The coalition, which sought to challenge city pot ordinance that would cap the number of stores at 70, is seeking a deadline extension after saying it failed to collect enough valid signatures.
A group of Los Angeles medical marijuana dispensaries appeared to have failed to collect enough signatures by Monday's deadline to force a referendum on the city's new pot ordinance but asked for an extension to continue circulating the petition.
Dan Halbert, operator of Rainforest Collective in Mar Vista and the principal organizer, said the coalition of collectives gathered about 30,000 signatures but determined that only about 14,200 appeared valid. The collectives need at least 27,425 signatures for the referendum to qualify.
An exhausted Halbert, accompanied by his lawyer and a friend who said he has never smoked marijuana, wheeled eight boxes of petitions into the city's elections division office, lining them up on the counter.
Election officials will count the signatures and, if the number meets the minimum required, they will check a random sample to see if enough are valid. If the referendum qualifies, the City Council must rescind the law or put it on a ballot.
Halbert and his lawyer, Nathan V. Hoffman, handed a letter to Arleen P. Taylor, chief of the elections division, requesting a 10-day extension. They said it took city officials that long to approve the petition, cutting into the 30 days allowed to file it. "They were slow, dragging their heels to my client's detriment," Hoffman said.
City officials, consulting their own timeline, said they approved the petition in six days, explaining that some of the delays occurred because pages of the petition were missing or out of order.
Taylor politely told Halbert she would reply to his request in writing, but election officials also said the City Charter has no provision that would allow them to grant such an extension.
"It's supposed to be a peoples referendum, but it's not. The average person would not be able to do it without big funding," said Halbert, citing the limited time he had to draft a petition, print it and circulate it. "It affects all of our rights as citizens of Los Angeles to stop something the City Council wants to do."
The city's medical marijuana ordinance will cap the number of stores at 70 but exempts those that registered with the city in 2007. City officials estimate that will allow no more than 128.
Halbert, who moved to Los Angeles from Phoenix to get into the business, is one of hundreds of operators who would be forced to close under the ordinance. Despite the threat to their businesses, many operators were wary about becoming involved, concerned about drawing the attention of police and city enforcement inspectors.
Halbert, who said he spent between $20,000 and $30,000 on the effort, was discouraged that more collectives did not rally around the petition drive until the final days. "I'm disappointed in the process, and I'm disappointed in, obviously, the coalition," he said. "There were some players in it, but just not as many as needed."
Halbert said he did not expect the city to grant an extension and said he would review his legal options.
Source: Los Angeles Times
If you know of an event that you feel should be listed on our calendar, please send details to info@mjdispensaries.com ~Thank You
Monday, March 15, 2010
NEWS: Committee to Consider Legality, Locations of Pot Dispensaries
Directed by the City Council, the Ordinance Committee will continue its work on determining a citywide cap and defining 'collectives'
Is five the magic number?
The city of Santa Barbara Ordinance Committee has long struggled with the issue of how many medical marijuana dispensaries Santa Barbara needs — or wants — and where they should be located.
The City Council directed the committee to consider a maximum of five locations throughout the city, with protection for substance abuse recovery facilities in addition to schools and parks.
The Ordinance Committee will meet at noon Tuesday in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 735 Anacapa St., followed by a City Council meeting at 2 p.m.
Public comment — and lots of it — has played a large role in the issue of dispensaries, which is why the process to whittle down allowable locations and a citywide cap has taken months and could take hours longer. At the last meeting, the consensus was to eliminate the Mesa area and include the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital area as allowable locations.
The committee also has to discuss the much larger — and murkier — issue regarding the legality of dispensaries vs. collectives.
State law, including Proposition 215 and Senate Bill 420, allows the distribution of medical marijuana to qualified patients by primary caregivers, but even recent court cases and the attorney general’s guidelines leave the legality of storefront dispensaries in question.
At 1 p.m. Tuesday, the Finance Committee will discuss increased loan funding for Transition House’s affordable housing project, which includes constructing new units and renovating existing units on the property.
The committee will meet in the David Gebhard Public Meeting Room at 630 Garden St.
The City Council will discuss contracts for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act road maintenance and road overlay construction projects.
Source: NoozHawk
Is five the magic number?
The city of Santa Barbara Ordinance Committee has long struggled with the issue of how many medical marijuana dispensaries Santa Barbara needs — or wants — and where they should be located.
The City Council directed the committee to consider a maximum of five locations throughout the city, with protection for substance abuse recovery facilities in addition to schools and parks.
