California

By Capitol Television News Service (CTNS)

By Fred Gardner, Counter Punch/O’Shaughnessy’s

Occasionally the iron heel comes down on people who are widely respected and/or have the resources and will to fight back effectively. "The feds have overreached," says Steve DeAngelo, who runs Harborside Health Center in Oakland and has been presented by the IRS with a $2.4 million bill for back taxes. He was referring to the DEA raid on Northstone Organics Oct. 13; the threatening letters to growers, dispensaries, and their landlords sent by California’s U.S. Attorneys Oct. 7; the denial of gun permits to registered medical cannabis users ordered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in September; and other recent measures directed against the industry.

Overreach by law enforcement was a big factor in the passage of Prop 215 back in November, 1996. The No-on-215 forces, led by Attorney General Dan Lungren, arranged a highly publicized raid on the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club three months before Election Day. Their intention was to turn the vote into a referendum on Dennis Peron's right to operate.

Ben Deci, FOX40 News

It's the next big salvo in the push to legalize pot; petition takers are out now, getting signatures for an initiative to appear on next November's ballot.

The people who wrote this initiative say they are against minors and motorists using pot, and people at work too. But they also say you have to make one type of marijuana legal for everyone.

"The fact is if you smoked a bail there just isn't any possibility of a psycho-active effect," said Steve Kubby, one of those who drafted the ballot initiative.

The doctor group questions the medical value of pot and acknowledges some health risk from its use but urges it be regulated like alcohol. A law enforcement official harshly criticizes the new stance.

By Anthony York, Los Angeles Times

The state's largest doctor group is calling for legalization of marijuana, even as it pronounces cannabis to be of questionable medical value.

Trustees of the California Medical Assn., which represents more than 35,000 physicians statewide, adopted the position at their annual meeting in Anaheim late Friday. It is the first major medical association in the nation to urge legalization of the drug, according to a group spokeswoman, who said the larger membership was notified Saturday.

Dr. Donald Lyman, the Sacramento physician who wrote the group's new policy, attributed the shift to growing frustration over California's medical marijuana law, which permits cannabis use with a doctor's recommendation. That, he said, has created an untenable situation for physicians: deciding whether to give patients a substance that is illegal under federal law.

"It's an uncomfortable position for doctors," he said. "It is an open question whether cannabis is useful or not. That question can only be answered once it is legalized and more research is done. Then, and only then, can we know what it is useful for."

By KSEE News

Shampoo, shirts and milk are just several things that can be made out of hemp. Stratford farmer Charles Meyer has been an advocate for industrial hemp for years. He said, "In the early days hemp was the standard of the economy. It could be a multi-trillion dollar had it kept going from the early days had it hadn't been outlawed because of it's relationship with marijuana."

A bill that would allow the growing of industrial hemp just passed the State Assembly Ag Committee. It would permit the growing of hemp as an eight year pilot program in Kern, Kings and San Joaquin counties. A number of law enforcement agencies are against the plan. They say growers can easily hide marijuana in hemp fields. They add it would bring more crime to the area. Meyer says this isn't the case.

"You can't grow marijuana in a hemp field it would get pollinated by the male plants and would seize to produce the thc or wouldn't produce it at all," said Meyer.

By CBS 13 Staff

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – Marijuana is no medical marvel — that's according to a new federal ruling generating plenty of controversy across California.

The Drug Enforcement Administration decree states that "marijuana has no currently accepted medical use" – in other words, this bud is not for you.

Yet in California you can easily get pizza, brownies, even cannabis cookies because medical marijuana is incredibly edible and of course, smokable. And all you need is a medical marijuana card – it's easy to get – but the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has ruled that “marijuana lacks accepted safety for medical use under supervision.”

"I’m here to disagree with the DEA," said Shane Randall, a medical marijuana patient at Alternative Medical Source (AMS) in Fair Oaks.

He told CBS 13, "I'm a type one diabetic. I also have auto-immune disease. I've been using medicinal marijuana for 5 years now."

Legislation advancing to allow crop to be grown in Kings, four other counties

By Hanford Sentinel Staff

A state bill that would allow farming of industrial hemp in Kings, Kern and three other counties could hit Gov. Brown's desk in September.

Senate Bill 676, authored by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Rafael, would create an eight-year pilot program in five counties. The other three counties are San Joaquin, Imperial and Yolo.

