EDITORIAL: Still defying voters

The members of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors don't like the fact that voters legalized medical marijuana. They've made that clear in the 14-plus years since Prop. 215 was passed (including by a majority of voters in San Diego County). They've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars unsuccessfully suing to overturn the measure, refusing to issue clear guidelines to regulate dispensaries and looking the other way while the sheriff and district attorney (who are independently elected and funded by the county, but don't report to the board) used county resources in cooperating with federal agents to harass the dispenaries.

So we get the fact that the Board of Supervisors is strongly opposed to the notion of medical marijuana dispensaries.

But we are a nation of laws, and the voters legally enacted legislation directing their elected officials to allow these businesses to sell marijuana to patients with a doctor's recommendation.

And yet the board decided earlier this week to impose an $11,000 annual fee on dispensaries ---- yet another slap in the face to voters. It is an onerous, unreasonable fee designed not to regulate, but to financially strangle. (By comparison, the county license to operate a massage parlor ---- another business open to abuse ---- costs just under $400 a year.)

The state charges $12,000 for a license to sell liquor, with an annual renewal of less than $1,000. And a business with an alcohol license can transfer that license down the road, recouping the original outlay.

A $12,000 investment is high enough to strongly encourage good behavior on the part of liquor establishments (i.e., not serving minors, not serving those who are already drunk) ---- because repeated violations of laws governing the sale of alcohol can result in a business being stripped of its license and losing that $12,000.

That sort of financial incentive is a good one ---- the initial fee is an investment in the business, and the annually recurring fee is not so high that it can't be recovered as a normal cost of doing business.

Considering that the medical marijuana dispensaries are required by law to be run as nonprofits, an $11,000 annual fee is unreasonable, the purpose behind it duplicitous.

Given the uneven implementation of Prop. 215 throughout California, and the overt defiance of some jurisdictions, we wonder whether the state Legislature shouldn't revisit the issue and impose statewide regulations.

A framework similar to that used to regulate alcohol sales would respect voters' wishes while also protecting the public from those who would abuse Prop. 215.

Source: North County Times

NEWS: Conference markets medical marijuana to seniors

Laguna Woods – Wearing a powder-blue cardigan and orthopedic shoes, 86-year-old Dorothy Davidson learned how to make a marijuana smoothie as well as the difference between consuming baked weed and the raw plant at a Saturday conference aiming to teach seniors about medical cannabis.

"You hear so many negative things about it," said Davidson. "Now I know how it works."

The Brea woman has suffered from back pain for years after falling down a flight of stairs. Two metal rods in her back support her spine, and Vicodin no longer works well as a pain killer. Her son suggested she try medical marijuana, and with the approval of her doctor, she used it for the first time in December and noticed a difference in her pain level.

Still wary, she attended the Medical Cannabis Conference in Laguna Woods, the first of its kind in Orange County.

Conference organizers point to the aging baby boomer generation as possible beneficiaries of medical marijuana, and their goal was to encourage seniors to incorporate it into their health care routines.

Opponents of medical marijuana downplay its medicinal effects and say those with pain have the option to use several legal drugs.

Despite a 1996 California law legalizing the use of pot for medicinal purposes, several cities have tried to keep out medical marijuana dispensaries. The County of Orange adopted a ban for unincorporated areas, as did cities such as San Clemente and Huntington Beach. Officials have said banning dispensaries is better for public safety and welfare.

Other cities do not have laws that allow or disallow the sale of medical marijuana, creating a gray area that sometimes leads to the courtroom. Dana Point is suing several dispensaries for a peek at their financial records to ensure they are operating legally.

Laguna Woods allows dispensaries, but does not have one. However, some groups run nonprofit collectives in the retirement community located in town.

At the conference, speakers from doctors to lab researchers talked about the benefits of cannabis. They also described attempts at quality control and self-regulation, such as proper labeling. Some said ingesting the raw plant delivers medicinal properties without psychoactive effects.

Several of the about 100 attendees said they voted against Proposition 19, a 2010 ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana. They were using the plant to feel better, not to get high [and why do people get high? To feel better of course!]. Opponents have said medical marijuana is a pathway to recreational use.

Letitia Pepper poses questions for the panel.

Letitia Pepper, a 56-year-old suffering from multiple sclerosis, a disease involving the central nervous system, said she concentrates marijuana extract with vegetable glycerin to make a liquid. When in pain, she squeezes a few drops under her tongue.

"People come up to me and say 'Oh, you look great,' " said Pepper of Riverside, wearing a T-shirt that said "Pills Kill." She said friends are surprised when she credits medical marijuana for the change.

Shari Horne, a member of the Village Cannabis Club in Laguna Woods, said the only way to change that is to create a new image for marijuana users.

"We can do it by being the kind of people they're not expecting. Get rid of that 'Cheech and Chong' attitude," she said, referring to stand-up comedians famous for drug-focused routines.

"People our age — there's no reason we shouldn't be able to feel better," she said.

Source: OC Register

NEWS: Dana Point shuts down cannabis shops

DANA POINT – In what attorneys for medical marijuana dispensaries characterized as an aggressive move, this city closed three shops on Monday citing building and municipal code violations.

The Orange County Sheriff's Department on Friday had executed a search warrant at one of those shops.

The city and the dispensaries have been in an 18-month battle begun with Dana Point's efforts first to obtain records from pot shops, including client names, as part of a city investigation to figure out if the facilities are operating legally. Then last year, the city sued to shut down the dispensaries saying they're operating illegally.

Attorneys for two dispensaries closed on Monday and where the utilities were disconnected said they were surprised by the action.

"I am shocked that the constitution can be suspended this way. They've got some explaining to do," said attorney Jeff Schwartz for Beach Cities Collective, adding that he planned to file suit in Orange County Superior Court for violation of his clients' due process. "This is the first time I've ever read the city completely bypassing the court."

He said while the city had sent the dispensary a letter outlining violations it did not cite the authority under which it could shut down the place.

Alison Adams, attorney for Holistic Health, said she also expects to sue the city.

"This is an illegal action by the city and an attempt to deprive the people of Dana Point the benefits that the voters of the state of California and the Legislature intended them to have," she said.

City Attorney Patrick Munoz said that the municipal code authorizes the actions taken by the city.

"Laws that were enforced today had nothing to do with marijuana. These are standard municipal codes that are adopted by every city in the state," he said. "If they were selling shoes or stationary without a certificate of occupancy, they'd be subject to the same laws that we utilized today."

Munoz countered Schwartz's assertion that among the violations the city had listed in notices sent earlier this month to the dispensaries were those currently being litigated.

"These issues have not been before the courts previously," he said.

City officials on Monday red tagged Beach Cities Collective, Holistic Health and The Point Alternative Care, the third dispensary where sheriff's officials executed a search warrant on Friday. Details of the search were not immediately available.

Munoz declined to comment when asked why the city action was being brought now since Dana Point and the dispensaries had been locked in legal disputes for several months.

The process and questions raised in the battle between the city and the dispensaries have gotten mired in legal quagmires and ventured into some uncharted legal territory that has lengthened the fight. And, the city has spent approximately $370,000 in legal costs in suits related to medical marijuana.

In letters sent to the dispensaries from the city's community development code enforcement division earlier this month – with contents varying depending on violations noted – Dana Point gave the dispensaries notice and deadlines to take action.