The Ordinance Committee will meet at noon Tuesday in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 735 Anacapa St., followed by a City Council meeting at 2 p.m.
Public comment — and lots of it — has played a large role in the issue of dispensaries, which is why the process to whittle down allowable locations and a citywide cap has taken months and could take hours longer. At the last meeting, the consensus was to eliminate the Mesa area and include the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital area as allowable locations.
The committee also has to discuss the much larger — and murkier — issue regarding the legality of dispensaries vs. collectives.
State law, including Proposition 215 and Senate Bill 420, allows the distribution of medical marijuana to qualified patients by primary caregivers, but even recent court cases and the attorney general’s guidelines leave the legality of storefront dispensaries in question.
At 1 p.m. Tuesday, the Finance Committee will discuss increased loan funding for Transition House’s affordable housing project, which includes constructing new units and renovating existing units on the property.
The committee will meet in the David Gebhard Public Meeting Room at 630 Garden St.
The City Council will discuss contracts for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act road maintenance and road overlay construction projects.
Source: NoozHawk
NEWS: House votes against legalizing medical marijuana
JEFFERSON CITY — The House shot down efforts to legalize medical marijuana during debate on a bill that would ban the fake stuff.
The amendment, which popped up in the middle of a House debate to criminalize the synthetic marijuana known as K2, was voted down 133-22.
"Who are we to tell terminally ill patients that some substance that can provide them relief isn't good enough for them?" said Rep. Jason Holsman, D-Jackson County, one of a small group of Democrats who pushed for the measure.
Holsman also said there were several other benefits to allowing limited usage of the drug. He said it would keep non-violent drug offenders out of prisons and allow the state to tax marijuana purchases.
"This is a way to relieve our court system, to provide relief to terminally ill patients, to trust our doctors and to raise revenue on top of it," he said.
But most legislators weren't convinced of the benefits. Rep. Tim Flook, R-Liberty, said, "It's about a party, not about illness," and remained skeptical about how many patients actually would use a prescription of marijuana for legitimate medical reasons.
"You can look it up on YouTube, of would-be so-called patients in chronic pain in their doctor's office, joking about their fake ailment right before they get their marijuana prescription," he said.
The amendment is similar to a bill filed by Rep. Kate Meiners, D-Jackson County, which has not been assigned a committee.
Legislators also voted against two amendments that would require a prescription for over-the-counter medicine purchases containing pseudophedrine, a key ingredient in methamphetamine.
The House adjourned for the day before voting on the K2 ban.
Source: Missourian
The amendment, which popped up in the middle of a House debate to criminalize the synthetic marijuana known as K2, was voted down 133-22.
"Who are we to tell terminally ill patients that some substance that can provide them relief isn't good enough for them?" said Rep. Jason Holsman, D-Jackson County, one of a small group of Democrats who pushed for the measure.
Holsman also said there were several other benefits to allowing limited usage of the drug. He said it would keep non-violent drug offenders out of prisons and allow the state to tax marijuana purchases.
"This is a way to relieve our court system, to provide relief to terminally ill patients, to trust our doctors and to raise revenue on top of it," he said.
But most legislators weren't convinced of the benefits. Rep. Tim Flook, R-Liberty, said, "It's about a party, not about illness," and remained skeptical about how many patients actually would use a prescription of marijuana for legitimate medical reasons.
"You can look it up on YouTube, of would-be so-called patients in chronic pain in their doctor's office, joking about their fake ailment right before they get their marijuana prescription," he said.
The amendment is similar to a bill filed by Rep. Kate Meiners, D-Jackson County, which has not been assigned a committee.
Legislators also voted against two amendments that would require a prescription for over-the-counter medicine purchases containing pseudophedrine, a key ingredient in methamphetamine.
The House adjourned for the day before voting on the K2 ban.
Source: Missourian
NEWS: Medical pot advocate shot, wounds robber at Kirkland home
An outspoken advocate for medical marijuana was wounded early Monday but managed to shoot a burglar at a Kirkland house where he grew pot legally.
Sheriff's deputies are looking for two other suspects who may have been involved in the attempted home-invasion robbery.
Detectives also are investigating whether the attempted home invasion is tied to a similar incident in January at the Kirkland house.
The home in the 11400 block of Juanita Drive Northeast -- part of unincorporated King County near Kirkland -- is known to deputies for legal medical marijuana grows.
About 4:45 a.m. Monday, a woman called 911 saying there were intruders in the house and that her boyfriend was shot, a sheriff's office spokesman said. Responding deputies were preparing to go onto the property when dispatchers received another call from a man saying he'd been shot -- a man later identified as a robbery suspect.
