Banned marijuana dispensary reopens in Wildomar

A medical marijuana collective engaged in a legal battle against Wildomar re-opened its storefront location Monday in defiance of a citywide ban on dispensaries.

The move by the Wildomar Patients Compassionate Group comes a week after the collective filed a legal petition seeking to block the city from enforcing its ban.

General Manager William Sump said the group believes Wildomar’s ban violates state law, which allows medical marijuana patients access to medication.

“I will only operate until a judge tells us not to,” Sump said.

Wildomar City Manager Frank Oviedo said the city would likely seek a court order forcing the dispensary to shut down.

“We’re going to enforce the city’s ordinance,” Oviedo said. “There is no other option. We can’t ignore our own laws.”

CNN poll confirms: Most Americans believe their government is a threat to their welfare

A majority of Americans think the federal government poses a threat to rights of Americans, according to a new national poll.

Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they think the federal government’s become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. Forty-four percent of those polled disagree.

The survey indicates a partisan divide on the question: only 37 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of Independents and nearly 7 in 10 Republicans say the federal government poses a threat to the rights of Americans.

According to CNN poll numbers released Sunday, Americans overwhelmingly think that the U.S. government is broken – though the public overwhelmingly holds out hope that what’s broken can be fixed.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted February 12-15, with 1,023 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey’s sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for the overall survey.

Lawsuit challenges marijuana nuisance ordinance

A civil lawsuit filed September 11 in Ukiah against the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors and Sheriff Tom Allman challenges the nuisance ordinance limiting parcels to no more than 25 marijuana plants.

The suit contends the 25 plant per parcel rule contradicts state law, which places no limit on the number of plants a qualified patient or caregiver may cultivate. It also claims Mendocino County Code Section 9.31 sets an arbitrary limit to the number of plants a medical marijuana cooperative or collective may grow.

The Marijuana Ads That ABC, FOX, and CBS Refused to Show You

A look inside a medical cannabis dispensary

Medical Marijuana Patient

Mitzelfelt to reject pot dispensaries

SAN BERNARDINO • County supervisors Tuesday extended the moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries for up to 10 months while county staff evaluates possible permitting options.

No matter the staff recommendation, 1st District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt said he will reject all proposed dispensaries in unincorporated areas.

“County staff are right now studying the land use implications of dispensaries, but regardless of what land use staff reports back to the Board, Supervisor Mitzelfelt will not support the approval of any dispensaries in the area he’s responsible for,” said David Zook, chief of staff for Mitzelfelt.

Proponents of the marijuana facilities argue that if regulated properly, dispensaries can serve those suffering from debilitating and life-threatening health problems without negatively impacting surrounding communities. Fifty-six percent of California voters approved the use of marijuana for medical use in 1996 with Proposition 215.

But Mitzelfelt sides with anti-drug advocates on the issue and believes dispensaries “will encourage illicit drug activity and are therefore dangerous to communities,” Zook said.

For the full story, read  Wednesday’s edition of the Daily Press. To subscribe to the Daily Press in print or online, call 241-7755 or click here.

Get involved
E-mail your viewpoint regarding medical marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated areas of San Bernardino County to jsquire@lusd.sbcounty.gov.

Or send your written opinion to: Jim Squire, Deputy Director/Advance Planning Division/San Bernardino County Land Use Services Department/385 N. Arrowhead Ave., First Floor/San Bernardino, CA 92415-0182.

Medical marijuana plans in motion

Next month, San Bernardino County will begin accepting applications from residents seeking medical marijuana cards.

On Tuesday, county supervisors formally adopted an ordinance to distribute cards, which is expected to begin Aug. 14. The county plans to charge patients a $166 annual fee to cover the costs of running the program. Medi-Cal patients will pay $83.

About 250 to 300 patients are expected to apply for cards, according to county estimates.

In May, The U.S. Supreme Court upheld California’s medical marijuana law, forcing San Bernardino County to comply with it by issuing cards.

Medical marijuana celebrated

DEVORE – Ron Downey says that because he has cysts in his back and knees that are “bone on bone,” he was on so many pills he would never have gotten out of bed.

“That’s why I became a medical marijuana advocate 10 years ago,” says the Riverside resident, a 60-year-old disabled Vietnam veteran.

It helps the pain, said Downey, adding if it weren’t for medical marijuana, he wouldn’t be able to do half the things he can do.

“All we’re asking,” he said, “is that people obey the law.”

Downey was passing out literature as medical marijuana users gathered Saturday to celebrate music and legalized pain relief.

The daylong Purple Haze 2009 Music Fest, the first of its kind in Southern California, featured speakers, vendors and music headlined by Reggae superstars Eek A Mouse – in brutal 105-degree heat.

By day’s end, organizers anticipated as many as 2,000 would crowd the stage and vending area in the open field behind the Screaming Chicken biker bar in Devore.

Anti-drug groups push for county ban on pot dispensaries

Anti-drug advocacy groups have launched a campaign admonishing San Bernardino County supervisors for considering permitting medical marijuana dispensaries.

San Bernardino County, which will begin issuing medical marijuana cards in mid-August, has issued a temporary moratorium on marijuana dispensaries while a county committee studies approaches for regulating and zoning the facilities.

“The focus is on trying to come up with some guidelines that will help dispensaries coexist with local communities,” said David Wert, spokesman for San Bernardino County.

In their push to prohibit the marijuana centers, the Inland Valley Drug-free Community Coalition and Save Our Society From Drugs cite a report by the California Police Chiefs Association released in April, suggesting that dispensaries often lead to higher crime rates and more traffic, noise and blight in the surrounding communities.

DJ Ross, executive manager of the Yucca Valley-based California Alternative Medicinal Solutions — the only marijuana dispensary in San Bernardino County — argues there isn’t enough “non-biased” research to confirm dispensaries are dangerous to the community.

Oakland finds peace with its pot clubs

It is a warm weekday afternoon in uptown Oakland, and all’s quiet on 17th Street, save for the steady revolution of customers in and out of the Coffeeshop Blue Sky.

“Just imagine,” said Richard Lee, nodding at the familiar scene, “if you had four liquor outlets in all of Oakland. It’s ridiculous.”

Blue Sky is one of four medical marijuana dispensaries in the city. Lee is owner of the coffee shop and president of the 2-year-old Oaksterdam University, two blocks away, where 3,000 students have gone through courses on everything from hydroponics to staying within the boundaries of the ever-shifting law on medical marijuana.

Marijuana customers are ushered into the Blue Sky’s back room, past the racks of tiny plants for sale ($12 each), only after showing their medical-marijuana card to a security guard, who records the number. Customers choose from a menu of marijuana, which sells for $30 for an eighth-ounce of medium grade, $40 for high grade.

California Edges Closer to Legalizing and Taxing Marijuana

See the article here.

Medical Pot Users, Growers Can Sue Over Raids

Medical marijuana patients and growers can sue police for illegally raiding their property and destroying their plants, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The 2-1 decision by the Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento was the first in the state to allow a patient or grower to sue claiming that their rights to cultivate and use medical marijuana have been violated.  Those rights are protected by state law but banned by federal law.

Officials in Butte County, where the case arose, argued that patients and suppliers can invoke the medical marijuana law only as a defense to criminal charges, not to sue for damages.  The court’s dissenting justice said no one is entitled to compensation for the destruction of a drug banned under federal law.

But the court’s majority said a marijuana patient or member of a collective has the same right as anyone else to sue officers who violate the constitutional ban on illegal searches and seizures.

The plaintiff, David Williams, is relying on “the same constitutional guarantee of due process available to all individuals,” Justice Vance Raye said.  He said Williams is not required to go through “the expense and stress of criminal proceedings” to assert his rights.

Williams belonged to a seven-member collective near the town of Paradise.  When a sheriff’s deputy came to his door without a warrant in September 2005, Williams showed doctors’ recommendations for all seven patients that allowed them to grow and use marijuana, he said.

He said the officer had questioned the legality of the collective and ordered him to destroy 29 of the 41 plants on his property or face arrest.  He complied, then sued the officer and the county for damages.  Wednesday’s ruling upheld a Superior Court judge’s refusal to dismiss the suit.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Fred Morrison said Congress should ease the federal ban on marijuana to accommodate California and 12 other states that allow medical use.  But as long as the ban exists, he said, no one has the right to use the drug, and police are entitled to confiscate it.

Brad Stephens, a deputy county counsel, said the county would probably appeal to the state Supreme Court.

A Call for “A Conversation About the War on Drugs” From Solano County

Solano County Supervisor Barbara Kondylis is quoted today as follows in an article about Solano County’s plans to begin issuing medical marijuana ID cards:

“This is too long in coming. (Marijuana) does nothing compared to the harm alcohol causes. It’s time in this country we start having a conversation about the war on drugs.“

Comment: Get real, drug czars

ELEVEN years ago, the United Nations pledged to win the war on drugs within a decade. It has failed.

At this year’s meeting of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, held in Vienna in March, there was a two-day session to evaluate the progress since 1998. In his opening remarks, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, claimed “measurable progress”. The drug problem has been “contained”, he said, and drug use has “stabilized”.

Costa’s position flies in the face of the evidence, and by the end of the meeting he was on the defensive. But he said the goal remains the same, and he reiterated the UN’s position: that the choice for the world’s nations is either to apply strict prohibition or concede to total legalization.

Supervisors to discuss next step in medical marijuana law controversy in CLOSED session

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors will meet in closed session June 2 to discuss its next plan of action following the U.S. Supreme Court‘s refusal to hear its joint lawsuit challenging California’s medical marijuana law.”I assume the board, in its judicious manner, will issue a decision forthwith,” said Burt Southard, spokesman for Board Chairman Gary Ovitt, on Thursday.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a joint lawsuit filed in 2006 by San Bernardino and San Diego counties, that argued they didn’t have to comply with the state law, passed in 2004, because the federal ban on marijuana pre-empted the state law.

With all legal avenues exhausted, the county is now in a position to open the door to medical marijuana dispensaries and issue identification cards to legitimate medical marijuana patients.

“You can’t hide behind the skirts of the federal government and say, `We don’t have to do this anymore,”‘ said Palm Springs resident Lanny Swerdlow, addressing the Board of Supervisors at their Tuesday meeting.

Swerdlow is the director of the Marijuana Anti-Prohibition Project, an Inland Empire-based medical marijuana patient support group and law reform organization.

See also:

San Bernardino County accused of violating Brown Act

Josie Gonzales, county supervisor, says she supports medical marijuana program

Supreme Court upholds California medical pot law

Un-elected, unwanted, unknown, Nazi/Military PIG

Medical marijuana case dismissed

DMV sued over medical marijuana

County Asks U.S. Supreme Court To Erase State’s Medical Marijuana Law

Lawsuit filed over refusal to issue medical marijuana card

Josie Gonzales, county supervisor, says she supports medical marijuana program

A day after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state’s medical marijuana law, a San Bernardino County supervisor indicated Tuesday that she is ready to support the policy.

The Board of Supervisors is not scheduled to discuss its next step until June 2, but Supervisor Josie Gonzales told about 40 medical marijuana advocates it would be a top priority.

“I have long been a supporter of medical marijuana,” she said.

Gonzales said she had committed to “step forward” after the legal debate was resolved and that she hopes the county has reached that point now.

See also:

Supervisor Josie Gonzales criticizes hiring of immigration activist

Another Nazi Pig Comes to Town: San Bernardino County supervisor hires controversial activist

Michigan Medical Marihuana Program ID Card Applications Now Accepted

New Web Site To Find Medical Marijuana Near You Launched

A new Web site has been launched, which helps people locate medical marijuana.WeedMaps.com maps out where you can find marijuana and marijuana groups near you, reports The New York Daily News.

Although it may sound illegal but the site purports to only track medical marijuana.WeedMaps.com is a Web site “where medical marijuana patients can connect with other patients in their area, to freely discuss and review local cannabis co-operatives and dispensaries,” according to Weedmaps.com.

The site promotes that “anyone can register and moderation is minimal.”

Weedmaps.com offers maps of the locations of dispensaries, listings for the dispensaries, and more.

