NEWS: Judge Rejects LA Ordinance Limiting Pot Dispensaries

Los Angeles - A judge issued an injunction today blocking major portions of Los Angeles' medical marijuana ordinance, but a councilman vowed to enact "emergency legislation" that would prevent the ruling from opening the door to new dispensaries.

The ordinance, which took effect in June, limited the number of dispensaries to the 187 that had registered with the city and opened before a 2007 moratorium.

It also prohibited new dispensaries from opening if any of them closed, with the goal of reducing the number of marijuana outlets in the city to 70.

However, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Anthony Mohr ruled today the city had improperly extended its moratorium, creating confusion over the deadline for dispensaries to register with the city and violating the rights of other dispensary operators.

Mohr said the city could amend the ordinance to make it enforceable, but issued an injunction blocking enforcement of the existing restriction on more dispensaries.

Mohr acknowledged his ruling could lead to a proliferation of dispensaries in the city.

Councilman Ed Reyes said he would meet with his City Council colleagues on Monday to discuss "emergency legislation" to stop new dispensaries from opening while the City Attorney's Office tweaks the ordinance to address the judge's concerns.

"I'll be working, along with my colleagues, to protect our city," said Reyes, who spent years working on the ordinance that was partially struck down.

"We're going to be considering emergency legislation, looking at different ways to implement any type of planning (and) police power tools we have, any type of enforcement tools that we have to make sure that the people who choose to abuse this environment will find that the city is going to protect our neighborhoods to the extent possible."

Mohr did not invalidate other parts of the ordinance that restricts where the dispensaries can be located.

The chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access, which supports medical marijuana, said he was "delighted by the ruling."

"The ruling states localities cannot ban medical marijuana dispensaries, or as the court puts it, regulate them out of existence," Joe Elford told City News Service.

"The decision also protects the privacy rights of medical marijuana patients by making it clear that law enforcement cannot simply by whim obtain patient records from dispensaries."

Source: MyFox LA

NEWS: Medical marijuana collective robbed

SAN DIEGO — A worker at a Sorrento Valley medical marijuana collective was robbed at gunpoint Wednesday night, San Diego police said.

Two men carrying pistols walked into San Diego Herbal Alternatives on Oberlin Drive, south of Mira Mesa Boulevard, about 7:40 p.m and demanded money, police Officer David Stafford said.

The female employee handed over some money and the men left. Police had only sketchy descriptions of the robbers.



Source: San Diego Union-Tribune

NEWS: LA supes vote to ban medical marijuana outlets

Associated Press - December 7, 2010 6:04 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has voted to ban medical marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County.

Several dozen people picketed outside the building where Tuesday's meeting was held holding signs that read "safe access now" and "we need our medicine," but there were no protests inside the meeting.

The 4-1 vote in favor of the ban was expected, and it passed without comment or delay.

City News Service says Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky cast the dissenting vote. Yaroslavsky believes the county should issue restricted permits for dispensaries.

The ban begins the first week of January, but there have been no permits issued for any unincorporated areas, so anyone selling medical marijuana there now is doing it illegally. Penalties include fines of up to $1,000 a day.

NEWS: Medical marijuana case appears headed back to trial

One of the most closely watched medical marijuana court cases in California, which centers on whether cities and counties have the power to ban dispensaries, appears headed back to trial after the state Supreme Court declined to review a recent appellate court decision.

Qualified Patients Assn. sued Anaheim in 2007, arguing that the state’s medical marijuana laws preclude a ban on dispensaries. The case was appealed before a trial, and the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana declined to rule on the issue in August, returning it to the lower court.

Last week, the state’s highest court decided not to review that decision, and on Monday the appellate court closed the case. The city could still ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take it up.

“Right now, it doesn’t look like we are going to do that,” said Moses W. Johnson IV, an assistant Anaheim city attorney. “It’s even a bigger uphill battle to get the U.S. Supreme Court interested.”
Johnson said he expects a trial would be quick and the losing side would appeal.

Anthony Curiale, the attorney for Qualified Patients Assn., was traveling and could not be reached.

The state Supreme Court’s decision left standing a ruling by the appeals court that federal law does not preempt the state’s medical marijuana laws. Anaheim had argued that dispensaries are illegal under the Controlled Substances Act, and Orange County Superior Court Judge David R. Chaffee had sided with the city. Chaffee will probably preside over the trial.

“We’re obviously quite happy to see the California Supreme Court deny the review,” said Joe Elford, chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access, a national organization that advocates for medical marijuana programs. “You’ve got another published opinion saying federal law does not preempt state law, and this one did so very forcefully.”

-- John Hoeffel

Source: Los Angeles Times

NEWS: Valley marijuana growing operation destroyed by fire

SUN VALLEY, Calif. (KABC) -- A marijuana-growing operation in the San Fernando Valley was destroyed by fire Saturday night.

The pot plants were growing inside a warehouse in Sun Valley.

Firefighters responded to a fire at an industrial building in Sun Valley on Clybourn Ave.

The fire began shortly before midnight Saturday.

It appeared to be a medical-marijuana grow operation.

A neighbor said the space is owned by a local marijuana dispensary.

The LAPD removed about 100 pounds of pot from the warehouse.

Arson investigators were trying to determine how the fire started.

LAPD detectives were also determining if the owners had the proper licensing to be growing the marijuana.