The letter to Beach Cities Collective reads that a failure to comply by last Thursday "shall result in the ordering of the building to be immediately vacated, posted unsafe, barricaded and utilities disconnected."

That is the action the city took on Monday at all three dispensaries that had remained open in town. While Beach Cities Collective didn't have a certificate of occupancy – required under state building code – Holistic Health had one but for a different use, the city attorney said.
Among other building and municipal code violations noted to dispensaries included those businesses not being permitted in the zones they are in, improvements made without permits and safety issues.

Shelly White of San Clemente was in line at the Beach Cities Collective on Monday to get marijuana for her daughter Malinda Traudt, who was born with cerebral palsy, epilepsy and blindness. Traudt had sued Dana Point to keep open the dispensary from which her family obtains marijuana to manage her pain, a suit that was tossed out last year by a Superior Court judge and is on appeal.

White said at least 10 other patients were turned away when the dispensary was closed.

"I am devastated especially as it pertains to our lawsuit ... this is where we get our medication," she said. "Our lawsuit was hoping to preempt this kind of action."

"If cities could do this then why do you need all these lawsuits," added Schwartz, who represents Traudt. "The fundamental position is this: everyone has a constitutional right before you can have your life, liberty, property, any rights taken away. You have due process which means a notice and an opportunity to be heard ... I have never heard of a city being that aggressive."

Source: OC Register

Hollywood Dispensaries, Collectives and Cooperatives

Atomic Collective
1771 N Highland Ave. Suite #C [map]
Los Angeles, CA 90028
Hours: Mon-Sun 10am to 10pm
Phone: 323-467-5100
Email: atomiccollective@yahoo.com

Canto Diem
5419 Sunset Blvd #5
Hollywood, CA
Hours: Tue-Wed 12pm-8pm, Thu-Sat 12pm-9pm, Sun-CLOSED
Phone: (323) 465-4420
Website: cantodiem.org

Eden Therapy
6757^1/2 Santa Monica Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90038
Hours: Mon-Sun 10am to 10pm
Phone: 323-463-8937

Evergreen Collective
1606 N. Gower St. [map]
Hollywood CA 90028
Hours: Sun-Wed 12pm to 12am, Thu-Sat 12pm to 3am
Phone: 323-466-2100
Fax: 323-960-2434
Website: 420evergreen.com

Hollywood Home Remedies
1607 N El Centro #24, Hollywood, CA
Hours: Mon-Sun 10am-12am
Phone: (323) 469-9073

Hollywood THC
5322 Sunset Blvd. (2nd Floor) [map]
Hollywood, CA 90027
Hours: Mon-Sun 9am to 3am
Phone: 323-465-9513

Kushmart
6410 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA
Hours: Mon-Sat 11am-10pm, Sun 11am-8pm
Phone: (323) 464-6465

Los Angeles Patients & Caregivers Group (LAPCG)
7213 Santa Monica Blvd.
West Hollywood CA
Phone: 323-882-6033

Specialty Collectives
11307 Vanowen Street
North Hollywood, CA 91605
Hours: Mon-Sun 11am-8pm
Phone: 818-358-4271

Sunset Herbal Corner
7225 W. Sunset Blvd
Hollywood, CA 90046
Hours: Mon-Sat 9am-11pm, Sun 11am-10pm
Phone: 323-851-5554

The Sunset Super Shop
8921 W Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069 [map]
Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-8pm, Sun 12pm–7pm
Phone: (310) 728-6200
Website: thesunsetsupershop.com

Covers the following zip codes in Hollywood, California: 90038, 91601, 91602, 91603, 91604, 91605, 91606, 91607, 91608, 91609, 91610, 91611, 91612, 91614, 91615, 91616, 91617, 91618

NEWS: Haze Clouds Laguna's Ban on Pot Stores

The California Coastal Commission rejected supporting Laguna Beach’s ban on storefront marijuana dispensaries last week and directed the city to rework its ordinance.

“It’s very unusual for the Coastal Commission to not approve this,” said City Manager John Pietig, adding that the commission has supported ordinances prohibiting commercial marijuana dispensaries in other cities.

In a 6-5 vote on Jan. 12, the Coastal Commission denied the city’s request to make changes to Laguna’s coastal plan, which included prohibiting commercial outlets for legalized cannabis throughout the city.

Commissioner Ross Mirkarimi of San Francisco, which has at least 15 legal marijuana stores, according to an internet check, led the discussion. He warned against potential legal entanglements should the Coastal Commission support a city’s decision to either prohibit or approve marijuana dispensaries.

“It implicates us in an issue that really is not pertinent to the Coastal Act,” Mirkarimi said in a later interview, suggesting that cities are e‹ ectively seeking “higher validation” for their actions. “ at’s a little disconcerting to me.”

Peter Douglas, the commission’s executive director, agreed that marijuana shops are of no concern to the Coastal Commission other than to recognize local government’s restrictions on land use.

Coastal Commission sta‹ had recommended approval of Laguna’s request.
Douglas said the commission approved similar requests from three other California cities, though he did not identify them and a follow-up query went unanswered.

Laguna Beach sought Coastal Commission approval because the city’s business district falls within the coastal zone regulated by the commission’s land-use rules. But receiving commission approval is merely a technicality, said Pietig.

The city will try to enact the ban under city code that is not subject to the local coastal program or Coastal Commission approval, Pietig said. In the meantime, “The city doesn’t need to issue a coastal development
permit to prohibit use,” he said, and the ban will remain in effect.

Laguna argued that nearby cities fulfill the needs of potential customers for legal marijuana. “The city of Lake Forest, which is adjacent to our city, does allow medical marijuana dispensaries,” Ann Larson, a city planner, told the commission.

“Although we may not have outlets right in our city limits, there definitely are dispensaries within very close proximity to Laguna Beach.”

“We’re not proposing to eliminate people’s abilities to operate under the law,” she said. “We just don’t want to have storefronts.”

But passing the literal buck to another community raised the ire of other commissioners. Commissioner Mark Stone of Santa Cruz said, “each community up and down the coast of California, in fact throughout California, needs to address the issue not by closing the door but by appropriate regulations.”

The commission directed Laguna Beach city staff to rework and resubmit the request.

Commissioner Markarimi said, “the Coastal Act never forecasted or envisioned that we would be having this discussion in the 1970s when the Coastal Act and the commission were birthed.”

Source: Laguna Beach Independent

VIDEO: Madaleine Johnston testifies on medical marijuana ordinance at LB council meeting

NEWS: LB tightens up medical marijuana law

LONG BEACH - Medical marijuana advocates came close to getting some leeway Tuesday in the city's marijuana regulations, but fell one vote short of a more lenient version of the law.

The council voted 5-4 to finalize an amended ordinance that prohibits medical marijuana collectives from being within 1,000 feet of parks, among other requirements. The council had already approved a law in March that outlawed collectives near schools, in residential areas or near one another, but decided to make it more restrictive.

The change is expected to force 11 collectives or cultivation sites to close, leaving 26 citywide, mostly in the western half of Long Beach.

The original law also required that collectives go through a permitting process, and that process hadn't been completed when the council decided late last year to alter the ordinance.

Council members Rae Gabelich, Steve Neal, James Johnson and Dee Andrews voted against the amendment. The council also voted 7-2, with Gabelich and Andrews dissenting, to establish a one-year moratorium on issuing new medical marijuana permits.