(CA) Medical Marijuana No Longer Grounds for License Suspension

The use of medical marijuana can no longer be the sole grounds for losing driving privileges.

In a policy revision — or clarification, depending upon who you speak with — the state Department of Motor Vehicles has determined, in writing, that the use of medical marijuana prescribed by a physician is to be treated the same as any other prescription medication that may affect safe driving.

The update came about after the medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access ( ASA ) filed suit on behalf of a 53-year-old Atwater woman who lost her driver’s license due to her use of medical marijuana.

See also:

DMV sued over medical marijuana

Medical pot user sues DMV to get license back

Medical marijuana case dismissed

JOSHUA TREE — Charges of marijuana cultivation and sales pending against Rich McCabe and his wife, JoAnn Cates, since August 2007 were dismissed Monday by Judge Rodney Cortez before a preliminary hearing began at the San Bernardino County Superior Court here.

The Johnson Valley seniors faced three felony drug counts each and could have been required to register as drug offenders. They have contended they used the marijuana investigators found on their property to ease the symptoms of cancer treatment and other ailments.

Marijuana Milestone: No More Raids on Pot Dispensaries, Says Attorney General

In response to a question at a Wednesday news conference, US Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department will no longer raid medical marijuana dispensaries in states where they are legal under state law. The announcement marks the fulfillment of a President Obama campaign promise, and it marks the end of 13 years of stubborn federal resistance to state medical marijuana programs.

DEA raids of medical marijuana facilities in California continued after Obama’s election in November and even after his inauguration last month. Holder was asked if those raids represented Justice Department policy under the new administration.

“Shortly after the inauguration there were raids on California medical marijuana dispensaries. Do you expect these to continue?” the reporter asked, noting that the president had promised to end the raids in the campaign.

“No,” Holder responded. “What the president said during the campaign, you’ll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we’ll be doing in law enforcement. He was my boss during the campaign. He is formally and technically and by law my boss now. What he said during the campaign is now American policy.” (Watch the video here.)

See also:

Justice Department will stop medical marijuana raids, Attorney General says

Ammiano Introduces California Bill to Decriminalize, Tax, Regulate Marijuana

Former S.F. Supe Silver Resigns From Sheriff’s Department, Cites Desire to Legalize Drugs — ALL Drugs

DMV sued over medical marijuana

Marijuana Vs. Anti-Depressants for PTSD Marijuana Wins Hands Down

Judge Orders Sheriff to Return Marijuana

San Bernardino County accused of violating Brown Act

Temecula Clinic Offers Consultations on Medical Marijuana

County Asks U.S. Supreme Court To Erase State’s Medical Marijuana Law

Solano County Sued Over Pot ID Cards

Lawsuit filed over refusal to issue medical marijuana card

Round One of Obama’s “Open for Questions” Reveals Clamor for Drug Policy Reform

Medical pot user sues DMV to get license back

Scientists are high on idea that marijuana reduces memory impairment

Justice Department will stop medical marijuana raids, Attorney General says

In a little-noticed remark Wednesday, Obama Attorney General Eric Holder said that the Justice Department will no longer raid medical marijuana dispensaries established under state laws but technically prohibited by the federal government.

The decision marks a shift from the Bush Administration, which was more draconian in its approach to hunting those who sought to dispense marijuana for medical purposes.

DMV sued over medical marijuana

Matt Vaughn, who operates a medical marijuana collective, eventually got his driver’s license and marijuana back after a CHP officer found the drug — for which he had a doctor’s recommendation — in his car.

The lawsuit says patients are unfairly targeted for license suspensions.

The California Highway Patrol officer smelled the weed, searched the car, took the marijuana and pipe and gave Vaughn a sobriety test, which he passed. An angry Vaughn showed the officer his doctor’s recommendation to use marijuana for glaucoma. The officer was unimpressed.

“He said, in Glenn County, they don’t recognize those kinds of things,” said Vaughn, 55, who has a long ponytail, mustache and beard. “He was not very friendly about it.”

The 2005 incident cost Vaughn a speeding ticket, his 1 1/4 ounce of pot and his driver’s license — and nine months of fighting the California Department of Motor Vehicles — before he prevailed.