That 19-year-old Renton man and the 59-year-old resident, Steve Sarich, had traded shots, according to investigators. The teen was hit multiple times and rushed to Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.
Sarich, who has publicly advocated for medical marijuana laws for years, was taken to a hospital for minor wounds from shotgun pellets, according to deputies.
Sarich told investigators he and his girlfriend were asleep when their dogs started barking. He got up, and two men inside his house confronted him.
At least one of the suspects fired shots, deputies said.
About 8 a.m., sheriff's deputies received a report of a man trying to flag down cars on Holmes Point Drive, which is close to the shooting scene.
The man was trying to flag a ride with cash in his hand, deputies said. That man, also 19, was arrested as a second robbery suspect.
"Detectives now believe there were a total of four suspects involved in the incident," sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart said shortly before noon Monday. "Two suspects fled in a vehicle and have not been located."
Urquhart, who identified the suspect and victims by age, did not have detailed descriptions of the two suspect still at large.
On Jan. 13, Sarich reported a similar incident to the Sheriff's Office, according to investigators. He reported finding two men in his home about 2 a.m. and chased them off with gunfire.
Detectives said Monday it's unclear if the events are related.
Sarich uses the home to operate CannaCare, a medical marijuana advocacy group, and is licensed to grow medical marijuana.
Long a thorn in the side of law enforcement for his vocal, thumb-in-the-eye advocacy, Sarich has insisted that the government is harassing medical marijuana users -- himself included -- who legitimately use the drug to manage pain associated with multiple sclerosis, cancer and other illnesses.
In January 2007, drug enforcement agents raided Sarich's Everett home, which was then headquarters of CannaCare. Police documents said more than 1,000 plants were confiscated, as well as computers that Sarich said contained personal information of about 200 men and women authorized to use the drug for medicinal purposes.
At the time, Sarich called the raid on his home an attack on the people who support medical marijuana. No charges were filed against Sarich following the raid.
Detective Roy Alloway of the West Sound Narcotics Enforcement Team claimed at the time the amount of marijuana was excessive for medical use.
Washington voters approved the use of marijuana for certain medical conditions through a citizens initiative in 1998. The law allowed patients a 60-day supply, but it wasn't until 2008 that the state defined that 60-day amount as as 24 ounces of usable pot and 15 plants.
The Kirkland home where Sarich now lives is the subject of a court case in which a bank wants the occupants evicted.
A bank bought the property at a foreclosure sale on Oct. 16, and contends in court documents that the occupants have refused to surrender possession.
Source: Seattle P.I.
Sheriff's deputies are looking for two other suspects who may have been involved in the attempted home-invasion robbery.
Detectives also are investigating whether the attempted home invasion is tied to a similar incident in January at the Kirkland house.
The home in the 11400 block of Juanita Drive Northeast -- part of unincorporated King County near Kirkland -- is known to deputies for legal medical marijuana grows.
About 4:45 a.m. Monday, a woman called 911 saying there were intruders in the house and that her boyfriend was shot, a sheriff's office spokesman said. Responding deputies were preparing to go onto the property when dispatchers received another call from a man saying he'd been shot -- a man later identified as a robbery suspect.
That 19-year-old Renton man and the 59-year-old resident, Steve Sarich, had traded shots, according to investigators. The teen was hit multiple times and rushed to Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.
Sarich, who has publicly advocated for medical marijuana laws for years, was taken to a hospital for minor wounds from shotgun pellets, according to deputies.
Sarich told investigators he and his girlfriend were asleep when their dogs started barking. He got up, and two men inside his house confronted him.
At least one of the suspects fired shots, deputies said.
About 8 a.m., sheriff's deputies received a report of a man trying to flag down cars on Holmes Point Drive, which is close to the shooting scene.
The man was trying to flag a ride with cash in his hand, deputies said. That man, also 19, was arrested as a second robbery suspect.
"Detectives now believe there were a total of four suspects involved in the incident," sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart said shortly before noon Monday. "Two suspects fled in a vehicle and have not been located."
Urquhart, who identified the suspect and victims by age, did not have detailed descriptions of the two suspect still at large.
On Jan. 13, Sarich reported a similar incident to the Sheriff's Office, according to investigators. He reported finding two men in his home about 2 a.m. and chased them off with gunfire.
Detectives said Monday it's unclear if the events are related.
Sarich uses the home to operate CannaCare, a medical marijuana advocacy group, and is licensed to grow medical marijuana.
Long a thorn in the side of law enforcement for his vocal, thumb-in-the-eye advocacy, Sarich has insisted that the government is harassing medical marijuana users -- himself included -- who legitimately use the drug to manage pain associated with multiple sclerosis, cancer and other illnesses.
In January 2007, drug enforcement agents raided Sarich's Everett home, which was then headquarters of CannaCare. Police documents said more than 1,000 plants were confiscated, as well as computers that Sarich said contained personal information of about 200 men and women authorized to use the drug for medicinal purposes.
At the time, Sarich called the raid on his home an attack on the people who support medical marijuana. No charges were filed against Sarich following the raid.
Detective Roy Alloway of the West Sound Narcotics Enforcement Team claimed at the time the amount of marijuana was excessive for medical use.
Washington voters approved the use of marijuana for certain medical conditions through a citizens initiative in 1998. The law allowed patients a 60-day supply, but it wasn't until 2008 that the state defined that 60-day amount as as 24 ounces of usable pot and 15 plants.
The Kirkland home where Sarich now lives is the subject of a court case in which a bank wants the occupants evicted.
A bank bought the property at a foreclosure sale on Oct. 16, and contends in court documents that the occupants have refused to surrender possession.
Source: Seattle P.I.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
NEWS: Group pushes back against medical marijuana law
A loosely affiliated group of dispensary operators and patients are gathering signatures for a referendum to block the Los Angeles City Council's ordinance.
Seeking to overturn the city's medical marijuana ordinance even before it takes effect, a loose-knit coalition of Los Angeles collectives is quietly gathering signatures to force a referendum on the law.
The scrappy, largely volunteer effort faces a Monday deadline to turn in 27,425 valid signatures.
"We're getting down to the wire here," said Dan Halbert, who runs Rainforest Collective in Mar Vista and has coordinated the campaign. "It's going to be close."
Halbert's dispensary on Venice Boulevard, which opened last year, is one of hundreds that would have to close under the ordinance. That law, which will probably not be in effect until May, caps the number at 70. But it also makes an exception to allow about 128 dispensaries that registered in 2007, when the City Council adopted a moratorium, to stay open.
"They are just kind of arbitrarily drawing a line in the sand," said Halbert, who argues that the competitive business environment would eventually reduce the number on its own, leaving only the best-run collectives.
To City Council members, Halbert is just one of hundreds of opportunists out to make a quick buck. His store was among those targeted last summer by a chagrined council after neighborhood activists repeatedly complained that marijuana outlets were rapidly opening across the city despite the moratorium.
An entrepreneur who owned an adventure travel business in Phoenix, Halbert moved to Los Angeles to open his dispensary after three trips to investigate the city's vibrant weed industry. He said he never would have started the business if the city had been enforcing its ban. Now he has become a political activist trying to save his livelihood and torpedo an ordinance that the City Council has labored over for almost two years.
"Once you get $100,000 charged on credit cards, you really don't have any choice," he said. "You have a choice of bankruptcy or trying every legal avenue that you have to get your rights."
The last time a referendum qualified for the ballot, the City Council backed down on the targeted ordinance.
In that instance, businesses sought to overturn a law that extended the city's living wage ordinance to workers at LAX-area hotels. Rather than face a costly campaign to defend it, the City Council decided to rescind the law in 2007, negotiate with the hotels and adopt a compromise.
Halbert said his aim is to persuade the City Council to drop its ordinance and follow the approach that San Diego has taken, appointing a broad-based task force to study the issue and make recommendations.
City Councilman Ed Reyes, who spearheaded the effort to write an ordinance, said he believes voters would support the law. "If the voting people in the city interpret their effort as trying to make this much more relaxed and much more amenable to more dispensaries in this city, they are not going to go for it," he said. "I think the majority of people want control. I think the majority of people want predictability of what's allowed."
Halbert, with allies who include Michael De Marco, president of the Sunny Day Collective in Chatsworth, has tried to weld the city's dispensary operators into a political force. But they are an independent, competitive group, wary of doing anything that might draw the attention of narcotics officers or city enforcement agents.
"The most startling thing was just how these operators were just so slow to come to help," said De Marco, who has worked for weeks to organize the petition drive in his area. "These collective operators, man, they like to stay in the shadows and not be seen, and I can really understand that."
Halbert's store, a former blueprint shop that now looks like a scene from "The Jungle Book," has become an unlikely campaign headquarters. Volunteers summoned by e-mail showed up last week with their laptop computers to check signatures against a voter registration database. They had crossed off many signatures that were either illegible or could not be matched with the Los Angeles voter registration list.
"There's so many knockout factors," Halbert said. "It's really an impossible endeavor."
It was tedious work, but Sean McBride, who just started using medical marijuana last month, was delighted to do it.
"I'm in a weed shop, but I feel like I'm at the Democratic National Committee," said McBride, a stand-up comedian with a degree in political science and a role in a local comedy show called "Love Letters to Mary Jane."
Pamela Richardson also came to volunteer, traveling to her neighborhood pot shop by wheelchair. The former soldier, wearing a camouflage cap and shorts, lost her right leg below the knee in Iraq.
"I needed a place of convenience and this is pretty much the closest place to me, and they do treat you pretty well," she said. "A hundred facilities in L.A. just won't work. If you've got a thousand facilities in L.A., somebody's keeping them open."
Halbert, who had just 20 days to print the petition and circulate it after the City Clerk approved it, said he would put the effort's chances at about 50-50.
"It's not been easy. It's taken us a while," he said. "We've been doing this for three or four months now, and finally everybody's starting to get together."
As the deadline looms, Halbert has ratcheted up the campaign. He is now paying some signature-gatherers. And he has urged collectives to close Sunday and send their supporters into the streets.
"We're going to black out the lights," he said, "and get out there and do our final push."
Source: Los Angeles Times
Seeking to overturn the city's medical marijuana ordinance even before it takes effect, a loose-knit coalition of Los Angeles collectives is quietly gathering signatures to force a referendum on the law.
The scrappy, largely volunteer effort faces a Monday deadline to turn in 27,425 valid signatures.
"We're getting down to the wire here," said Dan Halbert, who runs Rainforest Collective in Mar Vista and has coordinated the campaign. "It's going to be close."
Halbert's dispensary on Venice Boulevard, which opened last year, is one of hundreds that would have to close under the ordinance. That law, which will probably not be in effect until May, caps the number at 70. But it also makes an exception to allow about 128 dispensaries that registered in 2007, when the City Council adopted a moratorium, to stay open.
"They are just kind of arbitrarily drawing a line in the sand," said Halbert, who argues that the competitive business environment would eventually reduce the number on its own, leaving only the best-run collectives.
To City Council members, Halbert is just one of hundreds of opportunists out to make a quick buck. His store was among those targeted last summer by a chagrined council after neighborhood activists repeatedly complained that marijuana outlets were rapidly opening across the city despite the moratorium.
An entrepreneur who owned an adventure travel business in Phoenix, Halbert moved to Los Angeles to open his dispensary after three trips to investigate the city's vibrant weed industry. He said he never would have started the business if the city had been enforcing its ban. Now he has become a political activist trying to save his livelihood and torpedo an ordinance that the City Council has labored over for almost two years.
"Once you get $100,000 charged on credit cards, you really don't have any choice," he said. "You have a choice of bankruptcy or trying every legal avenue that you have to get your rights."
The last time a referendum qualified for the ballot, the City Council backed down on the targeted ordinance.
In that instance, businesses sought to overturn a law that extended the city's living wage ordinance to workers at LAX-area hotels. Rather than face a costly campaign to defend it, the City Council decided to rescind the law in 2007, negotiate with the hotels and adopt a compromise.
Halbert said his aim is to persuade the City Council to drop its ordinance and follow the approach that San Diego has taken, appointing a broad-based task force to study the issue and make recommendations.
City Councilman Ed Reyes, who spearheaded the effort to write an ordinance, said he believes voters would support the law. "If the voting people in the city interpret their effort as trying to make this much more relaxed and much more amenable to more dispensaries in this city, they are not going to go for it," he said. "I think the majority of people want control. I think the majority of people want predictability of what's allowed."
Halbert, with allies who include Michael De Marco, president of the Sunny Day Collective in Chatsworth, has tried to weld the city's dispensary operators into a political force. But they are an independent, competitive group, wary of doing anything that might draw the attention of narcotics officers or city enforcement agents.
"The most startling thing was just how these operators were just so slow to come to help," said De Marco, who has worked for weeks to organize the petition drive in his area. "These collective operators, man, they like to stay in the shadows and not be seen, and I can really understand that."
Halbert's store, a former blueprint shop that now looks like a scene from "The Jungle Book," has become an unlikely campaign headquarters. Volunteers summoned by e-mail showed up last week with their laptop computers to check signatures against a voter registration database. They had crossed off many signatures that were either illegible or could not be matched with the Los Angeles voter registration list.
"There's so many knockout factors," Halbert said. "It's really an impossible endeavor."