"I continue to oppose the changes in this ordinance because it changes the playing field midstream," Gabelich said. She added that changing the ordinance opens the city to more litigation.

Long Beach was already facing seven lawsuits over the law, and Deputy City Attorney Mike Mais said that an eighth lawsuit was filed this month.

Johnson voted against the law for a different reason from the others, maintaining his position that the city should restrict the number of collectives to two in each of the nine council districts so that no area has an over-concentration of them.

Other aspects of the new regulations are a 45-day public comment period on proposed collective locations, after which the council will have a hearing to determine whether the collectives should be allowed; a requirement that video surveillance systems be installed; and limiting collectives' hours of operation to 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Each collective also will have to submit an annual audited report on revenues, expenditures and operational costs.

Source: Long Beach Press Telegram

Make marijuana ordinance clear: Letters for Tuesday, Jan. 18

Re "City Council to tweak medical marijuana ordinance" (Jan. 15):

The City Council needs to provide the public with clear and specific guidelines for the operation of medical marijuana dispensaries. Woodland Hills, at one time, had 40 dispensaries. While many have been closed, some may reopen under the city's new rules. Woodland Hills is attractive to dispensaries because of its relaxed suburban character and because it's adjacent to unincorporated L.A. County, which does not permit medicinal marijuana sales.

When many of the now-closed stores opened, all they needed was a resale license. I ask the City Council to come up with rules, like those used to permit the sale of alcohol and the revocation of sales permits, for marijuana dispensaries. Without these tools we will be unable to moderate or prohibit the actions of the stores and their customers anywhere in L.A. We need these rules now.

- SEAN MCCARTHY

Encino

Libraries vital in crime prevention

Re "Safety First" (Editorial, Jan. 9):

Police officers, public safety experts and district attorneys understand that a high literacy rate and the availability of after-school activities are among the most important factors in creating a safe city.

While the Daily News is right to place a high priority on funding for our vital police and fire services, this simply is not and cannot be the only solution. City of Los Angeles

libraries operate the largest after-school program in the city and are responsible for providing literacy programs for toddlers, children, teens and adults. Libraries are crime preventers. When neighborhood libraries close or reduce their hours significantly, there are few alternatives for the 90,000 children who visit our 73 branches weekly.
In the 2010-2011 budget cycle, the Police and Fire departments received nearly 70 percent of the city's budget. The Library Department on the other hand received approximately 3 percent! I authored and continue to support Measure L because as someone with 38 years on the Police Department, including five years as chief, I know it will reverse the current trend of cuts that have devastated our libraries and compromised our public safety, prevention and intervention efforts. In these tough economic and budget times we must not be penny-wise and pound-foolish.

- BERNARD C. PARKS

Los Angeles

The writer represents the L.A. City Council's

Eighth District and is a former LAPD police chief

Human nature holds U.S. back

America the beautiful, minus human nature, would be near perfection.

- LLORENS PEMBROOK

Studio City

AT&T phone outages to be fixed

AT&T is solid in its commitment to its customers in Los Angeles, and recovery efforts from the recent historically devastating storms are no exception. AT&T is continuing to do all it can to ensure every resident resumes service. I know AT&T is working with many VICA members to achieve this goal. Technicians were brought from Northern California to work around the clock until every phone outage is fixed. As Southern California residents, we are all too familiar with natural disasters and have witnessed AT&T's commitment to its customers under these circumstances.

- STUART WALDMAN

Van Nuys

The writer is president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association (VICA)

Unlikely to meet energy goals

Re "DWP leaps ahead of clean energy goals"

(Jan. 14):

To begin to meet mandated renewable energy levels, the Department of Water and Power constructed the Pine Tree Wind Farm at a cost of more than $425 million, consisting of 80 wind towers on 2,000 acres. While rated at 120 megawatts, wind pattern studies, part of the Integrated Resources Plan, indicates that during the windy month of August 2009, the farm actually provided 13 to 48 megawatts on an average day minus conversion and line losses.

The installation will provide, on average, 0.42 percent of the electrical energy needed by the city of Los Angeles and will require hot backup from gas turbine plants when the wind does not blow. While DWP predicts a 5 percent increase per year in costs, I believe the prediction of Jack Humphreville - who serves on the neighborhood council panel working with the DWP - of increases of 8 percent and more. Reality sets in.

- GORDON OSBORNE

Woodland Hills

Source: Los Angeles Daily News

NEWS: More Scrutiny for California's Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

California medical marijuana dispensaries are facing raids and tax audits from local and federal officials skeptical about their finances and their legitimacy, The New York Times reported Jan. 8.

Frank Carrubba, a Santa Clara County deputy district attorney, said, "We're trying to get to a point where we get we can weed out - for lack of a better word - to filter out the people that are really perverting this law just to sell drugs,"

Although a state initiative to legalize marijuana was unsuccessful at the polls in November, medical marijuana dispensaries continue to pull in cash. Officials in Oakland estimate that dispensaries there brought in between $35 million and $38 million last year.

San Jose, The New York Times wrote, "now boasts 98 dispensaries - four times the number of 7-Eleven convenience stories in the city."

Recent raids on the New Age Healing Collective in San Jose, and the home of its owners, turned up two sets of books. The store ledger showed the dispensary was $123,128 in the red. The ledger found in the owners' home showed a profit of $222,238 for the same time period. The owners denied wrongdoing.

The chief executive of Harborside Health Center, a large Oakland dispensary, said his business was being audited by the Internal Revenue Service. Though the I.R.S. did not confirm whether it was performing such an audit, company representatives said the I.R.S. was focused on a part of the tax code that says companies cannot deduct expenses when they are "trafficking in controlled substances."

Harborside said it was operating legally. It has appealed to Senator Barbara Boxer for help, stating in a letter to her that about 80 jobs are at stake.

The state law allowing medical dispensaries is unambiguous that collectives may grow marijuana for medical purposes, but hazy when it comes to selling it, said the author of the law, William Panzer. He argued that state lawmakers should act to create clearer guidelines.

"Let's come out from under the shadows and say, 'Here are the rules,'" he said. "The law around distribution is very hazy, and we need the Legislature to do something. We've fallen behind other states on regulations for medical marijuana sales."

In the absence of regulatory guidance, dispensaries operate both as large businesses and as nonprofit health centers.

"It's kind of difficult line to straddle for them, but a lot of them are doing it," said Betty Yee, who sits on the board that oversees state taxes.

Yee added that dispensaries don't necessarily have large profit margins. "The cost of their product is so huge that there is sometimes a perception that they're making a lot of money when in fact their margins are pretty thin," she said.

Representatives for marijuana dispensaries objected to the police raids. Paul Stewart, who directs the Medicinal Cannabis Collective Coalition, said, "They are acting on what could be considered a specious legal finding by the D.A.; their finding is that all collectives are operating illegally because they are making a profit."

Geoffrey Rawlings, lawyer for one of the owners of the New Age Healing Collective where the duplicate books were found, said, "When you're dealing with medical cannabis and you see these blond, dreadlocked corporate officers coming and going, it kind of agitates law enforcement and raises their hackles a little more than the pizza shop owner down the street."

He added, "They are convinced that these people are breaking the laws without any evidence in advance that they're breaking the law."

Source: JoinTogether.org

NEWS: Medical marijuana law will again go to council

LONG BEACH - Proposed medical marijuana laws are scheduled for a final vote by Long Beach City Council members Tuesday night.

Usually at this point, the vote would be simply a rubber stamp and wouldn't warrant further discussion by the council.

But considering that this is a revision of a previously approved law, which never fully went into effect - and the council was divided over changing it - there could be attempts to alter it one more time.

In March 2010, the council approved stringent rules for marijuana collectives, including prohibiting them near schools, in residential zones or close to one another.

The proposed additional regulations, which got an initial vote of support in December, would also restrict collectives from being within 1,000 feet of parks, among other regulations.

Medical marijuana advocates and operators of collectives weren't happy with the initial ordinance, but they were livid over the council's attempt to change it after collectives had invested money, paid fees and gone to the trouble to meet all of the original law's rules. About a dozen collectives or cultivation sites will be forced to close once the new parks restriction is in place.

The vote on the proposed laws is the last item on the council's agenda.

Source: Contra Costa Times

January is Glaucoma Awareness Month: Can Marijuana save eyesight?

Longtime Wisconsin medical cannabis patient/activist Gary Storck discusses his life with glaucoma, meeting fellow glaucoma patient Robert Randall, and gives a brief history of Wisconsin medical cannabis legislation and how viewers can help to pass the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act in Wisconsin.

EVENT: Medical Cannabis Conference - January 22nd 2011

http://www.cbdconference.com | The Orange County Chapter of NORML, Apothecary Genetics, GGECO University, Kush Media will be holding a one day Medical Cannabis Conference for Seniors, Medical Professionals and the Community. This conference will take place on Saturday, January 22, 2011 from 9 AM to 8 PM in Orange County, CA.

California voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996, which allowed qualified patients with a physician's recommendation to use medical marijuana legally. In 2003 Senate Bill 420 was passed and allowed patients who are not able to grow their own medicine to join patient collectives providing safe access to their medicine. In the last couple years there has been an increase in Medical Cannabis. In an effort to help further state, county, & city agencies educate and protect the public, about the proper safe use and governing legislation regarding Medical Cannabis. Educating the public about safe use with various routes of administration, dosage forms, and methods of usage are known and that correct information is being received by the public and medical community this conference is being held.

The Medical Cannabis Conference will be bringing two renowned Physicians to Orange County for their first presentations ever in this area, Dr. William Courtney and Dr. Donald Abrams.

William Courtney, M.D., has an extensive medical education; he received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Michigan, his Doctor of Medicine from Wayne State University, and his Post Doctorate in Forensic Examination and Forensic Medicine. Dr. Courtney currently has a private practice in Mendocino County, California. Dr. Courtney is currently a member of International Cannabinoid Research Society, the International Association of Cannabis as Medicine, the Society of Clinical Cannabis and Vice President of the Association Luxembourgeoise des Methodes Preventives.

Donald Abrams, M.D., is Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California San Francisco and Chief of Hematology/Oncology at San Francisco General Hospital. He provides Integrative Oncology consultations at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. He is a member of the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center Executive Committee and is co-chairing the Center's developing program in Symptom Management, Palliative Care and Survivorship.

Also scheduled to speak is William Britt Founder of the Association of Patient Advocates and Court Qualified Cannabis Expert, Debby Goldsberry one of the Founders of Americans for Safe Access, Lanny Swerdlow, R.N. and Director of Marijuana Anti Prohibition Project, Jeffrey C. Raber, Ph.D. of The Werc Shop, Sytze Elzinga Cannabis Research, Bret Bogue from GGECO University, Brett Stack of Marijuana Saves Lives, Cheryl Shuman from Kush Magazine, Lonnie Painter from Laguna Woods Medical Cannabis Collective, Anna Boyce, R.N. a community activist, Marla James from OC Americans for Safe Access, and Attorney Jeremy Joseph from the Unconventional Foundation for Autism.

For the conclusion of the conference there will be a screening of "What If Cannabis Cured Cancer" and a question and answer session with the documentary's Director Len Richmond.

The Orange County chapter of NORML is a nonprofit organization working since 2003 to spread knowledge about alternatives to the drug war and working to protect the rights of California medical marijuana patients. Apothecary Genetics is a multi-faceted corporation which includes GGECO University that strives to bring the most up to date information to educate people on the properties of cannabis and its medical uses, as well as the properties of hemp and our need to have these plants legalized in the United States. Kush Magazine and Daily Buds are the #1 media source and social network site for the cannabis industry.

NEWS: Judge says Los Angeles pot dispensaries must post $350K bond

The judge who ruled parts of the Los Angeles medical marijuana law unconstitutional says pot dispensaries must post a nearly $350,000 bond within 10 days for the court injunction to take effect.

About 50 dispensaries asked for the injunction issued last month by Superior Court Judge Anthony Mohr. The judge says several parts of the law are unconstitutional, including the complex process for deciding which dispensaries would be allowed.

Dispensary attorneys asked the judge Friday to set no bond, saying the city wouldn't suffer any harm from the injunction. But city lawyers say police and lawyer fees are mounting because closed pot stores are returning to business and new ones are popping up.

Attorney David Welch, who represents many dispensaries, told the Los Angeles Times he's confident the bond will be posted.

Information from: Los Angeles Times

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press

Buying medical marijuana: behind the green curtain

by Randy Kalp

Editor’s Note: Proposition 215, also called the Compassionate Use Act, was passed in 1996. Since then, there seems to be a lot of confusion from people on all sides of the issue about exactly what is and isn’t legal concerning medical marijuana.

This is the first in a two-part series on medical marijuana in San Diego County and attempts to clear up some of the misconceptions regarding buying medical marijuana. The second part of the series, which will run next week, will focus on medical marijuana dispensaries and feature some prominent local legal battles addressing the issue.

Luke is 10 pounds heavier than he was several months ago, and he couldn’t be happier.

For the last decade, Luke, who asked that his real name not be published, has suffered from a debilitating genetic back disorder. In order to relieve the pain, he takes a daily dose of pain relievers, including the powerful narcotic Oxycontin. While the pharmaceutical medication helps with his pain, it also causes him severe nausea.

“I lost a lot of weight and wasn’t feeling good,” the 66-year-old Encinitas resident said.

In June 2010, Luke decided to explore medical marijuana to help with his nausea and weight loss. But despite Proposition 215 being passed 14 years ago, he still had anxiety about getting his recommendation due to an uncertainty about the legality of possessing medicinal marijuana as well as the legitimacy of seeing a physician who advertises in the back of a free weekly magazine.

Under Proposition 215 and Senate Bill 420, which was enacted in 2003 as a compromise between advocates and law enforcement, state guidelines were established relating to how much marijuana a qualified patient could legally grow and possess.

According to the guidelines established by Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. in 2008, patients and primary caregivers may possess 8 ounces of dried marijuana, and cultivate six mature or 12 immature plants per patient, if they hold a state-issued identification card. But if needed, a patient or primary caregiver can receive an additional doctor’s recommendation stating that the aforementioned quantity does not meet their medical needs, and that the patient or primary caregiver may possess a larger amount of marijuana.