As a result of that and other encounters involving medical marijuana, an advocacy group has sued the DMV, asking for a written policy that says medical marijuana should be treated the same as prescription drugs.

The suit contends that the DMV has a pattern of investigating and suspending the driver’s licenses of people who use pot on the recommendation of their doctors.

See also:

Un-elected, unwanted, unknown, Nazi/Military PIG

Marijuana Vs. Anti-Depressants for PTSD Marijuana Wins Hands Down

Judge Orders Sheriff to Return Marijuana

San Bernardino County accused of violating Brown Act

Temecula Clinic Offers Consultations on Medical Marijuana

County Asks U.S. Supreme Court To Erase State’s Medical Marijuana Law

Palm Springs to legalize medical marijuana dispensaries

Solano County Sued Over Pot ID Cards

Lawsuit filed over refusal to issue medical marijuana card

Medical pot user sues DMV to get license back

Arcata approves medical marijuana guidelines

Scientists are high on idea that marijuana reduces memory impairment

Marijuana Vs. Anti-Depressants for PTSD Marijuana Wins Hands Down

Dr. Phillip Leveque spent his life as a Combat Infantryman, Pharmacologist, Forensic Toxicologist and Physician.

(MOLALLA, Ore.) – I was asked by a healthcare professional at the Portland VA Hospital if I would help PTSD Veteran Victims to get permits to use legalized medical marijuana. I already had some Veteran patients from WWII, Korea and Vietnam.

The doctors and other healthcare professionals had heard from a sprinkling of Nam Vets that marijuana provided good relief PTSD and probably other battle related problems including pain from gunshots, mine blasts and almost anything else.

I told her yes and within two weeks I had more than 50 Nam Vets requesting my help. As part of their medical history I asked what previous medicines they had been given or prescribed. I was astonished to review the lists. There were two main types: strong pain killers like Oxycontin and Morphine and every related pain killer.

Judge Orders Sheriff to Return Marijuana

BARSTOW • M.J. Somers said he wanted to live by the law — and that’s why he got his medical marijuana permit.

“I know it sounds weird, but I went for the weed license because I try to be a law-abiding citizen,” said the 27-year-old Helendale resident. “I’m not a fiend for marijuana that gets it from the corner or the streets. I just need to smoke because I have health problems — and that’s it.”

But Somers, who has a doctor-issued license to carry up to eight ounces to treat chronic what he calls “chronic muscle pains and seizures,” said he felt like criminal when he was stopped by Barstow sheriff’s deputies on Route 66 in early January. During the traffic stop, deputies confiscated close to an ounce of medical-grade marijuana Somers said he had just purchased from a clinic in Los Angeles.

In a Barstow courtroom on Jan. 29, Judge Steve Mapes ordered the marijuana’s return after Somers presented his legal permit. Somers said Mapes cited a similar case in Garden Grove in 2005 where a district court ordered the return of one-third of an ounce of marijuana police had confiscated in a traffic stop. An appeal by Garden Grove officials was refused by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008.

[ Our sheriff should see Sheriff Richard Mack’s web site. ]

San Bernardino County accused of violating Brown Act

San Bernardino County is being accused of violating the Brown Act, California’s open-meeting law, as it challenges the state’s medical marijuana user program.

San Bernardino County joined San Diego County three years ago in challenging the program, which requires it to issue medical-marijuana identification cards to patients.

The counties petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case last week. The courts have so far ruled against them, upholding the medical marijuana law approved by voters in 1996.

The Marijuana Policy Project, a national marijuana policy reform organization, said Wednesday that the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors has failed to keep the public informed of its decisions to appeal.

See also:

County Asks U.S. Supreme Court To Erase State’s Medical Marijuana Law

Lawsuit filed over refusal to issue medical marijuana card

County no friend to medical pot patients

Temecula Clinic Offers Consultations on Medical Marijuana

A clinic specializing in medical marijuana treatment has opened in Temecula. This is the first time such a clinic has opened in the Temecula Valley.On Oct. 11, Alternative Care Clinics ( ACC ), a San Diego-based medical group, opened an office on Enterprise Circle.

County Asks U.S. Supreme Court To Erase State’s Medical Marijuana Law

San Diego County filed papers this week asking the U.S. Supreme Court to erase California’s medical marijuana law, arguing that federal prohibitions outlawing the substance supersede California’s law allowing sick people to use it.

The county is asking the nation’s highest court to overturn a state appellate court’s July decision upholding the voter-approved law legalizing marijuana use for medicinal purposes.

Five Essential Things We Must Do to Stop America’s Idiotic War on Drugs

The United States has spent hundreds of billions of dollars waging its 40-year “war on drugs,” responsible for the imprisonment of 500,000 of our fellow American citizens. Despite this enormous waste of money and lives, drugs are as easily available and cheap as ever. The drug-warmongers say it is all for the safety and protection of our children, yet high schoolers all over the country can easily obtain just about any illegal drug they are seeking in this unregulated market. Half of all high-school seniors will have tried marijuana before graduating. The government’s latest Monitoring the Future report, released in December, indicates that more young people are now choosing to smoke pot rather than cigarettes.

Despite these disheartening facts, there is reason for optimism and hope. More and more people are joining the movement to end the failed war on drugs. Passionate people in every neighborhood and from every walk of life, liberals and conservatives, are joining this fast-growing movement. Though there are some compelling reasons drugs should remain illegal, we should at least begin an honest discussion about the root causes of the violence and the range of options to deal with the harms associated with prohibition. It is clear that the strategy of the past 40 years is not working. Below are five opportunities to engage our fellow citizens, discuss the enormous challenges we face, and come up with solutions to reduce the harms of both drug misuse and drug prohibition.

See also:

Academics and the Chihuahua Government Say Decriminalizing Drugs is a Subject That Can’t be Avoided

Kop Busters

Ecstasy For Treatment Of Traumatic Anxiety

Students ’should be given smart drugs to get better exam results’

Scientists Back Brain Drugs For Healthy People

EZLN Criticizes the Drug War

Report Review: New Federal Drug Threat Assessment Finds Prohibition Greatest Drug-Related Menace

Lourdes Cárdenas: Drug War Threatens Mexican Democracy

More 10th-Graders Are Smoking Marijuana Than Cigarettes

Round One of Obama’s “Open for Questions” Reveals Clamor for Drug Policy Reform

DA panel to decide if charges are to be filed against Temecula medical pot co-op owner

Almost four months have passed since Temecula police arrested medical marijuana activist Martin J. Victor and seized dozens of plants from his home. No charges have been filed.

Zenia Gilg, Victor’s lawyer, has filed a motion in Riverside County Superior Court seeking to have all of Victor’s property returned to him. Victor adhered to state guidelines for running a medicinal marijuana collective, and he shouldn’t have to wait this long for charges to be filed, Gilg said in an interview.

“They have to fish or cut bait,” she said.

Deputy District Attorney Greg Albright said this week that a committee will convene sometime in the next week or two to decide whether to file charges.

See also:

Palm Springs to legalize medical marijuana dispensaries

Solano County Sued Over Pot ID Cards

Lawsuit filed over refusal to issue medical marijuana card

Medical pot user sues DMV to get license back

Arcata approves medical marijuana guidelines

Successful Marijuana Users?

Big Day for Pot — Decrim Wins in MA, MedPot in MI, All Local Initiatives Win, Too

Palm Springs to legalize medical marijuana dispensaries

PALM SPRINGS–Medical marijuana collectives and cooperatives will be allowed in certain industrial zones of the city.

The City Council called for a limit of no more than two dispensaries in the desert resort as well as additional security provisions. A final vote on the new ordinance is likely no later than mid-February.

Meantime, City Attorney Douglas Holland said the City Council has authorized him to begin code enforcement actions against all existing dispensaries that are currently operating illegally.

See also:

Solano County Sued Over Pot ID Cards

Lawsuit filed over refusal to issue medical marijuana card

Medical pot user sues DMV to get license back

Arcata approves medical marijuana guidelines

Successful Marijuana Users?

Big Day for Pot — Decrim Wins in MA, MedPot in MI, All Local Initiatives Win, Too

Solano County Sued Over Pot ID Cards

FAIRFIELD — A medical-marijuana advocacy group sued Solano County on Monday for its failure to issue identification cards to users of medicinal cannabis as required by state law.

