Sep 25, 2012 | MMJ News
By Dan Whitcomb
at Reuters (via Yahoo)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Federal authorities moved to close down 71 medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles and a neighboring community on Tuesday, marking the latest broadside in an ongoing war over California‘s cannabis trade.
The move also comes on the heels of a municipal ban on storefront pot shops in Los Angeles that was put on hold after activists challenged it in court and by referendum.
The number of medical marijuana stores in Los Angeles, estimated to number between 472 and nearly 1,000, has made it a hub for America’s medicinal cannabis trade and put the city at the center of legal and political battles over the issue.
“Over the past several years, we have seen an explosion of commercial marijuana stores, an explosion that is being driven by the massive profits associated with marijuana distribution,” U.S. Attorney André Birotte Jr. said in a written statement.
(more…)
Sep 19, 2012 | MMJ News
By: CHANTAL M. LOVELL
At the Napa Valley Register
Thanks to a moratorium that lasts through October 2013, the current Napa City Council likely won’t take further action on the city’s halted medical marijuana ordinance.
That will be up to the council elected this November, which will have at least one new member, possibly two. Because state law prohibits the moratorium from being extended again, the question of how to balance conflicting state and federal laws regarding medical cannabis will come up during the new council’s first year.
All seven candidates expressed support for the city’s decision to pause the ordinance until the city gets direction from the California Supreme Court or federal government on how to proceed in regulating, or not regulating, one or more marijuana dispensaries within city limits.
Beyond that, few expressed solid plans on how to proceed with the ordinance that was unanimously approved in July 2010.
(more…)
Sep 11, 2012 | MMJ News
By: Karl Dickey
at the Examiner.com
Libertarian presidential candidate and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson today praised Rep. Paul Ryan for his willingness to let states decide whether to allow the use of medical marijuana, but added, “Don’t get too excited until we know where Mitt Romney stands.”
Responding to a question on a Denver radio show over the weekend, Ryan stated that, while he is personally opposed to medical marijuana, he agrees with allowing states to decide whether to allow it or not. Medical marijuana is legal in Colorado under state law, but the Obama Administration has aggressively sought to close dispensaries in the state.
Johnson has stated that, if elected, he would immediately cease federal enforcement efforts aimed at preventing states from allowing the prescription and use of medical marijuana, and reclassify cannabis to allow its use under the Controlled Substances Act.
Responding to Ryan’s statement, Johnson made the following statement:
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Sep 1, 2012 | Collective Operations
Earlier this year the California court of appeals over turned the conviction of William Frank Colvin (People v. Colvin), which was a landmark case for MMJ Collectives. This appeal case basically made it clear that collective members Do Not have to physically work or donate time to “collective” operations. So just paying for medicine (as 99% of members do) is okay with the courts.
With regards to the original conviction the appeals court wrote
[The Attorney General does not specify how many members must participate or in what way or ways they must do so, except to imply that Holistic, with its 5,000 members and 14 growers, is simply too big to allow any “meaningful” participation in the cooperative process; hence, it cannot be a “cooperative” or a “collective” in the way section 11362.775 intended. But this interpretation of section 11362.775 would impose on medical marijuana cooperatives requirements not imposed on other cooperatives. A grocery cooperative, for example, may have members who grow and sell the food and run a store out of which the cooperative’s products are sold. But not everyone who pays a fee to become a member participates in the cooperative other than to shop at it.]
However, given the not-for-profit nature of this business; we still feel it is a good idea to have willing and able members (periodically) volunteer for various collective duties.
Aug 31, 2012 | MMJ News
By Rick Orlov
at Daily News Los Angeles
The city’s long struggle to control medical marijuana dispensaries took a new turn on Wednesday with the collection of 50,000 signatures on petitions to overturn the city’s proposed ban on dispensaries.
If the signatures are validated once they are formally submitted on Thursday, it will put the city’s ban – scheduled to take effect on Sept.6 – on hold until the March 5 municipal election.
Don Duncan, California director of Americans for Safe Access, urged the City Council to rescind its ordinance and return to negotiating with medical marijuana advocates.