The confusion

Since the county began issuing the state of California Medical Marijuana Identification Card, or MMIC, in July 2009, the Department of Health and Human Services has issued 790 cards; however, that number is not indicative of the actual number of patients recommended under Proposition 215/SB 420 in the county. The number is actually much higher because the state card is not mandatory to legally possess marijuana in San Diego, and California for that matter. A patient only needs a recommendation from a physician, which must be renewed yearly.

“The doctor issued cards are not connected with the state MMIC programs,” said Adrienne Yancey, an assistant deputy director with the county’s Health and Human Services Agency. “The state MMIC has a unique identifier for each valid card holder that is listed in the state MMIC registry.”

While the program is voluntary, those are the only identification cards that offer the patient protection from arrest, according to the attorney general’s guidelines. Alternately, if a physician’s identification card or recommendation is presented, the officer is supposed to review the document and then use his own judgment to determine whether the person is within the local or state possession guidelines.

Since adopting the program, Yancey said the county has received 819 applications; the majority — 573 — coming from persons aged 31 and up. The application fee for the state card is $166 or $83 for Medi-Cal beneficiaries, which is in addition to the doctor’s fee charged to obtain the recommendation. And just like the physician’s recommendation, the card needs to be renewed yearly.

Curt Moore, who operates Canna Care Consultants, a medical marijuana referral service in Oceanside, said first-time patients pay $89, while renewals cost $80. If the physician approves the patient for medical marijuana, they are then given a paper recommendation, which he advises patients to keep in their glove compartment, as well as a wallet-sized medical marijuana card. Additionally, Moore said his office also uses a third-party verification company that is available 24 hours a day for medical marijuana providers, such as collectives, or law enforcement to utilize so they can check the validity of the patient’s recommendation.

However, Moore said the state card is the only card that law enforcement agencies have to recognize on the spot. “Basically, the card that all doctors give out are fluff; they hold no legal value,” he said. “We shrink down the original recommendation to card size with the hope that law enforcement will see it and call the number.”

Despite the cost of the state card, Moore, who has operated his referral service on South Coast Highway for more than six months, recommended that patients who travel with their medication or cultivate their own marijuana under Proposition 215/SB Bill 420 get the state card.

Kris Hermes, a spokesman for Americans for Safe Access, also agreed that if a patient can afford the state card it is a good idea to apply for it. Often, Hermes said, patients shy away from the state card or medical marijuana as whole because they believe that their information is going to end up in the hands of local or federal law enforcement.

Though Yancey said when asked, state law requires the county’s records and information regarding medicinal marijuana patients to be kept confidential; however, if the records are subpoenaed then it’s handled on a case-by-case basis relating to the facts and circumstances of each particular case and subpoena.

Throughout the state, Hermes said his organization has seen better compliance from law enforcement agencies as key court cases are won regarding Proposition 215/SB Bill 420, including the 2009 ruling in which the California Supreme Court ruled that San Diego and San Bernardino County could not use federal law as an excuse to avoid implementing the state MMIC program. However, he said there are still instances where local authorities want to ignore state law even though the courts have “flatly” ruled that federal law does not pre-empt state law.

A quick trip to the doctor’s office

When Luke decided to get his evaluation for medicinal marijuana, his two friends, who also suffer from their own set of ailments — arthritis, a rotator cuff injury, back pain — decided they would also get evaluated.

One of Luke’s friends, Ken — a North County business owner who also asked to remain anonymous — said the trio drove to downtown San Diego for their doctor’s visit. Inside the waiting room, the three men — all in their 60s — were handed paperwork to fill out about their medical history, ailments and experience with marijuana.

Ken said the waiting room looked just like any other physician’s office. Besides his group, he said there were four other people, who appeared to range in age from 30 to 60, waiting to be seen by the doctor.

“We totally didn’t feel nervous because it was a friendly place,” Ken said. “It’s not dark or seedy or anything, but we were still a little apprehensive.”

Because the three men were together, their evaluation was performed at the same time. After taking their blood pressure, the physician then conducted her evaluation by talking to the men about their ailments and medical history; 20 minutes later the trio left the referral office each with a recommendation to legally use, possess and cultivate marijuana.

“It didn’t seem like a slimy atmosphere,” Luke said. “I felt pretty at ease.”

At Canna Care Consultants, Moore said his office gets a lot of cancer patients with nausea and joint pain. Recently, he said he had an 83-year-old patient who had never used marijuana before come in for a recommendation.

“Every year they keep proving the medicinal benefits are great,” Moore said. “Of course it’s not snake venom though; it’s not a miracle cure, but it does have a lot of benefits for a lot of patients.”

Unfortunately, for North County residents who would like to get an evaluation close to home, Canna Care Consultants is only one of three in the area; the other two are in Vista and Carlsbad.

“The North County has a real need for more services,” Moore said.

City officials in Oceanside, Vista and Carlsbad have said that medical marijuana referral offices are legal to open; it’s just dispensaries — collectives that operate nonprofit storefronts to sell medicinal marijuana products to patients — that are currently barred in those cities.

“We would treat that as a kind of like medical office,” Carlsbad City Attorney Paul Edmundson. “If there was a doctor who gave a referral for medical marijuana that would be under the ethical practices as opposed to a dispensary.”

Moore said doctors who are conducting evaluations just for the money are a large reason why referral services have gotten a bad name. “Without denials, it’s not a real doctor’s office, because not everybody coming through the door is legitimate,” he said.

Since opening in April, Moore said his office has rejected a lot of people, some of whom he said looked to be only 15 or 16 years old. One safeguard Moore and his doctor have established is to only issue one-month recommendations for patients who don’t have their medical records or prescription bottles with them during the evaluation to justify their medical condition; the patient would then be required to bring in their records after the month is up.

“It’s a little inconvenient for the patient, but it helps protect the office and the doctor,” Moore said.

In addition to physician evaluations, Moore said his office is focused on providing each patient with the information they need to fully benefit from the use of medicinal marijuana. For instance, he said his elderly patients — his oldest is 90 — often do not like to smoke it, so his office informs them about other ways marijuana can be ingested and still be effective. Further, Moore said his office also instructs patients on how to cultivate their own marijuana, which is highly beneficial for users on a fixed income.

“We try to be full-service and help them in anyway we can,” Moore said.

Source: Coast News Group

VIDEO: Richard Kearns testifies before the Los Angeles City Council on AIDS, medical marijuana and more

Richard Kearns Public Testimony. January 4, 2011. Los Angeles, California.

NEWS: Medical marijuana dispensary owner gets probation

A Vista man who admitted breaking federal law while running a medical marijuana dispensary was sentenced Friday to the equivalent of probation.

U.S. District Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz agreed with the recommendation from federal prosecutors that James Stacy, 46, should not be sent to jail. But in a surprise move, the judge ordered Stacy to serve only two years of supervised release, a year less than federal prosecutors recommended and Stacy had expected.

Stacy had faced nine federal drug charges arising from a raid of his now-shuttered Vista dispensary, Movement in Action. In October, he pleaded guilty to a single charge: manufacturing marijuana.

"My intent was never to break the law. My intent was to help people," Stacy said after the hearing in Moskowitz's federal courtroom in San Diego.

Stacy's medical marijuana shop on South Santa Fe Avenue was one of 14 San Diego County shops raided by local and federal authorities Sept. 9, 2009.

Of the 30 people arrested during the raids, county prosecutors charged only one person, a San Diego resident. Federal prosecutors charged two people: Stacy and Joseph Nunes, who ran a San Diego pot shop for medical patients. Nunes eventually pleaded guilty.