It was tedious work, but Sean McBride, who just started using medical marijuana last month, was delighted to do it.
"I'm in a weed shop, but I feel like I'm at the Democratic National Committee," said McBride, a stand-up comedian with a degree in political science and a role in a local comedy show called "Love Letters to Mary Jane."
Pamela Richardson also came to volunteer, traveling to her neighborhood pot shop by wheelchair. The former soldier, wearing a camouflage cap and shorts, lost her right leg below the knee in Iraq.
"I needed a place of convenience and this is pretty much the closest place to me, and they do treat you pretty well," she said. "A hundred facilities in L.A. just won't work. If you've got a thousand facilities in L.A., somebody's keeping them open."
Halbert, who had just 20 days to print the petition and circulate it after the City Clerk approved it, said he would put the effort's chances at about 50-50.
"It's not been easy. It's taken us a while," he said. "We've been doing this for three or four months now, and finally everybody's starting to get together."
As the deadline looms, Halbert has ratcheted up the campaign. He is now paying some signature-gatherers. And he has urged collectives to close Sunday and send their supporters into the streets.
"We're going to black out the lights," he said, "and get out there and do our final push."
Source: Los Angeles Times
Friday, March 12, 2010
NEWS: L.A. officials propose fees for medical marijuana dispensaries
Filling in the last blank in the city's medical marijuana ordinance, Los Angeles officials Friday recommended a number of fees dispensaries would have to pay to operate. Although the City Council passed the law in January, it cannot take effect until the council approves the fees.
In addition to standard charges for inspections and research, officials have proposed special fees that would total about $1,200 for a manager registering an existing dispensary.
Councilman Ed Reyes said he hopes to send the proposal straight to the council to speed up the process.
Even so, the ordinance is unlikely to take effect until May, almost a year after the uncontrolled spread of pot shops outraged neighborhood activists and spurred the council to move on the languishing issue.
The ordinance is needed to give city officials the power to crack down on dispensaries, Reyes said, adding that the council's attention has shifted.
"The spotlight seems to have dimmed," he said.
Medical marijuana advocates said the proposed fees sounded reasonable.
"They got one thing right," said Yamileth Bolanos, a dispensary operator who is president of the Greater Los Angeles Collectives Alliance and who has sued the city over the controversial ordinance.
Reyes said he was surprised the amount was so low and promised to examine whether it reflects the city's costs, adding that employees may have to work overtime to register the dispensaries.
Under the proposal, applicants would pay the Los Angeles Police Department $151 each to perform criminal background checks to ensure they have not been convicted of a felony in the last 10 years.
Each would have to pay $324 to the city clerk to review the registration and $688 to the Building and Safety Department for pre-inspection. Every three months, each would be required to update the registration and pay $140 to the department.
The proposed fees are low compared to those in other major cities.
San Francisco, for example, charges $8,470 for an application permit and $3,933 for a license and reinspection.
The city report also recommends that the ordinance be revised to require dispensary managers to submit completed background checks at the same time as their registrations.
The report notes that it can take six to eight weeks to complete that process and recommends notifying dispensary operators to start right away.
Joe Elford, the chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group that has sued Los Angeles over its ordinance, questioned how the council could require that before the law is in effect.
Reyes said he was puzzled by that proposal and promised to look into it.
Source: Los Angeles Times
In addition to standard charges for inspections and research, officials have proposed special fees that would total about $1,200 for a manager registering an existing dispensary.
Councilman Ed Reyes said he hopes to send the proposal straight to the council to speed up the process.
Even so, the ordinance is unlikely to take effect until May, almost a year after the uncontrolled spread of pot shops outraged neighborhood activists and spurred the council to move on the languishing issue.
The ordinance is needed to give city officials the power to crack down on dispensaries, Reyes said, adding that the council's attention has shifted.
"The spotlight seems to have dimmed," he said.
Medical marijuana advocates said the proposed fees sounded reasonable.
"They got one thing right," said Yamileth Bolanos, a dispensary operator who is president of the Greater Los Angeles Collectives Alliance and who has sued the city over the controversial ordinance.
Reyes said he was surprised the amount was so low and promised to examine whether it reflects the city's costs, adding that employees may have to work overtime to register the dispensaries.
Under the proposal, applicants would pay the Los Angeles Police Department $151 each to perform criminal background checks to ensure they have not been convicted of a felony in the last 10 years.
Each would have to pay $324 to the city clerk to review the registration and $688 to the Building and Safety Department for pre-inspection. Every three months, each would be required to update the registration and pay $140 to the department.
The proposed fees are low compared to those in other major cities.
