Humboldt supervisor: Feds ‘disrespect’ local governments

 Politics
Jan 082012
 

Pressure from California Northern District U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag has led to the closure of an Arcata medical marijuana dispensary, changes in Arcata’s landmark medical marijuana ordinance and a swirl of fear in Humboldt County’s medical marijuana community. As a result, Humboldt County 3rd District Supervisor Mark Lovelace met with Haag on Thursday afternoon to express his disappointment with the recent federal crackdown. In an interview with the Eureka Times-Standard on Friday, Lovelace said the U.S. attorney’s actions “showed incredible disrespect for local governments,” Grant Scott-Goforth reports. Lovelace said his meeting with Haag, which Humboldt [...]

Shasta County MMJ group stumbles on sheriff’s recall

 Politics
Jan 082012
 

A medical marijuana group seeking to recall Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko was unable to gather 20 valid signatures that would have started the process. Cathy Darling Allen, the county’s registrar of voters, said Friday that though the group had submitted 23 signatures, she was able to confirm the legitimacy of just 14 of them, Ryan Sabalow reports in the Redding Record Searchlight. She said the rest of the signatures either didn’t belong to registered voters, were illegible or were missing an actual signature, though the person had printed a name. Rob McDonald, the 50-year-old [...]

San Jose mayor seeks compromise on dispensaries

 Politics
Jan 032012
 

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed said Tuesday he would consider softening the city’s recently approved medical marijuana ordinance after critics succeeded in qualifying a referendum to repeal the new rules. The ordinance the City Council approved in September would shrink the number of medical marijuana collectives allowed in the city from more than 100 to just 10, in addition to requiring them to grow all of the marijuana they distribute on site. Critics collected more than 49,000 signatures in a month to repeal the law, which they argued would require the creation of marijuana superstores [...]

Cultivation limits spur Shasta County recall effort

 Politics
Dec 292011
 

A group of local medical cannabis advocates is trying to gather 10,000 signatures to overturn a recent ordinance Shasta County supervisors passed that restricts marijuana growing for county residents. Nor Cal Safe Access member Dave Shore said about 30 people have been gathering signatures outside medical marijuana dispensaries and less controversial local businesses like Walmart for about a week now. While county supervisors passed two ordinances regulating medical marijuana earlier this month — one banning dispensaries and one introducing cultivation restrictions for county residents — the group is seeking a referendum only for the growth [...]

Coalition submits 2012 medical cannabis initiative

 Initiatives
Dec 222011
 

Medical marijuana advocates want to create a statewide system for licensing, regulating and taxing the industry as a way of persuading federal officials to ease up on their crackdown of California’s pot clubs and growers. After months of study, a coalition of medical marijuana activists led by Americans for Safe Access and a labor union that represents dispensary workers in Northern California, have proposed a 2012 ballot initiative that would create an appointed Board of Medical Marijuana Enforcement charged with overseeing businesses and nonprofits that grow, distribute, sell and test pot both in its raw [...]

Attorney general urges Legislature to clarify cannabis laws

 Politics
Dec 222011
 

SAN FRANCISCO — Attorney General Kamala Harris urged California lawmakers Wednesday to get serious about clarifying the state’s 15-year-old medical marijuana law, saying numerous holes in the notoriously liberal statute have left law enforcement and legitimate patients in a near-constant state of uncertainty. In a letter to the Legislature’s leaders, Harris said the state needs to spell out if the hundreds of storefront dispensaries and delivery services that sell marijuana—purportedly for medical use—are legal, or if the only lawful way to obtain the drug is through patient collectives in which all members jointly grow their [...]

Cannabis activist seeks recall of 3 Redding officials

 Politics
Dec 212011
 

An outspoken Redding medical marijuana patient and advocate presented three City Council members with recall notices Tuesday night. Rob McDonald, 50, presented council members Francie Sullivan, Rick Bosetti and Patrick Jones with the notices during the meeting’s public comment period, Sean Longoria reports in the Record Searchlight. “Tonight I do something that isn’t easy for me,” McDonald said before announcing and presenting the notices. “Four weeks ago you basically listened to a group of people who basically wanted to violate another group of people’s rights and you closed down the dispensaries.” The notice presented to [...]

Petitioners want to apply federal pot ban to Lake County

 Dispensaries
Dec 022011
 

LAKE COUNTY – Amidst several ongoing efforts to place referendums and initiatives on the June 2012 ballot in favor of medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation, a new effort is moving forward to ban marijuana in the county altogether. On Thursday, Lake County Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley received a notice of intention to circulate a petition for the “Lake County Act to Adopt Federal Marijuana Laws,” Elizabeth Larson reports in the Lake County News. The petition’s statement of reasons explains, “Voters of Lake County, California need an alternative to the aggressive pro-pot agenda being pushed [...]

Lake County issues dispensary shutdown deadline

 Dispensaries
Nov 262011
 

Lake County officials have given nine medical marijuana dispensaries in the unincorporated county until Dec. 6 to shut down or face enforcement proceedings. The crackdown was triggered by a pro-marijuana referendum effort that backfired, Glenda Anderson reports in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. That successful September referendum forced supervisors to rescind an ordinance that would have allowed five dispensaries in unincorporated Lake County. Referendum proponents contended that was too few. But without an ordinance, pot dispensaries are not allowed at all under Lake County zoning regulations. The time given existing dispensaries to operate temporarily has [...]

Medical cannabis community pins blame on Obama

 Politics
Nov 142011
 

Another slice of President Obama’s liberal base has become frustrated and disappointed with him: a growing number of leaders in California’s $1.5 billion medical cannabis community. Supporters of the state’s network of medical pot businesses, like some members in the gay and environmentalist voting blocs, think Obama has not lived up to his campaign promises, Joe Garofoli reports in the San Francisco Chronicle. In 2007, then-candidate Obama said in New Hampshire that he “would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana users. It’s not a good use of our resources.” A 2009 [...]

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