Source: North County Times

NEWS: No new trial for Modesto marijuana vendors

A federal court has denied the request for a new trial by two Modesto men convicted on federal drug charges for operating a medical marijuana dispensary.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco has affirmed the convictions and sentences of Ricardo Montes, 29, and Luke Scarmazzo, 29, the U.S. attorney's office for California's Eastern District said Tuesday in a news release.

Scarmazzo and Montes had appealed because they claimed the trial judge made a mistake by not granting them a new trial after a juror read and discussed during deliberations a summary of a newspaper article on the marijuana policies of presidential hopefuls.

The Court of Appeals agreed with the District Court in Fresno in finding that the jurors' consideration of such information could not have affected their verdict.

A federal jury in Fresno found the two men guilty in May 2008 of manufacturing marijuana and distributing the drug, as well as operating a continuing criminal enterprise.

In November 2008, U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger sentenced Scarmazzo to 21 years and 10 months in prison and Montes to the 20-year mandatory minimum prison sentence.

The evidence at trial showed that from 2004 until September 2006, the two men openly ran the California Healthcare Collective, a marijuana dispensary they cofounded in Modesto.

During those two years they made $9.2 million in sales, with up to 14 employees who cultivated, packaged and distributed marijuana, according to the news release.

Medical marijuana is legal in California, but federal laws outlaw its possession and distribution, even if the activities are allowed under state law.

Source: Modesto Bee

ASK THE LAWYER: Privacy of medical marijuana request

By Ron Sokol

Q: I am concerned if I meet with a doctor and obtain approval for medical marijuana that it will be reported. What's to prevent that? - H.G., San Pedro

A: Medical records are subject to well-established confidentiality and privacy protections. Further, the doctor who evaluates you has no obligation to report to law enforcement or otherwise. This is so even if the doctor concludes you do not qualify for medical marijuana use. In addition, case law has come forward in which a physician recommending patients for medical marijuana was held not required to turn over records sought by the California Medical Quality Assurance Board because no sufficient reason was shown to invade the patients' privacy rights.

Q: We are going to be drug tested at work. I have a doctor's formal approval for medical marijuana use. If I test positive can they still fire me? - L.M., El Segundo

A: While having approval for medical marijuana allows you (under California law) to possess and to use a certain amount of marijuana here, it remains up to your employer's discretion concerning your employment status. You can emphasize to the employer that you are a legal patient under applicable California law, but your job may be such that marijuana use is considered too risky or simply not appropriate. It is possible that in time legal issues will be tested in a California court where an employee claims he or she can not work unless allowed to utilize medical marijuana (at least during off hours), and thus there is a disability or medical condition that must be considered, but to my knowledge this kind of situation has not resulted in a binding legal decision to date.

Q: Our 15-year-old came home from school, and told us about one of his classmates who has medical marijuana. Is there no age limit? Can anyone get it? - M.C., Torrance

A: You have to be at least l8 years of age to be able to seek approval for medical marijuana use. As to whether anyone can get it: Many who seek medical marijuana are suffering greatly. They are military persons who have been injured; people who are dealing with the effects of cancer and cancer treatments; and others who have genuine physical problems that are relieved, in part anyway, by judicious medical marijuana use. The physicians who evaluate patients for marijuana use have a fundamental obligation to carefully and competently screen patients, not rubber-stamp approvals.

NOTE: Questions arose in response to the recent column about the legality of marijuana in California. Some are addressed here. First, when I referred to a "prescription" for medical marijuana, it is more typically considered a doctor's "recommendation" or "approval for" use. Also, California law has been modified such that possession of one ounce or less of marijuana (ie, for which you do not have a doctor's approval), will be handled in many instances now as an infraction subject to a fine rather than a misdemeanor.

Ron Sokol is a Manhattan Beach-based attorney with more than 30 years of experience who has arbitrated and mediated many cases. E-mail questions and comments to him at RonSEsq@aol.com or write to him at Ask The Lawyer, Daily Breeze, 21250 Hawthorne Blvd., Suite 170, Torrance, CA 90503. This column is a summary of the law, and not a substitute for legal consultation on any particular case.

Source: Daily Breeze

NEWS: California Medical Board Tries to Revoke Pro-Pot Doctor's License

Going After Dr. Frankel
By FRED GARDNER

The Medical Board of California is trying to revoke the license of a pro-cannabis doctor —for using cannabis. A hearing held in Los Angeles this week is supposed to determine whether or not Allan Frankel, MD, is fit to practice medicine.

Frankel is 59, barrel-chested, curly-haired, and jolly —amazingly so, given that his parents were Holocaust survivors. His looks and something about his manner remind me of the comedian Albert Brooks. He is divorced with three grown children -two who are practicing MDs and one with a business degree. (The businessman, Josh Frankel, was the place-kicker for the University of Oregon Ducks. In 1999 he booted the winning field goal against USC in triple-overtime.)

Most of Frankel's career was spent practicing internal medicine. "I had a hotsy-totsy office on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica," he says, and an affiliation with UCLA. In 34 years of practice Frankel never had a problem with the medical board. He used marijuana on rare social occasions, and knew nothing about its medical aspect. In 2001 Frankel underwent disk surgery for intractable back pain. In 2002 a viral infection of the heart almost killed him (he was given a prognosis of one year to live) and left him "in general, permanent discomfort."

He was disabled —bedridden for most of the ensuing three years. Relief came when some of the cancer and AIDS patients for whom he had written recommendations urged him to try cannabis. "My patients did a reverse intervention on me," Frankel recalls. "Cannabis helped me get better. A part of me thinks it saved my life."

During his prolonged recovery, Frankel designed software that is still used to run the Bowyer Cancer Center at UCLA Hospital. He describes it as "a specialized medical language that enables them to build very complex what-if scenarios involving drug interactions, allergies, insurance, all the factors that have to be taken into account in a treatment plan."

In March, 2006, Frankel opened a new office in Marina Del Rey dedicated to cannabis consultations. "I really didn't know anything about cannabis except what I learned from my patients," he reflects. He joined the Society of Cannabis Clinicians, read the relevant medical and scientific literature, attended conferences, and did everything he could to educate himself about the body's cannabinoid signaling system. He began tracking strain differences and encouraged patients to find the type of cannabis and the delivery system best suited to alleviating their symptoms. In other words, Allan Frankel was serious about mastering his new specialty.

Early on, Frankel says, "I realized that my patients were lying about how much they used —as if they feared my disapproval. Finally I would tell them, 'I use an ounce a month. How much do you really use?' And then they would level with me -about dosage, about everything."

In June 2007 two agents from the medical board's enforcement division "walked into the office and announced that I was under investigation," says Frankel. "They showed their badges in front of all the patients —it was terrible." A vindictive ex had filed a complaint against him. In addition to several false charges, he says, was a true one. As he would eventually acknowledge when he agreed to accept probation from the medical board, he had prescribed Vicodin for himself, "less than one pill a day on average," while recovering from back surgery.

Although the self-prescribing had occurred years before Frankel become a cannabis specialist, the terms of his probation included a punishment never before imposed on a California MD: for one year "Respondent shall not issue an oral or written recommendation or approval to a patient or a patient's primary caregiver for the possession or cultivation of marijuana for the personal medical purposes of the patient."