“Very soon, the city will be faced with having to rescind its ordinance or put the decision before Los Angeles voters,” Duncan said.
“Because of the ban’s questionable future, the city ought to reconsider its tough stance on enforcing the ban.”
(more…)
Aug 27, 2012 | MMJ News
WASHINGTON, Aug. 27, 2012 — /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The United States Medical Marijuana Chamber of Commerce, a 10,000 member-strong national business group with individual state chapters across the country, has officially endorsed President Barack Obama for a second term as President, it was announced today.
“Let’s not get distracted by the myriad of issues that will be brought to the forefront at the upcoming political conventions, the single most important election issue is getting our economy back on track,” remarked Thomas L. Leto III, President and Founder of the U.S. Medical Marijuana Chamber of Commerce.
“The Economic Potential of the Cannabis Business in the U.S. is Limitless and President Obama understands this,” “It is our impression that Mr. Romney just doesn’t get it.”
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Aug 25, 2012 | MMJ News
By Chris Roberts – SF Weekly
The courts are a funny thing. A case that caused the sky to fall is six months ago is now being declared irrelevant.
A state appeals court case that some feared would cause all medical marijuana dispensaries in California to be banned back in January was dismissed without review on Wednesday by the California Supreme Court.
In the case of Pack v. City of Long Beach, a state appeals court ruled that no city or county in California could regulate medical marijuana dispensaries, since marijuana is illegal under federal law. Cities across the state used the ruling as an excuse to ban dispensaries. Even San Francisco got into the act, briefly suspending its landmark permitting ordinance.
The appeals court ruling was suspended while the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. A decision could have been forthcoming this fall. But in the interim, Long Beach banned dispensaries outright. That rendered the point of law the Supreme Court was to argue moot, and so the entire case was dismissed.
(more…)
Aug 25, 2012 | MMJ News
BY JAMES BURGER Californian staff writer jburger@bakersfield.com
A coalition of local medical marijuana collectives, working with local attorney Phil Ganong, has filed a lawsuit against Kern County to set aside Measure G, which puts stringent restrictions on where the operations can locate in unincorporated areas.
The suit was filed in Kern County Superior Court Monday.
Lawyers for the local cooperatives argue in their filing that “Measure G attempts to circumvent plaintiff’s vested property rights without due process” and that the local law is pre-empted by state laws that legalized the medical use of marijuana and laid out rules for how groups of patients could grow and share the drug.
“The ordinance is unconstitutional on its face — there is no interpretation of this ordinance that is compatible with state law,” Ganong said.
Without action by the court to stop enforcement of Measure G, collective attorneys argue, the cooperatives will lose the rights they have under the state’s Compassionate Use Act and the Medical Marijuana Program Act to form a collective, be free from self-incrimination and maintain property rights.
And they argue that the measure violates the California Environmental Quality Act, California’s main environmental law, because county leaders failed to study Measure G’s impact on the environment before it was submitted to voters in June.
“I disagree,” said County Counsel Theresa Goldner. “CEQA does not apply. There are activities that are exempt from CEQA.”
(more…)
Aug 17, 2012 | MMJ News
Aug 17, 2012 | MMJ News
Written by NORML
http://norml.org/news/2012/08/16/study-there-is-now-clear-evidence-that-cannabinoids-are-useful-for-the-treatment-of-various-medical-conditions
Hurth, Germany: Scientific findings from over 100 controlled clinical trials involving either cannabis or its constituents provide “clear evidence that cannabinoids are useful for the treatment of various medical conditions,” according to a just published review in the German scientific journal Deutsches Ärzteblatt International.
Investigators from the nova-Institute and the Hannover Medical School in Germany reviewed over 100 controlled trials assessing the safety and efficacy of cannabis and cannabinoids.
Researchers reported: “Knowledge about the therapeutic potential of cannabis products has been greatly improved by a large number of clinical trials in recent years. … There is now clear evidence that cannabinoids are useful for the treatment of various medical conditions,” including chronic neuropathy (nerve pain), multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, and other indications.
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