Mar 13, 2013 | MMJ News
By: Seattle PI
California is ready to follow in Washington’s footsteps, and vote to legalize marijuana and regulate its sale like that of alcohol, according to the Golden State’s authoritative Field Poll.
“Support for legalized marijuana at new high” was the headline for the poll, which showed Californians favoring legalization by a 54-43 percent margin. The Field Poll started asking about pot back in 1969, when only 13 percent favored legalization, despite — or because of — the explosion of hippie culture in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district.
The support for California’s medical marijuana law is even higher — at 72 percent — despite a crackdown by the state’s four U.S. attorneys on the medical marijuana industry. Sixty-seven percent of those surveyed oppose the crackdown, which has included prosecutions and efforts by the feds to confiscate the property of marijuana dispensaries.
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Mar 3, 2013 | Collective Operations
What is required when a individual (or group) decides to start a California medical marijuana collective?
In August of 2008 California Attorney General Jerry Brown published medical marijuana “guidelines” for qualified medical marijuana patients, providers and state law enforcement. The state of California medical marijuana laws (or recommendations) provided in these guidelines is the foundation for how to properly operate a marijuana collective and/or dispensary. The California medical marijuana guidelines emphases the importance of doctor’s medical marijuana recommendation, verification of identification and filing of the relevant documentation as per the laws. Unfortunately, these guidelines are not binding in court, but they do provide a foundation for law enforcement, district attorneys and judges.
Marijuana Collective Membership Agreement
A membership agreement, is required to abide by the collective California medical marijuana laws – it is a contract between the medical marijuana patient and the collective or co-op. This membership agreement is a patient’s commitment to abide by all the requirements laid out in the bylaws of the collective.
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Jan 30, 2013 | MMJ News
By Peter Hecht
At The Sacramento Bee
Inspired by victorious measures to legalize marijuana in Colorado and Washington, California activists are readying a new ballot push to expand legalization in the Golden State – but not until 2016.
Drug policy groups, pro-legalization lawmakers and other marijuana advocates say they don’t favor holding a California vote on legalizing recreational pot use in 2014, when there will be a smaller electorate than in a presidential year and likely less money and enthusiasm for a pot measure.
“We need to take a breath – because we’re California, and we’re super complicated,” said Amanda Reiman, California policy manager for the Drug Policy Alliance.
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Jan 19, 2013 | MMJ News
By Wes Woods II, Eric Bradley and Rick Orlov Staff Writers
At Daily News Los Angeles
Two medical marijuana cases going before the state Supreme Court could determine whether dispensary bans by dozens of California cities are legal.
The City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patient’s Health and Wellness Center is scheduled to begin Feb. 5 at the University of San Francisco School of Law over the city’s legal authority to ban the dispensaries, which was upheld by an appeals court last year.
In another upcoming case, City of Upland v. G3 Holistic Inc., G3 lawyers are expected to argue that cities can’t ban the dispensaries because they’re allowed under Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, which legally allows doctors to prescribe marijuana to patients.
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Jan 19, 2013 | MMJ News
By Bob Egelko
At SFGate.com
The state Supreme Court has denied prosecutors’ request to review a ruling to allow large nonprofit dispensaries to sell medical marijuana, a case that could affect the federal government’s attempt to shut down the giant Harborside dispensary in Oakland.
Harborside Health Center is the nation’s largest medical marijuana supplier, with 108,000 patients. Local and state authorities have not objected to its operations, but U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag sued in July to seize its property in Oakland and a smaller site in San Jose.
Invoking the Obama administration’s policy of targeting dispensaries that violated state as well as federal drug laws, Haag said the larger the dispensary, “the greater the likelihood that there will be abuse of the state’s medical marijuana law.”
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Jan 15, 2013 | Collective Operations
This article explains the core requirements of a Collective model and the compensation for growers. It gives a brief of how the growers should be compensated for their contribution.
The state allows “collective” growing medical marijuana in California, but can a so called seriously ill or handicapped person run a garden? Unfortunately some people are not physically capable to grow medical marijuana. Members’ “contributions” will mainly be in the form of money, but the collective should allow members to contribute and volunteer in various ways. A mixed group of people from various professions was a good recommendation for a group.