San Francisco, for example, charges $8,470 for an application permit and $3,933 for a license and reinspection.
The city report also recommends that the ordinance be revised to require dispensary managers to submit completed background checks at the same time as their registrations.
The report notes that it can take six to eight weeks to complete that process and recommends notifying dispensary operators to start right away.
Joe Elford, the chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group that has sued Los Angeles over its ordinance, questioned how the council could require that before the law is in effect.
Reyes said he was puzzled by that proposal and promised to look into it.
Source: Los Angeles Times
NEWS: Classes start at Sunset Beach medical marijuana school
SUNSET BEACH-Orange County residents now have a place to go to learn how to cook, smoke and buy medical marijuana.
Cannabis State opened Friday in Sunset Beach and on Sunday will be holding its first class: an introduction to medical marijuana. The school's founders hope local seniors will be among their first students.
Jason Scoby, Steve Roberts, Robert Calkin and Mike Clark, who are all patients of medical marijuana and have a background working in the field, said they are running a trial period to try and get seniors in the area on board with what they call "medicating," or taking cannabis to heal a variety of ailments.
The group has put ads in the Seal Beach Leisure World newspaper to solicit seniors to take their classes.
"(Some seniors) are taking a lot of pharmaceuticals and they need to be replaced or augmented with medical marijuana," Calkin said.
"A huge percentage of the elderly are going to be 'newbies'. They don't know anything about it."
The group decided to open the school at 14th Street and Pacific Coast Highway in part because the county-run community does not have any laws banning dispensaries. Sunset Beach's neighboring cities Seal Beach and Huntington Beach both do not allow dispensaries.
"The community just has this small-town warm feel to it," Scoby said. "There is also a dispensary here. When people become a patient, they'll have access to a well-run, legitimate dispensary."
Of the nearly 700 patients at the West Coast Patient Collective Association in Sunset Beach, nearly 50 percent are age 50 and up, said John Trestle, who works at the dispensary.
Cannibis State will offer classes at $99 a piece; some will focus on general information on how to get medical marijuana and where to go while others will offer instructions on how to bake marijuana edibles such as brownies or cookies.
The focus is on education and being a resource for patients new to medical marijuana, the founders say. Local doctors will also be on hand after each class to answer questions or administer evaluations for students. The school will not be a place for patients to medicate, Roberts said.
"We're not going to be smoking with people or giving away edibles or selling cannabis," he said. "We want to introduce people to the product."
Medical marijuana can be used for AIDS or cancer patients undergoing intensive treatment, to lessen the pain associated with arthritis or heal digestive and sleep problems, among other uses, Scoby said.
While advocates for the plant credit marijuana for its healing properties, federal officials contend there are no facts to prove any benefits exist.
"Smoked marijuana has not withstood the rigors of science – it is not medicine and it is not safe," according to the Drug Enforcement Agency's Web site. "
But the DEA also reported its enforcement focus is on drug traffickers not "the sick or the dying", the Web site says.
Scoby pushed to open the school while he was working for a medical marijuana collective in Santa Ana, where he worked in delivery and patient education.
"We found the lack of education is the one thing that hurts this industry the most," he said. "There can be serious complications if it's not handled correctly or intelligently."
Scoby said is it up to the patient to decide whether or not cannabis treatment, with a doctor's recommendation, might be the right fit.
"All you can do is inform them and they make their own choice," he said.
The school will also teach about various products, some of which do not have THC, the chemical in marijuana that provides the "high" that's usually a side effect of smoking cannabis. Patients can use topical creams, mouth sprays and baked goods to reap the benefits of the plant, Scoby said.
Some cities have been fighting medical marijuana dispensaries. Federal law allows marijuana for medical use but state law prohibits it, which has been a conflict for many Orange County cities.
City officials in Costa Mesa on March 5 issued a cease-and-desist for its three medical marijuana dispensaries alleging some operators were illegally selling marijuana to people who did not have a doctor's recommendation.
The owner of Lake Forest-based 215 Agenda, a medical marijuana dispensary, was arrested Wednesday for suspicion of illegally selling marijuana and laundering the money through banks.
Trestle said these recent incidents give dispensaries an unwarranted black eye for those following state rules.
Source: OC Register
"When something like this happens people automatically assume it's the entire industry," he said.
Cannabis State opened Friday in Sunset Beach and on Sunday will be holding its first class: an introduction to medical marijuana. The school's founders hope local seniors will be among their first students.
