NEWS: California Medical Marijuana Advocates Call for Statewide Regulation

Alarmed by a police backlash against pot dispensaries in some California cities, lawmakers and advocates for medical marijuana are calling for statewide regulation of medical cannabis stores and new laws to clarify rules under which they operate.

Additionally, some medical marijuana advocates are pushing lawmakers to consider regulations – similar to those in Colorado – that would permit medical marijuana providers to operate as for-profit businesses.

Currently, under California law, dispensaries providing medical marijuana must operate as nonprofit "collectives" of registered medical marijuana patients who reimburse dispensaries for the costs of providing medicinal pot.

But medical cannabis in California has boomed into an industry generating an estimated $1.3 billion in transactions and paying hundreds of millions of dollars in salaries, rent and overhead costs.

Authorities, looking for illicit profiteering, last year raided scores of dispensaries in San Jose and Chico and prosecuted medical marijuana providers in San Diego County. The district attorney in Los Angeles, Steve Cooley, branded a local boom in medical marijuana outlets as "storefronts illegally pushing pot."

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, said he intends to introduce an "omnibus cannabis bill" to create a state oversight program to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries and all aspects of delivering marijuana to legal medicinal users.

Ammiano said the Legislature needs to clarify the rules due to the wildly divergent approaches towards dispensaries. They are embraced in some California cities and raided in others.

"In the context of suspicion by law enforcement, I think we need a cohesive response," Ammiano said.

Some medical pot advocates blame the raids on vague state laws that fail to define how dispensaries should account for cash flow, what they may pay in salaries and what constitutes illegal profits.

"Unfortunately 'profit' isn't defined," said Allison Margolin, a West Hollywood attorney specializing in marijuana cases. "And there is no definition of nonprofit."

The issue has played out dramatically in San Jose, where Santa Clara County arrested dozens of dispensary operators in raids seeking evidence of illegal profiteering.

One pot store operator was charged with felony money-laundering and possession of marijuana for sale. While no others have been charged, the raids stirred widespread protests among medical marijuana advocates.

"You can't just go in with guns and arrest people," said Lauren Vasquez, Silicon Valley director for Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group.

New Santa Clara District Attorney Jeffrey Rosen, who took over last month, appears to be putting the brakes on the police crackdown. Rosen said he is awaiting updated guidelines from Attorney General Kamala Harris on state laws governing medical marijuana dispensaries.

Meanwhile, Rosen said, pot stores generally should be regulated through land use ordinances, not police actions.

"The voters of California have said they want sick people with documented medical conditions to be able to use marijuana to alleviate their symptoms," Rosen said. "The second thing is that the voters said that we don't want to legalize marijuana."

Sacramento attorney George Mull, who represents medical marijuana dispensaries in several California cities, is lobbying lawmakers to create a "California cannabis commission" to oversee marijuana stores statewide.

Marijuana outlets are treated as part of the urban fabric in Oakland and San Francisco.

Sacramento police consider them a low priority, but last week Sacramento County sheriff's narcotics officers raided a local dispensary, the Horizon Collective, alleging the operator illegally sold marijuana to people without medical recommendations. The Sheriff's Department also was investigating alleged profiteering at the dispensary. The dispensary claimed it was operating legally.

Mull said police raids will continue elsewhere as long as operators of some dispensaries are earning hundreds of thousands of dollars in pay and there are no state rules for bookkeeping or salaries.

"Should you make more money running a medical marijuana establishment than the governor of California?" he asked.

Mull is also advocating that California sanction a for-profit medical marijuana industry, arguing that a for-profit model will drive prices down and end confusion that can trigger police raids.

In Colorado, for-profit medical marijuana dispensaries pay licensing fees and are regulated by the state, with strict requirements for marijuana cultivation and security.

Cindy Besemer, the chief deputy district attorney in Sacramento County, said a for-profit distribution program is unlikely to be embraced by law enforcement.

"I certainly would say we don't believe in retail sales," she said. "That's drug dealing. I don't care how it comes down to it. That's what it is."

Source: The Sacramento Bee

NEWS: The hazy road to Long Beach's medical marijuana regulations

It took months of meetings for the Long Beach City Council to craft a law regulating medical marijuana collectives. Once the law was approved, collectives worked for months to meet the requirements, then participated in a controversial lottery process.

Collectives still must go through city inspections and take other steps before receiving permits to operate, but even that is in question now. Today, three council members are seeking to alter the ordinance to further restrict where collectives may operate.

The council meets at 6tonight - an hour later than usual - in City Hall, 333 W. Ocean Blvd.

Aug. 4, 2009 - Concerned about the number of collectives in Long Beach, the council votes to have a committee consider how to regulate the operations.

Nov. 10, 2009 - In a meeting attended by a crowd of medical marijuana advocates, the council approves creating a medical marijuana law but takes out some of the more restrictive measures. At Councilman Gary DeLong's suggestion, the council votes not to prohibit collectives near libraries and parks, as City Attorney Bob Shannon proposed. The council leaves in some requirements, such as prohibiting collectives in residential areas, near schools and within 1,000 feet of each other.

Jan. 21 - Draft ordinance goes to the council. Council deadlocks over where to allow marijuana cultivation.

Feb. 4 - Police recommend requiring marijuana to be grown within city limits but the council decided not to restrict medical marijuana cultivation within city limits.

Feb. 9 - A final vote on the law is postponed by Mayor Bob Foster and City Attorney Bob Shannon because of concerns about the crime ramifications of importing marijuana from outside of the city.