The legislation passed the Assembly Committee on Agriculture last week and earlier was approved by various other committees in the Senate and Assembly. The bill goes before the Assembly Appropriations Committee and a potential floor vote in August. Approval there would take it back to the Senate for a concurrence vote and a potential trip to the governor's desk.

Kings County was included in the list because local farmers have expressed interest, according to Leno's office. Most if not all of that interest has come from Charles Meyer, a Stratford farmer who has for years been a vocal advocate for industrial hemp.

The Kings County Farm Bureau has declined to take a position on the bill.

"We decided to stay neutral on the situation," said Michele Costa, Kings County Farm Bureau executive director. "We didn't really think it would affect us."

By Kevin W. McCarty, Daily Nexus

Humanity stands at a crossroads. For nearly two centuries, human civilization has seen its every facet transformed by the machinery of industrial development. During this period of rapid expansion, we have beheld the gracious power of cheap fossil fuels, namely petroleum oil, as our premier source of energy and electricity. But today we are witnessing crude oil prices skyrocket as many economists say we have already reached peak global oil production and will see increasing prices until the supply of petroleum is diminished. As a result, we must expect additional sources of renewable electrical power will sustain economic growth in the coming decades.

For most of human history, the hemp plant has been used as an integral crop of commerce and navigation. Cultures across the globe have utilized hemp as a source of food, rigging and building materials and paper pulp. It is, without a doubt, the most resilient and efficient plant the Earth has ever grown. But not until now has it become quite so necessary to realize the prohibition of hemp and cannabis must be suspended. The arguments against legalization do not stand trial when compared to the immense benefits.

In 1996, the voters of California passed Proposition 215, which legalized medical marijuana at the state level, so why is the Federal Government continuing the persecution of law-abiding citizens?

By Michael Bachara, Hemp News Correspondent

Sacramento, California - In a hearing set before Federal Judge Damrell, Doctor Mollie Fry, MD and her husband, Attorney Dale Schafer were ordered to surrender themselves to United States Federal Marshals on May 2, 2011 at 2:00 PM to begin their five-year minimum mandatory sentence in federal prison.

The married couple's draconian tribulations began in September of 2001, when the police raided their Sacramento home and found 34 plants. The couple thought they were on safe legal ground as they were well below the 90-plant limit established by the local city ordinance for cardholders such as themselves.

After a ten-day trial in 2007, it took a federal jury in Sacramento less than three hours to find them guilty of conspiracy to grow and distribute marijuana. In this landmark case, the prosecution was allowed to add three years of cumulative plants together, totaling approximately 109 plants, thus forcing mandatory federal penalties.

(SACRAMENTO) - From California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, on September 30, 2010.

To the Members of the California State Senate:

I am signing Senate Bill 1449.

This bill changes the crime of possession of less than an ounce of marijuana from a misdemeanor punishable only by a $100 fine to an infraction punishable by a $100 fine. Under existing law, jail time cannot be imposed, probation cannot be ordered, nor can the base fine exceed $100 for someone convicted of this crime.

I am opposed to decriminalizing the possession and recreational use of marijuana and oppose Proposition 19, which is on the November ballot.

Unfortunately, Proposition 19 is a deeply flawed measure that, if passed, will adversely impact California’s businesses without bringing in the tax revenues to the state promised by its proponents.

Notwithstanding my opposition to Proposition 19, however, I am signing this measure because possession of less than an ounce of marijuana is an infraction in everything but name. The only difference is that because it is a misdemeanor, a criminal defendant is entitled to a jury trial and a defense attorney.

In this time of drastic budget cuts, prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement, and the courts cannot afford to expend limited resources prosecuting a crime that carries the same punishment as a traffic ticket.

If Passed, Prop 19 Would Allow Adults 21 and Older to Possess up to an Ounce of Pot for Personal Use

By Associated Press

Wes Woods II, Staff Writer

Thomas Place, 55, of Rialto, wants more research conducted on the ingestion of marijuana to assist AIDS patients and has helped create an AIDS patient medical marijuana group to further the cause.

"I just want to help other people," Place said, after showing off his concoction of marijuana tincture, a concoction that he says has helped him overcome renal failure. "I've seen people in different clinics struggling."

Place's group, the Inland Empire HIV/AIDS Medical Marijuana Patient Support Group, meets at 7:30 p.m. Mondays in Riverside.

The support group, which is also open to caregivers and family members, has had open discussions on using marijuana for treating AIDS-related symptoms for about a month.

Meetings are for dispensing information such as using marijuana, methods of injection, legal ramifications and sources for obtaining it.

Members, who maintain they are not drug addicts, said AIDS medicines often bring with them side effects that marijuana does not have.

Place said he and group facilitator Lanny Swerdlow would not be allowed to promote using marijuana if the meetings were help in a public-owned facility, which is why the meetings take place at the THCF Medical Clinic & Patient Center.

By John Hoeffel, LA Now

The 200,000-member United Food and Commercial Workers, Western States Council, on Wednesday announced its support for Proposition 19, the initiative to legalize marijuana in California.

“The Western States Council is endorsing Proposition 19 based upon our previous support of the medical cannabis initiative, 1996’s Proposition 215,” George Landers, the council's executive director, said in a statement. “We view Proposition 19 as an enhanced version of the previous proposition, that creates taxable revenue and produces jobs in agriculture, health care, retail and possibly textile. We further believe that the proposition will deprive narcotics traffickers of a significant source of criminal revenue.”

Ron Lind, international president of the union, and Dan Rush of its Local 5 also spoke out in favor of Proposition 19.

“The marriage of the cannabis-hemp industry and UFCW is a natural one,” said Rush. “We are an agriculture, food-processing and retail union, as is this industry.”

The council is the political arm of UFCW in several Western states. It comprises the UFCW local unions in the states it covers.


Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/07/union-endorses-initiative-...

By Bryan Podwys, Portland Political Buzz Examiner

The Oregon Secretary of State has certified a petition that proposes legalizing and taxing the sale of marijuana across the state. The measure, which bears resemblance to others Oregon voters have rejected over the past few decades, could be included on this year's ballot if enough signatures are gathered by July 2nd.

Over 35 years ago, Oregon became the first state to decriminalize the use of cannabis products. Possession of one ounce or less became punishable by a simple fine followed by further changes with the passage of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act in 1998. With an upcoming ballot measure in California that could go one step further and actually legalize and tax marijuana sales gaining national attention, some Oregonians are eager to keep their state at the forefront of progressive legislation.

The color of money may soon turn a new shade of green as U.S. states across the country consider legalizing and then taxing marijuana to cure chronic budget problems.

By Kim Dixon and Lisa Lambert, WASHINGTON

California came the closest to taxing tokes last week by putting an initiative on its November ballot. The top marijuana-producing state could raise $1.3 billion annually, according to the California Board of Equalization, which collects taxes.

As the state struggles to close its multibillion dollar deficit, supporters say the legalization fight will be close, though the scope of potential conflicts with federal law is uncertain.

"If you can tax it, it's just one more way to make money for the government," said Linsey Isaacs, a 20-year-old rental agent in New York City, who does not smoke marijuana. "To me it's better than cigarettes, healthwise, and if they can tax cigarettes, then I don't see anything wrong with taxing marijuana."

California's current budget gap may be large at $20 billion, but it is not unique, and the outcome will be closely watched. The National Governors Association says the recession will not end in some states until 2012.

As California moves closer to a vote on the legalizing marijuana, which most states banned in the 1930s, the push is finding backers for different reasons.

By MSNBC Staff

In California, marijuana stores legally exist to sell different varieties of pot to customers that need the drug for medical purposes. One shop, for example, pays the state some $300,000 in taxes and the federal government $500,000 in taxes. One problem: DEA could shut them down and arrest the people working and selling in the store. State and Federal laws are contradictory.

Although Research Shows Medical Mariuana Works, Critics Say California Center's Research Is Flawed

By Kathleen Doheny, WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Marijuana can be a promising treatment for some specific, pain-related medical conditions, according to California researchers who presented an update of their findings Wednesday to the California Legislature and also released them to the public.

"I think the evidence is getting better and better that marijuana, or the constituents of cannabis, are useful at least in the adjunctive treatment of neuropathy," Igor Grant, MD, executive vice-chairman of the department of psychiatry at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at the University of California, tells WebMD.

"We don't know if it's a front-line treatment. I'm hoping the results of our studies will prompt larger-scale studies that involve a much more varied population."

"This [report given to the Legislature] sets the stage of larger-scale studies,'' he says.

Some experts who reviewed the report say some of the studies are flawed and that they worry about the long-term health effects of marijuana smoke.

Perspective: Medical Marijuana Research

Trey Bundy, Special to The Chronicle

Anyone who doubts the mainstreaming of the cannabis industry might want to skip "Letterman" and check out "Cannabis Planet." The weekly program, premiering in the Bay Area at midnight Friday on KOFY-TV, intends to promote the benefits of marijuana, but viewers shouldn't tune in expecting "KOFY and Bong Hits."

"It's that stoner mentality we're trying to get away from," says creator and executive producer Brad Lane. "We're pro-recreational use, but we're not rubbing people's faces in it."

The show is structured around a pair of cannabis news anchors (yes, one of them has dreadlocks) and a mashup of educational segments, such as cooking demonstrations for hemp smoothies and medicated chicken stir-fry, and cannabis cultivation tips with marijuana guru Ed Rosenthal.

Lane pays KOFY to put "Cannabis Planet" on the air, like an infomercial, and generates revenue by running ads during the show for companies that produce grow lights, plant food and other products geared toward the cannabis industry. His operational philosophy is "Fuel, food, fiber, medicine," and he's bent on showing the public that medical marijuana isn't just for those with serious illnesses. He claims cannabis can alleviate everything from menstrual cramps to sleep disorders, and personally uses marijuana to curb attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, from which he's suffered since his days in Montessori school.

BY Oregon Tax News,

Pot appears to be back on the docket in 2010, as four states debate legalizing marijuana and the impacts such a move could have on businesses and the economy. Business owners are concerned that legalization will make them subject to new discriminatory lawsuits for not hiring workers who use marijuana. Some states however are hopeful that the legalization and the sale of marijuana will bring new tax revenue to the state during difficult economic times.

In Oregon, the Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp (CRRH) and Oregon NORML have finished gathering the 1,000 sponsorship signatures needed for the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act 2010 (OCTA) to be placed on the ballot. The OCTA, would set aside two percent of the profits from the sale of cannabis in cannabis-only stores for two state commissions that promote industrial hemp biodiesel, fiber, protein and oil. The measure would legalize the sale, possession and personal private cultivation of marijuana.

"There is reason to believe there is hope for the 21st Century, and that's the way it will be." Walter Cronkite

Compiled by Hemp News Staff

1. California: DEA To Yield Marijuana Jurisdiction To States - 3/2/2009

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is sending strong signals that President Obama - who as a candidate said states should be allowed to make their own rules on medical marijuana - will end raids on pot dispensaries in California.

"What the president said during the campaign, you'll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we'll be doing here in law enforcement," he said. "What he said during the campaign is now American policy."

Source: http://hemp.org/news/us-to-yield-marijuana-jurisdiction-to-states



2. Washington State: Kitsap Medical Marijuana Defendant Acquitted - 3/24/2009

By CHARLIE BERMANT, Port Orchard Independent Staff Writer

A medical marijuana patient being prosecuted in Kitsap County Superior Court for drug trafficking was found not guilty on Tuesday morning, after a jury ruled that his use of the drug was within the law.

The jury deliberated for approximately two hours prior to its ruling.

by Phillip Smith, Stop the Drug War

The Tax and Regulate Cannabis 2010 initiative, sponsored by Oakland medical marijuana entrepreneur Richard Lee, has laid off its paid signature gatherers, saying they already have sufficient signatures to qualify for the November 2010 ballot.

Lee told the Chronicle this afternoon that more than 650,000 signatures have been turned in, and that he expects an additional 50,000 or so to dribble in in the coming weeks. Precisely 433,971 valid signatures of registered California voters are required for an initiative to be approved for the ballot. That leaves Lee and the initiative a substantial cushion of about a quarter-million signatures to make up for any invalid signatures.

The campaign will wait to turn in signatures until January 15. If they were turned in this month, the initiative would appear on the June ballot, not the November ballot. Lee wants the initiative on the latter.

I am also heartened by the knowledge that maybe there are about a thousand MJ Dispensaries in California and the Governator tacitly approves them.

Dr. Phil Leveque Salem-News.com

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - The ancient history of cannabis/marijuana is even more interesting than its present use as a modern medical miracle.