Jason Scoby, Steve Roberts, Robert Calkin and Mike Clark, who are all patients of medical marijuana and have a background working in the field, said they are running a trial period to try and get seniors in the area on board with what they call "medicating," or taking cannabis to heal a variety of ailments.
The group has put ads in the Seal Beach Leisure World newspaper to solicit seniors to take their classes.
"(Some seniors) are taking a lot of pharmaceuticals and they need to be replaced or augmented with medical marijuana," Calkin said.
"A huge percentage of the elderly are going to be 'newbies'. They don't know anything about it."
The group decided to open the school at 14th Street and Pacific Coast Highway in part because the county-run community does not have any laws banning dispensaries. Sunset Beach's neighboring cities Seal Beach and Huntington Beach both do not allow dispensaries.
"The community just has this small-town warm feel to it," Scoby said. "There is also a dispensary here. When people become a patient, they'll have access to a well-run, legitimate dispensary."
Of the nearly 700 patients at the West Coast Patient Collective Association in Sunset Beach, nearly 50 percent are age 50 and up, said John Trestle, who works at the dispensary.
Cannibis State will offer classes at $99 a piece; some will focus on general information on how to get medical marijuana and where to go while others will offer instructions on how to bake marijuana edibles such as brownies or cookies.
The focus is on education and being a resource for patients new to medical marijuana, the founders say. Local doctors will also be on hand after each class to answer questions or administer evaluations for students. The school will not be a place for patients to medicate, Roberts said.
"We're not going to be smoking with people or giving away edibles or selling cannabis," he said. "We want to introduce people to the product."
Medical marijuana can be used for AIDS or cancer patients undergoing intensive treatment, to lessen the pain associated with arthritis or heal digestive and sleep problems, among other uses, Scoby said.
While advocates for the plant credit marijuana for its healing properties, federal officials contend there are no facts to prove any benefits exist.
"Smoked marijuana has not withstood the rigors of science – it is not medicine and it is not safe," according to the Drug Enforcement Agency's Web site. "
But the DEA also reported its enforcement focus is on drug traffickers not "the sick or the dying", the Web site says.
Scoby pushed to open the school while he was working for a medical marijuana collective in Santa Ana, where he worked in delivery and patient education.
"We found the lack of education is the one thing that hurts this industry the most," he said. "There can be serious complications if it's not handled correctly or intelligently."
Scoby said is it up to the patient to decide whether or not cannabis treatment, with a doctor's recommendation, might be the right fit.
"All you can do is inform them and they make their own choice," he said.
The school will also teach about various products, some of which do not have THC, the chemical in marijuana that provides the "high" that's usually a side effect of smoking cannabis. Patients can use topical creams, mouth sprays and baked goods to reap the benefits of the plant, Scoby said.
Some cities have been fighting medical marijuana dispensaries. Federal law allows marijuana for medical use but state law prohibits it, which has been a conflict for many Orange County cities.
City officials in Costa Mesa on March 5 issued a cease-and-desist for its three medical marijuana dispensaries alleging some operators were illegally selling marijuana to people who did not have a doctor's recommendation.
The owner of Lake Forest-based 215 Agenda, a medical marijuana dispensary, was arrested Wednesday for suspicion of illegally selling marijuana and laundering the money through banks.
Trestle said these recent incidents give dispensaries an unwarranted black eye for those following state rules.
Source: OC Register
"When something like this happens people automatically assume it's the entire industry," he said.
NEWS: Report estimates $1,600 in fees for medical marijuana dispensaries
LOS ANGELES—Medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles may have to pay nearly $1,600 in registration fees to keep their businesses open.
A report from the city's administrative officer made available Friday recommends pot shops owners should cover fees incurred by several city departments. They also would have to comply with guidelines laid out in a new ordinance.
The law passed earlier this year caps the number of pot clinics at 70, but allows 137 shops that registered before a 2007 moratorium to keep operating if they meet the city's criteria.
Hundreds of dispensaries will now have to close after they cropped up over the past several years. Dispensaries can no longer be within 1,000 feet of schools, churches or parks.
Two committees will review the issue later this month.
Source: Mercury News
A report from the city's administrative officer made available Friday recommends pot shops owners should cover fees incurred by several city departments. They also would have to comply with guidelines laid out in a new ordinance.
The law passed earlier this year caps the number of pot clinics at 70, but allows 137 shops that registered before a 2007 moratorium to keep operating if they meet the city's criteria.
Hundreds of dispensaries will now have to close after they cropped up over the past several years. Dispensaries can no longer be within 1,000 feet of schools, churches or parks.
Two committees will review the issue later this month.
Source: Mercury News
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