Friends and colleagues urged Frankel not to accept this punishment, which the med board had recently added to its arsenal. He says he didn't have money to fight it (having just put two kids through med school) and he felt truly foolish and embarrassed about his self-prescribing. Cannabis had politicized him and he had become self-critical. When he accepted probation it was partly by way of penance.

As of April 22, 2010, Allan Frankel, MD, stopped issuing approvals for patients to use cannabis. Other terms of his probation, which have been met, included taking courses in "prescribing practices," "medical record keeping," "ethics," and "professional boundaries;" undergoing a psychiatric evaluation by a psychiatrist chosen by the board; seeing a psychotherapist on a regular basis; abstaining totally from alcohol (which had never been a problem for him); and submitting to random "biological fluid testing."

The probation requirement that Frankel has allegedly violated reads, "Respondent shall abstain completely from the personal use or possession of controlled substances... and any drugs requiring a prescription. This prohibition does not apply to medications lawfully prescribed to Respondent by another practitioner for a bona fide illness or condition."

Frankel was and is using cannabis with the approval of Christine Paoletti, MD, and Cymbalta and Dalmane prescribed by Robert Gerner, MD, for anxiety and insomnia. He was first prescribed Dalmane when he was in his twenties to quell "recurrent nightmares I'd been having since I was a kid in which the Nazis were coming to get me."

The case developed by med board investigators against Frankel is being prosecuted by lawyers from the state attorney general's office. (His name is Jerry Brown and he approved this prosecution.) The key witness against Frankel has been Daniel Fast, a psychiatrist chosen by the board for this purpose. Fast is a member of numerous establishment and gay psychiatric associations. On his resume he lists participation in "National Depression Screen Day," an Eli Lilly scam intended to boost the number of Americans getting Prozac prescriptions.

"I actually knew him slightly when I was at UCLA," says Frankel of Fast. "Like I'd nod to him in the cafeteria." On April 28 Frankel went to Fast's Beverly Hills office for "a 70-minute talk session." Fast subsequently reported to the board that Allan Frankel was unable to practice medicine safely because of impaired cognitive function and "chronic marijuana usage."

Frankel's lawyer, John Fleer, has been handling cases before the med board for more than 20 years and says he has rarely seen an accusation as "desperately flawed" as the one the med board is pressing against Frankel. "The board is ignoring its own prior Decision and Order," says Fleer, "by overruling Dr. Frankel's personal physicians" in regard to appropriate treatment for his condition.

The hearing before Administrative Law Judge Susan Formaker began Monday with opening statements, followed by Daniel Fast's testimony. Cross-examination began in the late afternoon and resumed Tuesday (see below). Frankel's expert witnesses are set for Wednesday: Robert Gerner, MD, a psychiatrist who sees Frankel regularly and does not discern cognitive impairment, and Christine Paoletti, MD, who approved his cannabis use and will testify that it does not render him unsafe to practice medicine. Then the ALJ will recommend to the board whether they should or shouldn't revoke Frankel's license. The board, which consists mainly of ambitious MDs appointed by the governor, can accept, reject or modify an ALJ's recommendation.

"The irony is," says Frankel, "that all my work is directed towards safety. Finding the right strain, the right delivery method, the right dosage ... Working with an analytic chemist so that potencies can be known and consistent... Promoting cannabidiol in hopes of developing less psychoactive strains... Always issuing warnings and reminders to patients... It's just ironic."



HUMAN SMOKE: Some might call it coincidence but in fact it's a politically consistent pattern: Frankel is the second member of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians (1) whose parents were Holocaust survivors, (2) who practiced medicine for decades without running afoul of the medical board, (3) who got investigated and charged soon after becoming a Cannabis specialist, and (4) against whom the board deployed a veteran of Eli Lilly's National Depression Screening Day. The other was Hanya Barth, MD, whose cruel ordeal was reported in O'Shaughnessy's, Spring 2007... Frankel says that the "Nazi dreams," which he hasn't had since he was 30-something, are waking him up again. You don't have to be a psychiatrist to figure out why.

Fred Gardner is a co-founder of ProjectCBD.org. He can be reached at fred@plebesite.com.

Source: CounterPunch.org

Video: Long Beach City Council Discusses Medical Marijuana Ordinance and Further Restrictions

Long Beach City Council Meeting (December 14, 2010)

Part 1 of 2


Part 2 of 2

Another Vengeful Pot Bust of Medical Users in California

Political Perspective by Tim King

It's apt that the nickname of this community is 'SLO'- it underscores the mentality of law enforcement in this semi-rural county.

(SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif.) - San Luis Obispo, California Sheriff Pat Hedges is up to his old tricks; making a mockery of California's laws that protect sick people who use medical marijuana. This week his intensive 'anti-drug' efforts involved his tracking down "mobile marijuana dispensaries" that deliver medicine to those who have an otherwise difficult time accessing this legal herb. Remember, in California dispensaries can legally sell marijuana, unlike Oregon.

Fifteen people were arrested in Hedges' big 'drug bust'. The youngest was 33, the oldest was 60. One of those arrested; Pete Miller of Paso Robles, stated:

"Sheriff Hedges is making one last gasp against Medical Marijuana before his term is up next month. A girlfriend of a detective got a legal MM recommendation from a local doctor. She then used the print out of Dispensaries and Delivery services and asked for deliveries from all or most of the services listed on the print out. Anybody who made a delivery to Amy Dobson was raided by the Sheriff's Drug Taskforce on or around Dec. 28."

Apparently the 'investigation' was simply an effort to arrest and jail non-violent offenders based on the use of business records. And that took two months? Pete Miller also said:

"I am a Medical Marijuana patient and manage a very small MM co-operative. I made deliveries to Dobson and personally verified her recommendation. I now have 5 cannabis related felonies against me."

SLO the Madness

I moved to this area from Los Angeles when I was in high school, and quickly learned how people here really appreciate the five hours' distance from LA. The license plate frames here read, "Come Up for Air - San Luis Obispo" and it is true; this is a beautiful part of California, probably the best.

We might need to change those license plates to 'Come Up TO SLO Town for some HOT AIR'

The people here are perhaps a little detached from reality if they keep electing people like Pat Hedges. If public officials choose to dismiss the laws approved by a state's voters, then they themselves need to be dismissed.

Hedges and others like him are the last vestiges of an effort to demonize marijuana and portray it as harmful when studies conclusively prove it is not.

History of Marijuana Politics in America

This whole affair to outlaw marijuana began in the early part of the 20th Century when companies like Dow and Dupont set out with the help of the Hearst Newspaper chain, to convince Americans that this simple ancient health remedy and incredible renewable resource that can be used for everything from food and fuel to fiber and paper was a danger to American youth.

They wanted to market 'synthetic' rope; that is what launched the effort that is typified by the movie 'Reefer Madness' - where marijuana smokers take a toke and start killing people. It worked and millions always believed marijuana was the worst thing in existence.

Again, this only dates back to the 1930's. Until the early 20th Century, marijuana based medicines were prescribed more than any other type of 'drug'. The result led to more terrible factories that pumped more toxic fumes into the air so they could replicate what Mother Nature already did so well.