To make sure that knowledgeable readers don’t accuse me of plagiarism I will confess it at the outset. I am stealing from a best friend Todafumi Mikuriya, his real name. I believe I am one of the last persons to talk to him before his tragic death and his work and influence were tragically lost.

I am stealing from Marijuana Medical Papers 1839 – 1972. This is the best medically historical book on the subject and an everlasting monument to him. Jack Herer’s book The Emperor Wears No Clothes is a close second but different in scope. Jack’s books are and have been revised and reprinted many times. Tod’s book is/was a one-time bombshell.

Starting with O’Shaughnessy’s book in 1839, Tod wrote about the outstanding marijuana research papers, twelve of them, up to 1900 when marijuana was some what replaced by synthetic drugs. Cannabis/marijuana was so complex nobody could do much with it for standardization and prescriptions.

The strange thing about those “crude” preparations is that they were found effective for many diseases that we are finding out about now, 150 years later.

RIVERSIDE - Riverside's first medical marijuana dispensary is expected to open today.

The Inland Empire Health and Wellness Center Medical Marijuana Collective, 647 N. Main St., is supposed to operate as a nonprofit organization where people with a doctor's recommendation will be allowed to buy marijuana from those permitted to grow it under state law, the Press-Enterprise reported.

In Los Angeles, pot shops have cropped by the hundreds over the past few years, while the City Council alternately stalled on regulating them or declared moratoriums on new ones.

William Sump, the general manager of the Riverside collective, said he and several attorneys had done their best to meet the city's requirements, which include having security guards on duty when the collective is open.

"I feel we have done as much as we possibly can to be compliant and at this point," he told the Press-Enterprise. "It's about access for the patients."

The collective has about 150 members, Sump said. Just across the street is the THCF Medical Clinic, where people can seek a doctor's recommendation for the formerly illegal weed.

Related: Medical Marijuana Dispensary Opens In Riverside (Video)
http://cbs2.com/local/medical.marijuana.Riverside.2.1351663.html

Medical marijuana facility to open in Riverside
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_W_wpot05.4a2a92...

Source: http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=11626134

By Sam Pearson, State Hornet

When a student was caught smoking marijuana in the Tahoe National Forest, he might once have faced charges despite having a medical marijuana card. Instead, in this particular case, prosecutors dropped the charges because of recent changes in drug policy, said Roseville-based defense attorney Toni Carbone.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced Oct. 20 the federal government would stop prosecuting medical marijuana users in states that had passed medical marijuana laws, such as California and 12 other states, including Nevada and Oregon.

Carbone has already seen the effects of this change. Her client received no penalty even though park rangers ticketed him for having 1.2 grams of marijuana on federal land, where state medical marijuana laws do not apply.

California voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996, creating a program that allowed people to obtain doctors' recommendations to use marijuana and obtain it from dispensaries throughout the state.

State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, introduced a bill that would legalize and tax marijuana in California and held a hearing Oct. 28 at the state Capitol as part of the Public Safety Committee, which he chairs. It was the first-ever legislative hearing held on marijuana legalization.

Festival features organic food and wine, green vendors, award-winning speakers and an appearance by Mayor Gavin Newsom.

By Jessica A. Knoblauch

The 8th annual Green Festival, held this year in San Francisco on November 13th, 14th and 15th, turned out an impressive 125 speakers and 350 exhibitors that highlighted eco-friendly ideas and products meant to create safe, healthy communities and strong local environments.

One of the more unique aspects of the festival was the HIA Hemp Pavilion, which featured member companies showcasing the many uses of industrial hemp in the market place, from hemp clothing and personal body care to hemp foods, oil and paper. The pavilion also hosted a hemp fashion show produced by one of the industry’s premiere designers and manufacturers, Summer Star Haeske from Envirotextiles.

On Saturday, San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsom even made an appearance to the event. On the main stage, Gavin gave a speech highlighting San Francisco’s efforts to go green, which includes having the most aggressive local climate action plan in the U.S. He also voiced his support for green jobs, plug-in electric hybrid cars and city-wide composting efforts.

“It’s incumbent upon us to make real some of the rhetoric…to take these ideas and manifest them. It’s no longer good enough to talk about the way the world should be. We have to demonstrate the capacity to make it so,” said Newsom.