Dec 17, 2012 | MMJ News
By PAUL ELIAS
At The Huffington Post
SAN FRANCISCO — President Barack Obama says he won’t go after pot users in Colorado and Washington, two states that just legalized the drug for recreational use. But advocates argue the president said the same thing about medical marijuana – and yet U.S. attorneys continue to force the closure of dispensaries across the U.S.
Welcome to the confusing and often conflicting policy on pot in the U.S., where medical marijuana is legal in many states, but it is increasingly difficult to grow, distribute or sell it. And at the federal level, at least officially, it is still an illegal drug everywhere.
Obama’s statement Friday provided little clarity in a world where marijuana is inching ever so carefully toward legitimacy.
That conflict is perhaps the greatest in California, where the state’s four U.S. Attorneys criminally prosecuted large growers and launched a coordinated crackdown on the state’s medical marijuana industry last year by threatening landlords with property forfeiture actions. Hundreds of pot shops went out of business.
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Dec 12, 2012 | MMJ News
By RYAN McCARTHY
at ChicoER.com
MARYSVILLE — A medical marijuana cultivation measure called the most progressive in California won approval from the Yuba County Board of Supervisors Tuesday by a 4-1 vote.
“We’ve made history,” said Sam McConnell, president of the Yuba County Growers Association.
He said every other county in the state can now follow the ordinance that follows a measure booed in April at a Board of Supervisors meeting as too restrictive for medical marijuana growers.
“Everybody is able to do what they need to,” McConnell said of the new measure.
Attorney Jeff Lake, representing growers, said the new ordinance moves away from square-footage limits for growing marijuana and instead uses a plant count. A total of 18 plants can be grown on less than an acre while up to 99 plants are allowed on more than 20 acres, he said.
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Dec 10, 2012 | MMJ News
By Michael Gryboski
at Christian Post Reporter
A medical marijuana dispensary in California expresses evangelical Christian views and is known to hand out Bibles along with the controversial drug.
Canna Care of Sacramento, a family owned dispensary known for supplying medical marijuana and advocating for decriminalization, evangelizes and prays with its customers. Canna Care oversees group prayers in a typical day around 6:00 p.m. and has handed out an estimated 3,000 Bibles to those who come for their services.
Kris Hermes, spokesperson for the nationwide pro-marijuana legalization group Americans for Safe Access, told The Christian Post about its ties to Canna Care.
“Canna Care has been a supporter of Americans for Safe Access as have scores of dispensaries across the country,” said Hermes. “We have also worked with the operators of Canna Care on a number of political campaigns over the years, given their active involvement in advancing medical marijuana policy.”
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Dec 6, 2012 | MMJ News
BY RICHARD K. De ATLEY
at The Press Enterprise
The lawyer for the medical marijuana dispensary at the center of the latest court action over Riverside’s ordinance banning the clinics said Wednesday, Dec. 5 that local governments are trying to outrun the California Supreme Court on the issue.
“Nobody really wants to wait for the Supreme Court to tell us what the law is, huh? God forbid we should have a country of due process and laws,” Redlands lawyer James DeAguilera said in a phone interview.
I put in a call in Monday to DeAguilera when I did a story on an appellate court order that restored Riverside’s injunction against Closet Patient Care dispensary on Elizabeth Street. De Aguilera got back to me the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 5.
The Nov. 29 order from the Fourth Appellate District Court, Division Two, gave Riverside a green light to resume procedures to close the remaining 10 to 12 dispensaries in the city. The appellate order reversed a judge who had blocked action to shut down Closet Patient Care in August. That action had put on hold Riverside’s cease-and-desist actions against clinics.
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Dec 3, 2012 | MMJ News
BY RICHARD K. De ATLEY The Press EnterpriseBY RICHARD K. De ATLEYat The Press Enterprise
Riverside will resume its efforts to shut down the medical marijuana dispensaries still operating within its boundaries now that a state appellate court order has upheld the city’s ban on such storefronts.
About 10 to 12 medical marijuana outlets remain open, City Attorney Greg Priamos said Monday, Dec. 3, as he commented on a Fourth District Court of Appeal order issued Nov. 29. Priamos said 45 dispensaries in the city have closed since a ban was put in place nearly a year ago.
The order from the court’s Division Two, based in Riverside, overturns an August ruling by Superior Court Judge John Vineyard. He said a local government cannot ban medical marijuana stores if they are operating legally under the state laws that authorize them. While Vineyard’s ruling addressed only one store, it affected city’s efforts to complete its ban on all of them. (more…)
Dec 3, 2012 | MMJ News
By LANow
Los Angeles Times
The nation’s largest medical marijuana dispensary, which is battling to keep two Bay Area sites operating, has won a victory in state court.
Last summer, federal prosecutors filed civil forfeiture actions against Harborside Health Center’s landlords in Oakland and San Jose — a move aimed at pressuring the buildings’ owners to evict. And the landlords moved to do just that.
But Harborside challenged the evictions in state court, noting that its leases explicitly stated how the premises would be used.
In a ruling last week, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo tossed out the Oakland eviction, noting that landlord Ana Chretien could not seek relief in state court for Harborside’s alleged violations of federal drug law.
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