Source: KABC 7 News

NEWS: ACLU Sues Over Threats to Medical Marijuana

COMMENTARY | The manufacture and sale of medical marijuana has been legal in California since the 1990s and in Michigan as the of the 2008 election. Several cities in Michigan and California have created city ordinances banning medical marijuana and the ACLU is suing.

In Michigan, the cities of Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills and Livonia, all suburbs of Metro Detroit have banned the growing, processing and sale of medical marijuana which Michigan voters legalized in a hotly contested vote in 2008. Last month in California, Orange County and Los Angeles (L.A.) County banned medical marijuana dispensaries from delivering the drug to patients. Orange county is home to 120,000 people and L.A. County to more than 1.5 million residents. Michigan city populations in Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills and Livonia totals almost 140,000 people.

Medical marijuana has been legal in California for over nearly two decades, but only about two years in Michigan. Michigan voters The ACLU is suing Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills and Livonia for the repeal of city ordinances that ban medical marijuana. ACLU attorney Dan Korobkin calls the city ordinances "egregious violations of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act."

As a Michigan voter in the 2008 election, I voted to pass the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act. I am a mother and educator. In my years in adult and alternative education, marijuana and especially medical marijuana was a hotly discussed topic. Most students and voters, then and now, felt very strongly about the issue regardless of which side they were on.

Despite being a parent and knowing the dangers inherent in passing the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, I voted in favor of the bill. I did promote the passage of the bill as I might do on other issues because medical marijuana is sensitive topic. I couldn't in good conscience, however, cast a "no" vote and deny patients the well-researched pain-relieving benefits of marijuana. I will never use medical marijuana. I will never apply to manufacture or sell medical marijuana. I will not allow medical marijuana in my home, simply because of possible danger or temptation to minors.

If one of my children or my loved ones was prescribed marijuana by a qualified physician, however, I would not want to be the person preventing them access to relief. If the patient was in my care, I would work closely with the physician to provide the best care I could and administer the medical marijuana properly. That's what I do with every medication, pain reliever, drug, herb and even vitamin, over the counter or prescription.

Marijuana is not the only drug that requires close supervision. Many prescriptions medications and even some over-the-counter drugs have been shown to be more dangerous than marijuana. The bottom line: Medications are chemical, synthesized and produced commercially. Good health requires that we monitor anything we ingest, smoke, inhale or otherwise take in to our bodies. Good parenting requires that we monitor for our children until they are able to do so for themselves.

Source: Yahoo News

Compton Dispensaries, Collectives and Co-ops

Nature's Herbs
1713 W. El Segundo Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90222
Hours: Mon-Wed 10am to 7pm, Thu-Sat 10am to 8pm
Phone: 323-777-1319

Covers the following zip codes in Compton, California: 90220, 90221, 90222, 90223, 90224

NEWS: Drug use relatively low in local schools

Nine percent of Burbank Unified ninth-graders have carried a weapon to school, 5% of seventh-graders have smoked marijuana at least once, and 18% of 11th-graders have been drunk or high on campus, according to the recent California Healthy Kids Survey.

Funded by the California Department of Education, the biennial survey is designed to gauge the health of a school site by assessing health-risk behaviors that hinder academic success.

Self-reported data include grades, truancy, substance abuse, crime-related behavior and perceived safety at school. Students are also questioned about supportive social structures, such as the presence of caring adult relationships in their lives.

The most recent survey was conducted during the 2009-10 school year and released last month. It includes responses from 3,375 fifth-, seventh-, ninth- and 11th-graders within Burbank Unified School District.

Fourteen percent of Burbank seventh-graders and 18% of ninth-graders said they had used inhalants, which was higher than the 11% and 14% statewide averages.

But alcohol and drug use among Burbank Unified students is comparable to or below state and national averages in nearly all other categories, according to the survey.

For example, 17% of seventh-graders, 42% of ninth-graders and 63% of 11th-graders reported that they had consumed a glass of alcohol at least once — below the 24%, 47% and 66% reported in the statewide averages for the same categories, respectively.

Twenty-seven percent of Burbank Unified seventh-graders, 23% of ninth-graders and 19% of 11th-graders reported having been in a physical fight. State averages were 32%, 25% and 19%, respectively.

"I realize that we are below state and national averages, but to be very honest, I am not satisfied with that," said Tom Steele, director of student services for the district. "That is something we continue to work on."

Twenty-four percent of Burbank Unified ninth-graders and 34% of 11th-graders reported smoking marijuana at least once. Nationally, those numbers were 25% and 42%, respectively.

"I think our district and probably most districts have seen an increase in drug use with the medical marijuana being approved," Steele said. "It has been a pretty dramatic increase. The reason is marijuana is so much more accessible now because anyone can get a prescription for anything. If you have a hangnail you can get a prescription for medical marijuana."

The data compiled as part of the California Healthy Kids Survey is taken very seriously by district officials, Steele said, and is cross referenced with disciplinary statistics on a site-by-site basis.

He meets regularly with assistant principals for discipline at each of the middle and high schools to address specific issues, Steele said, and the results of the survey helps direct their work.

The district recently reintroduced random drug searches using drug sniffing dogs, Steele said. The searches had an immediate impact. On the second visit, the number of hits dropped by about 50%, he said.

"Am I happy about [the numbers]?" Steele said. "No, I am not. I think we can do better. I think this next year's report is going to be better than this year's report."

Source: The Burbank Leader