder of Long Beach courier released

 Courts
Nov 082011
 

LONG BEACH — An accessory to murder charge was dismissed Monday against a Granada Hills woman who was accused in the slaying of a medical marijuana distributor. The stunning move was made Monday morning when the prosecutor announced to the court the people could not meet the statutory time limit for the trial against Rosemary Sayegh, said Shiara Davila, a Los Angeles County District Attorney’s spokeswoman. The 32-year-old Sayegh (pronounced Sage) was charged as an accessory in the slaying of Philip Victor Williamson, 29, of Los Angeles, Tracy Manzer reports in the Long Beach Press-Telegram. [...]

Judge upholds Los Angeles medical marijuana ordinance

 Courts
Oct 162011
 

A local judge had upheld the controversial medical marijuana ordinance enacted by Los Angeles, denying motions from 29 medical marijuana dispensaries for a preliminary injunction. The decision came after Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mohr held a series of hearings over many months on a host of challenges raised by the collectives. It represents a major victory for the city attorney’s office, which has invested considerable time and expense in defending the city’s ordinance from a phalanx of lawyers working for dispensaries, John Hoeffel reports in the Los Angeles Times. “It has [...]

Appeals court nixes Long Beach dispensary permits

 Courts
Oct 062011
 

Federal law prohibits California cities from issuing permits to collectives authorizing them to supply marijuana to medical patients, a state appeals court has ruled, raising questions about the scope of local regulation of pot dispensaries. In overturning a Long Beach ordinance, the court said the city went a step beyond California’s action in 1996, when state voters eliminated criminal penalties for patients who used marijuana with a doctor’s approval. Deciding not to prosecute someone for drug use doesn’t conflict with the federal ban on marijuana possession and distribution, the court said. It also said a [...]

Judge: Long Beach dispensary criminal cases can proceed

 Courts
Jul 212011
 

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday that Long Beach has the authority to criminally enforce its medical marijuana ordinance. Superior Court Judge Laura Laesecke’s decision was in response to a June claim from 14 defendants representing five medical marijuana collectives who wanted their criminal cases dismissed. They claimed that Long Beach’s ordinance was invalid and was pre-empted by California law, so it couldn’t be criminally enforced, Phillip Zonkel reports in the Long Beach Press-Telegram. Long Beach was prosecuting the collectives because they were considered illegal, not complying with Long Beach’s medical marijuana [...]

Long Beach police seek clues to slaying in Chico

 Crime
Jun 282011
 
Long Beach police seek clues to slaying in Chico

Long Beach detectives investigating the death of a 29-year-old Los Angeles man gunned down in an alley in the downtown area last March are taking their search for the killer to the Northern California town of Chico. That is because the victim, Philip Victor Williamson, was a distributor of marijuana grown in the Chico area and shipped to various medical marijuana collectives throughout Los Angeles County, and that may have played a part in the killer’s motive, said Nancy Pratt, a Long Beach Police Department spokeswoman. LBPD began its investigation into the slaying of Williamson [...]

Tactics questioned in Whittier dispensary raids

 Dispensaries
May 222011
 

WHITTIER — When Whittier police raided two unlicensed medical marijuana dispensaries Wednesday, they used a more aggressive approach than the city of Pico Rivera and Los Angeles County. Instead of providing a notice of violation and threatening to sue if they didn’t close, a dozen members of Whittier police and L.A. Impact Task Force officers came down on the two dispensaries, leaving shattered glass and bitter feelings. Both medical marijuana dispensaries are located outside the area allowed by city ordinances, Mike Sprague reports in the Whittier Daily News. “They broke in the glass door and [...]

Split Long Beach council OKs amended dispensary rules

 Dispensaries, Ordinances
Jan 192011
 

LONG BEACH — Medical marijuana advocates came close to getting some leeway Tuesday in the city’s marijuana regulations, but fell one vote short of a more lenient version of the law. The council voted 5-4 to finalize an amended ordinance that prohibits medical marijuana collectives from being within 1,000 feet of parks, among other requirements. The council had already approved a law in March that outlawed collectives near schools, in residential areas or near one another, but decided to make it more restrictive. The change is expected to force 11 collectives or cultivation sites to [...]

Dispensaries back on Long Beach council agenda

 Dispensaries, Ordinances
Jan 172011
 

Proposed medical marijuana laws are scheduled for a final vote by Long Beach City Council members Tuesday night. Usually at this point, the vote would be simply a rubber stamp and wouldn’t warrant further discussion by the council. But considering that this is a revision of a previously approved law, which never fully went into effect — and the council was divided over changing it — there could be attempts to alter it one more time, Paul Eakins reports in the Long Beach Press-Telegram. In March 2010, the council approved stringent rules for marijuana collectives, [...]

Long Beach council trims dispensaries near parks

 Dispensaries, Ordinances
Dec 162010
 

The Long Beach City Council voted Tuesday night to snuff out medical marijuana collectives that are too close to parks. As many as 12 current or potential marijuana sites that had already advanced in Long Beach’s permitting process will be eliminated because of the new rule prohibiting them within 1,000 feet of parks, according to a map provided by the city to the Press-Telegram. The number would have been 13, but a change by the council to no longer consider beaches as parks under the ordinance appeared likely to put one collective back in the [...]

Dispensary ban back on Riverside County agenda

 Dispensaries, Marijuana News, Ordinances
Dec 142010
 

Riverside County supervisors John Benoit and Jeff Stone will ask their colleagues today to rescind the board’s order to draft a law regulating medical-marijuana dispensaries. The two supervisors first asked for the medical-marijuana law in September. Two weeks ago, Benoit changed his position and called for a renewed ban, Duane W. Gang reports in the Riverside Press-Enterprise. An ordinance regulating how and where dispensaries could locate in unincorporated areas would have ended the county’s four-year prohibition on the businesses. Benoit and Stone in their proposal wrote that they are concerned that the “number of these [...]

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