The change happened – Collective members don’t have to participate in the “growing”
Until early 2012 California district attorneys were prosecuting collectives that only had a small percentage of members assisting with the growing of marijuana. Luckily, in February of 2012 Los Angeles’ 2nd District of Appeals overruled a landmark case (The People v. Colvin). This decision rejected this notion that the California DA’s were using. The
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Jan 9, 2013 | MMJ News
By RICHARD K. De ATLEY
At The PRESS ENTERPRISE
The California Supreme Court has set Feb. 5 as the date to hear arguments in a Riverside-generated case over whether local governments can ban medical marijuana dispensaries.
City of Riverside v Inland Empire Patient’s Health and Wellness Center came to the court from a November 2011 ruling from the Riverside-based Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division Two.
It upheld Riverside’s assertion that California’s Prop. 215 and laws regulating medical marijuana did not preempt the city from creating ordinances that banned storefront dispensaries, and the center appealed.
There have been rulings from other appellate court divisions on similar cases since then, with one Orange County division turning aside local bans on dispensaries — the opposite of the Riverside ruling.
Published appellate court rulings can be cited throughout the state and are the rule of law for a particular court’s division – in the case of the Fourth District’s Division Two, it’s Riverside, San Bernardino and Inyo counties. When appellate rulings clash, that makes an issue ripe for the state’s high court, which granted review for the Riverside case on Jan. 18, 2012.
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Jan 8, 2013 | Collective Operations
What are your goals?
It is always a good idea to have a written plan that outlines the ideas and goals about where you plan to start a marijuana dispensary /collective and a more detailed version for the city or other outside parties depending on what route you intend to take. This activity requires a lot of brainstorming in order to create a mission statement for the organization.
Per the California Attorney General’s Guidelines:
Business Forms: Any group that is (a) collectively or (b) cooperatively growing medical marijuana in California and distributing it for medical purposes should be organized and operated in a manner that ensures the security of the crop and safeguards against diversion for non-medical purposes.”
The attorney general’s guidelines were developed to help cooperatives and collectives operate within the law, and to help law enforcement determine whether they are doing so.
Kinds of Non-profit organizations:
A legal marijuana dispensary by law should be a non-profit organization. It could be one of the following types:
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Jan 8, 2013 | MMJ News
by Matthai Kuruvila
at San Francisco Chronicle
A federal magistrate issued an order Monday declaring that Oakland and San Jose landlords could not stop a medical marijuana dispensary with locations in each city from selling cannabis.
Both landlords face federal seizure of their properties for renting to Harborside Health Center, the nation’s largest marijuana dispensary with 108,000 registered and certified patients. To mollify federal authorities, each landlord has gone to federal court to stop the dispensary from “any unlawful activity,” which, under federal law, includes selling cannabis.
Magistrate Maria-Elena James said neither landlord had the right to pursue such an action under federal law.
In addition, she questioned landlord arguments that their property values would be harmed by the sale of medical marijuana. Harborside started renting the Oakland property on Embarcadero Way in 2006 and the San Jose property on Ringwood Avenue in 2009.
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Jan 5, 2013 | MMJ News
Editorial by Los Angeles News Group
at Daily News Los Angeles
The fight over medical marijuana in California has taken another turn. A petition to permit about 100 dispensaries to operate in Los Angeles has received enough signatures to force the City Council to either adopt it or put it on the ballot. This does not necessarily mean a meaningful resolution is at hand.
In fact, this citywide measure only muddies what were already cloudy waters.
The medical-marijuana conundrum won’t be solved until California leaders create a statewide policy on how to make pot available for therapeutic use the way voters intended when they passed Proposition 215 in 1996.
As long as state legislators fail to act, we’ll still have a ragged patchwork of policies enacted by officials tugged in different directions by compassion for the sick, the need to stop illegal for-profit pot shops, conflicting court rulings, and hardline federal laws. An Assembly bill to create statewide regulations was withdrawn by its author in June over various conflicts. The new Legislature must get something done.
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