No matter what, especially based on past history, this current series of arrests by the SLO Sheriff appears to be a personal vendetta paid for by San Luis Obispo taxpayers. Based on the press releases on their Website detailing crimes in recent months; Murder, Double Murder, Sex Crimes; it looks like they have plenty to do in terms of actual law enforcement.

In the present case, Hedge's teams weren't out catching sex offenders or dangerous criminals. With the use of a whole bunch of cops from a whole group of agencies, they reportedly spent two months "investigating" these deliveries of pot to other people in California.

The agencies putting resources into this operation include the Santa Barbara Regional Narcotic Task Force, San Luis County Sheriff’s Department, Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department, San Luis Obispo Police, Santa Maria Police and the California Highway Patrol.

It didn't even involve the crossing of state lines.

I wonder how many people are safer as a result of this police work?

Background on Pat Hedges

Hedges' idea of well spent tax dollars, involves his extreme approach toward arresting medical marijuana users and suppliers.

The nation's Attorney General Eric Holder, who represents President Obama's system of justice in the US, specifically stated that federal resources would not be used to arrest smalltime users. Looks like Hedges wants to make a mockery out of that statement also, as well as Holder and Obama directly.

In the past he led a federally involved witch hunt for a completely legitimate gentleman named Chuck Lynch who operated a dispensary in my former hometown, Morro Bay, California.

For those who don't already know this, cities with their own police departments, like Morro Bay, are responsible for crimes within their city limits. The local sheriff's department is charged with patrolling the unincorporated areas that are not within city limits. San Luis Obispo is a big county with a lot of area that rarely sees a deputy. Why would they need to work a city case?

The fact that Lynch was approved of and well thought of by his city's police chief, mayor and chamber of commerce director, did not mean anything; there was no reprieve for his having done everything right.

Like Tommy Chong, Lynch was an example of the nation's outdated and nonsensical laws against pot and Lynch's case, like Chongs's, represents the spending of incredible amounts of federal money, mostly to satiate the egos of the feds and people like Hedges.

Pat Hedges and his 'troops' did many things that should have led to an acquittal of charges against Lynch; he never should have been arrested in the first place.

Get this one...

According to the San Luis newspaper, where reporters worked from a news release that I tried but was unable to locate anywhere online:

"Investigators seized approximately 4 grams of cocaine, 57 pounds of marijuana, 162 marijuana plants, 146 grams of hash and 718 grams of hash oil, with an estimated street value of $3,482,308, according to the news release. Seven firearms and $492,931 in cash also were confiscated."

I think we can easily figure out whose lungs that seized pot has been filling; Pat Hedges may be full of hot air, but these guys are straight up blowing smoke.

For you folks who have never used drugs like cocaine, please understand that this is something like one night's worth for maybe two people. Back in the 'day' this would have sold for a couple of hundred bucks.

162 marijuana plants, that is probably all within the legal boundaries. There is no specificity as to the plants' age or size and so this is just ridiculous. The majority could have been little tiny starts that were one or two inches high. It isn't even fair to put a 'value' on a plant that is a person's property, but we'll go ahead and say a hundred bucks a plant, so let's go with about $16,200 there just to place a fair rounded value on it. You can't take a tiny plant that may or may not make the life cycle; that could be killed by mites and many other problems. Sure, if a person spends hundreds of hours under ideal conditions tending a plant, it can yield up to three pounds, but that is extremely rare.

Now, 57 pounds of marijuana; that is a lot, but not that much among the fifteen legal medical users it was seized from. A person selling that would probably be happy to get about $1600 a pound. That would be about $81,200. Now, once that goes on the 'street' which I doubt any of it was intended for, it could double the value, figuring it was going for an average price of $200 an ounce, the 57 pounds would be worth about $162,400.

"146 grams of hash and 718 grams of hash oil". OK, let's do the math on this. Hash sells for about ten bucks a gram but let's double that for the sake of this and make it $20 dollars a gram. There are 28 grams in an ounce, so that is slightly over five ounces. The 'street' value would be a little over $2,900, so let's make it three grand to be fair.

Now, how many of you know what actual 'hash oil' is? First, hash, hash oil, high THC concentration salves for treating skin cancer, cooking oil, marijuana butter; this is simply what people 'do' with marijuana. Sometimes the patient needs CBD'c and CBC's and these are not found in the typical 'budding' female marijuana plant; the one that gets a person high. These aspects of the cannabis plant are used to treat very serious diseases and they don't affect a person by getting them high.

Without knowing for sure, I would say that the 'hash oil' the narc's press release mentions, is probably more like marijuana cooking oil, not hash oil, but what is the difference; either way it's just liquified marijuana. They make it sound like an amazing amount but we're not talking about very much. 718 grams is just over 25 ounces; about a pound and a half. It was probably in mason jars, about one jar's worth, and not even a large one at that. A jar of this oil, if it was high THC content, (not all of it is) would have probably sold for a couple of hundred bucks, though again we can probably conclude that this was all medically related and never would have sold at all, but been smoked. I would think it would have helped a lot of sick people but instead the mindless ambitions of Hedges and his narc team led to it being seized. If it was concentrated oil, real hash oil, then it would have had a bit of value.

According to www.drugtext.org's page on hash oil:

"It is usually sold in tiny glass vials containing anywhere from 1 to 5 grams of the expensive liquid. Considering that one gram can get perhaps fifty people high, its cost-about $25 to $60 for a gram at current market prices-is not considered prohibitive."

So with the absolute highest dollar it could possibly worth, if it was sold on the street, would be $42 960.

Are your eyebrows up yet? These police officers are just writing fiction and this is easy to check for yourself.

Value of the pot plants: $16,200

Value of the cocaine: $200

Value of the pot: $162,400

Value of the hash: $2,900

Value of the hash oil: $42,960

Value of the entire haul: $224,660

The Regional Narcotic Task Force claims to have seized $3,482,308 worth of pot, etc.

I'm the first to admit that I'm not always great with math, but this is a very simple one to figure out. It looks to me like in a real world, this stuff would have a top dollar value of $224,660. You can subtract that from their highly inflated figure of $3,482,308 and still have three million dollars left over in change.

Looks like the cops are almost all blowing smoke in SLO County these days, and toss in their cohorts; from as far away as Santa Barbara. All part of their heavily funded narco drug team that spends two months busting mobile pot wagons that are operating above the board, but getting tricked by a detective's girlfriend? I've heard it all now. So much for the integrity that ever existed with these clowns.

Among seven presumably legal medical patients, the invading police teams found seven guns. Since when are people not entitled to own guns? The police had guns, are they in trouble for that? No, it is just mentioned by police because they know news media will parrot the information and further portray the medical patients as criminals. The police took all of the money from the homes of fifteen medical marijuana patients.

Fifteen unsuspecting people in Southern California, where life isn't cheap under any circumstances, had a total of $492,931 in cash seized by the cops. This is theft, more pain from Hedges' game. Oh wait, speaking of pain, six children were seized and placed into protective custody by the San Luis Obispo County Department of Child Welfare Services. according to the San Luis Obispo newspaper. What a travesty, Hedges must never be allowed to live this down and I hope massive protests take place and that a barrage of emails begin.

So welcome to the land of the backwoods law approach. As far as the three million dollar discrepancy in the value of the stolen, I mean seized items, do the math yourself and tell me if I am missing something. I see a bogus propaganda campaign from a county just far off the radar to get away with this type of crap.

Source: Salem News