The lawsuit, filed in Solano County Superior Court, said the county is among several in California that have failed to give out the cards, which protect their holders from arrest by state or local police for possessing small amounts of marijuana.

“Solano County cannot simply flout its obligation under the law,” Joe Elford, an attorney for Americans for Safe Access, said in a statement.

See also:

Lawsuit filed over refusal to issue medical marijuana card

Medical pot user sues DMV to get license back

Arcata approves medical marijuana guidelines

Successful Marijuana Users?

Big Day for Pot — Decrim Wins in MA, MedPot in MI, All Local Initiatives Win, Too

Lawsuit filed over refusal to issue medical marijuana card

[ San Bernardino County has so whored itself to the military- and prison-industrial complexes that the will of its people is of no concern to its government. ]

SAN BERNARDINO – About 20 people from all points of San Bernardino County met in front of a San Bernardino courthouse Monday to cheer one of the last vestiges of the counterculture — marijuana.

They came to show support for medical marijuana activist Scott Bledsoe, of Crestline, who filed a lawsuit Monday against San Bernardino County for refusing to issue him a medical marijuana card.

Named in the petition writ as respondent is Jim Lindley, director of the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health. A petition writ such as this only seeks enforcement of a law. It does not ask for financial compensation.

Excellent Article on the Corrupt Prison-Industrial Complex

Report Review: New Federal Drug Threat Assessment Finds Prohibition Greatest Drug-Related Menace

More 10th-Graders Are Smoking Marijuana Than Cigarettes

Round One of Obama’s “Open for Questions” Reveals Clamor for Drug Policy Reform

Round One of Obama’s “Open for Questions” Reveals Clamor for Drug Policy Reform

President-elect Obama – fulfilling multiple campaign promises to more deeply involve the public in setting priorities for his administration – opened up his Change.Gov website to questions from citizens, and asked the people to then rate the questions up or down. The first round of questions closed at midnight last night, and it should come as no surprise that many of the top questions involve issues that millions of Americans care deeply about but for which commercial media coverage doesn’t do justice in reporting or prioritizing. The number one question for the first round was: “Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?”

Attacking Alzheimer’s with Red Wine and Marijuana

Two new studies suggest that substances usually associated with dulling the mind — marijuana and red wine — may help ward off Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of age-related memory loss. Their addition comes as another study dethrones folk remedy ginkgo biloba as proof against the disease.

2,700-year-old marijuana stash found

The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China. The extremely dry conditions and alkaline soil acted as preservatives, allowing a team of scientists to carefully analyze the stash, which still looked green though it had lost its distinctive odour.

Scientific American: Pot joins the fight against Alzheimer’s, memory loss

A large-scale study released this week showed that the herb gingko biloba has no effect in preventing dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. But alternative medicine aficionados may find hope in a new research touting the bennies of another “herb” in preserving memory.

Arcata approves medical marijuana guidelines

The Arcata City Council adopted the long-awaited medical marijuana guidelines regulating cultivation and dispensing Wednesday night, despite opposition from medical marijuana patients and caregivers. The council unanimously adopted the guidelines, which aim to regulate how dispensaries operate in hopes of curbing Proposition 215 abuse, with a clarification included regarding the amount of space cultivation can take place in.

Marijuana hotspots vs. Starbucks — who wins?

Good news for all you caffeine-adverse medical marijuana users out there, courtesy of the federal drug czar (We know. How often does that happen?) There are more medical marijuana dispensaries in San Francisco than Starbucks Coffee shops. Or at least, so says the Office of National Drug Control Policy in a posting on its official blog, pushingback.com. Seem a little far-fetched? It sure looks that way.

Big Day for Pot — Decrim Wins in MA, MedPot in MI, All Local Initiatives Win, Too

Barack Obama wasn’t the only big winner in Tuesday elections; marijuana polled just as well, if not better. A medical marijuana initiative in Michigan — the first in the Midwest — and a decriminalization initiative in Massachusetts both won by convincing margins, and scattered local initiatives on various aspects of marijuana policy reform all won, too.