Feb. 16 - Council again delays a final vote, after representatives from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office and the L.A. County Sheriff's Department tell the council that Long Beach's law should require marijuana to be grown within the city limits.

March 9 - Council votes 5-4 to require that medical marijuana be grown within the city limits.

Aug. 27 - Collective members protest in front of City Hall after their applications were rejected.

Sept. 21 - City holds lottery to eliminate collectives that are too close together; 32 out of 43 total collectives move forward in the permit process. Marijuana advocates ridicule the lottery after the city's lottery machine fails and winners' numbers must be drawn from a trash bin.

Today - Citing constituent concerns, DeLong and council members Gerrie Schipske and Patrick O'Donnell seek to add new restrictions, including creating collective-free zones around parks, libraries and child-care centers; limiting marijuana cultivation to industrial areas; and restricting the number of collectives.

Videos clips of speakers from previous council meetings

Source: Long Beach Press-Telegram

NEWS: Board recommends not allowing medical marijuana dispensaries in Wildomar

Wildomar planning commissioners voted Wednesday to recommend that the City Council continue to ban medical marijuana dispensaries.

Commissioners said they had uncertainty about the results of a statewide proposition that would make marijuana legal for people older than 21.

The commission voted 3-2, with Harv Dykstra and Michael Kazmier dissenting, to recommend the council vote down a proposed law allowing dispensaries.

The commission has the power only to suggest whether the city should lift its 2-year-old ban on storefront marijuana facilities. It is now left to the City Council to decide whether to allow nonprofit dispensaries.

Just one city in Riverside County allows them: Palm Springs.

Wildomar's proposed law is modeled after a code used by the city of Laguna Woods in Orange County. It would allow dispensaries in commercial zones, away from schools and parks. It would not put a cap on the number of dispensaries.

Several commissioners recommended Wednesday that if the city allows dispensaries, it limit the number to two.

The council could alter the law if it approves the measure. Planning Director David Hogan said the council could take up the matter during its second meeting in September.

In an occasionally raucous meeting, advocates and opponents cheered and jeered speakers. About 35 people spoke, about 20 of them against dispensaries.

Opponents contended that allowing dispensaries would increase crime. Several shared personal stories about relatives who had struggled with drug addiction.

Tim Walker said he moved out of Los Angeles 30 years ago "to get away from this stuff."

"I don't understand how we could get to this point in this community," Walker said. "We need to make a stand because this is a conservative area and it needs to stay that way."

They also repeatedly criticized those speaking in favor as profiteers from other cities concerned only with opening businesses in Wildomar.

Many of those in favor were affiliates with already-existing private collectives or delivery services. The ordinance being considered would allow only nonprofit dispensaries.

Carlos Stahl has battled with Lake Elsinore over an unlicensed dispensary he runs there called R Side Medical. He told the commission he believed he was within his rights under state law and planned to open a location in Wildomar "whether this commission approves it or doesn't approve it."

"The people have spoken," Stahl, of Lakeland Village, said of medical marijuana. "This is nothing new. This is the majority."

Source: The Press-Enterprise

NEWS: Oakland allows industrial-scale marijuana farms

OAKLAND -- Oakland's City Council late Tuesday adopted regulations permitting industrial-scale marijuana farms, a plan that some small farmers argued would squeeze them out of the industry they helped to build.

To address concerns from smaller farmers, the council pledged to create regulations on regulating small- and medium-size marijuana farms this year. Council members and proponents of marijuana cultivation regulation viewed the proposal as smart public policy: It would generate revenue, ensure that fire and building codes are enforced, keep neighborhoods safe from robberies, and further position Oakland as the center of the state's cannabis economy.

"It's really important for Oakland to be a vital part of that growth and development for licensed facilities," said Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan.

But many of the folks on the front lines of the young industry say it will change the culture of what they've built.

They say industrial farms will turn a grassroots economy into a corporate one, driving down costs but also eroding the quality of the marijuana, which state voters defined in 1996 as medicine.

The most influential critic was Steve DeAngelo, owner of Oakland's Harborside Health Center, the largest medical marijuana dispensary in the nation.

His dispensary buys from some 500 different growers, meaning Harborside offers about 100 varieties at any time. Permitting only industrial operations would reduce variety, he said.

"Government should not choose the winners and losers but create a level playing field," he said. "Some people might prefer mass production, assembly-line cannabis that costs less. Others might prefer cannabis grown by a master gardener in a smaller plot.

"Let the market sort it out," he said.

The regulations will award permits to four indoor marijuana farms. There will be no size limit, but there have been proposals for farms as large as 100,000 square feet - about the size of two football fields.

DeAngelo said he would prefer farms of various sizes.

The regulations will require applicants to have a minimum of $3 million worth of insurance, hire security and pay a $211,000 annual permit fee.

The city will be begin to issue permits in January and will allow the industrial farms to sell only to medical cannabis dispensaries.

But if state voters pass Prop. 19, a November initiative that would legalize recreational use of marijuana, proponents believe the city would be well situated for the booming industry.

By regulating certain growers, Oakland also plans to crack down on illegal grows, said Arturo Sanchez, an assistant to the city administrator.

His comments immediately prompted hissing and booing in the crowd.

Oakland has long been pushing the boundaries of marijuana legalization.

In 2004, voters passed Measure Z, declaring marijuana a low concern for law enforcement. In 2009, voters passed Measure F to tax medical cannabis at 1.8 percent.

The taxation, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, was a step toward legalization.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle