Medical Cannabis

A judge will decide at a hearing Monday whether to keep Ventura County's only medical cannabis center closed until a civil lawsuit is resolved. Prosecutors are asking Superior Court Judge William L. Peck to grant a preliminary injunction that would keep the Ventura County Medical Cannabis Center shuttered until the judge resolves whether the Thousand Oaks operation is illegal.

Dozens of medical marijuana activists rallied outside Los Angeles City Hall last week, declaring war on an enemy. Their target was not the federal government, whose agents raided several local dispensaries in recent days, or neighborhood groups trying to shut down the city's estimated 700 pot shops. The enemy was fellow medical marijuana advocates. Three competing measures on the May 21 city ballot have divided L.A.'s lucrative medical cannabis industry, with each side accusing the other of trying only to protect profits, not do what is best for patients.

Behind the bolted steel doors of an old brick warehouse, Big Wes meets a nutrient company scientist to see if he can increase his crop yield. Rows of hydroponic marijuana plants soak up solution flowing through plastic troughs and light blazing from high-pressure sodium lamps. Big Wes has spent more than half his life calibrating his system of growing high-grade marijuana to its utmost efficiency. At 50 years old, he harvests a crop of dozens of plants every week from five rented warehouses scattered along the rutted streets and alleys around the docks of Oakland.

SACRAMENTO -- A state lawmaker has revived legislation to regulate medical marijuana in California, saying the measure is necessary to clarify hazy legal areas that continue to plague the state's pot program 16 years after voters approved it. The proposal, AB 473 by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), would create a division within the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to monitor supply and sales of medical marijuana. While the Legislature passed a bill that offered limited guidance on regulation in 2003, it has yet to adopt requirements for state licensing and labeling of cannabis, among other issues, resulting in a series of contradictory court decisions.

Even in the complicated world of pot politics, it's a confusing prospect: In the May municipal election, Los Angeles voters could face not one but three ballot measures geared toward regulating medical marijuana dispensaries. All three of the proposals would allow some pot shops to remain open, albeit under different regulations. The first two measures, which are sponsored by two groups of medical marijuana activists with competing interests, qualified for the ballot last week.

SAN FRANCISCO - The California Supreme Court appeared inclined Tuesday to uphold municipal bans against medical marijuana dispensaries. Meeting for oral arguments, the state high court considered the legality of a ban on dispensaries by the city of Riverside. Several justices noted that the state Constitution gives cities wide policing power over land use and suggested that the state's medical marijuana laws have not undercut that authority. "The Legislature knows how to say 'Thou Shall Not Ban Dispensaries,' " Justice Ming W. Chin said.

SACRAMENTO -- A state lawmaker has revived legislation to regulate medical marijuana in California, saying the measure is necessary to clarify hazy legal areas that continue to plague the state's pot program 16 years after voters approved it. The proposal, AB 473 by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), would create a division within the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to monitor supply and sales of medical marijuana. While the Legislature passed a bill that offered limited guidance on regulation in 2003, it has yet to adopt requirements for state licensing and labeling of cannabis, among other issues, resulting in a series of contradictory court decisions.

Medical marijuana advocates have filed lawsuits in California's four federal judicial districts aimed at quickly winning court orders to halt the U.S. attorneys from closing dispensaries. The lawsuits are the second legal challenge to the stepped-up enforcement efforts that the four prosecutors announced last month at a high-profile joint news conference in Sacramento. Matt Kumin, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuits, said that Tuesday the plaintiffs plan to ask the judges assigned to the cases for temporary restraining orders halting the crackdown.

Dist. Atty. Terence Hallinan asked the federal Drug Enforcement Administration on Monday to rethink its campaign against California doctors and medical cannabis providers. "I urge Administrator [Asa] Hutchinson to respect our city's approach to medical marijuana, which has reduced crime, saved money and contributed to public well-being," Hallinan said. "Any move to close the dispensaries will result in sick people trying to get marijuana from street vendors." On Oct.

In adopting laws Tuesday that legalize recreational marijuana use, Colorado and Washington voters foolishly - or perhaps forthrightly - rushed in where California feared to tread. Should we follow, or simply watch and wait? The assertion of California's Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, when it was passed in 1996 was that growing, possessing, sharing or using marijuana was to be permitted in this state solely for patients who needed the drug for its medicinal value. Voters here dismissed the contention by federal officials that cannabis offers no health benefits; either we believed the federal law to be wrong, or perhaps we felt that whether or not the plant has medicinal value, it at least provides comfort to those with painful or terminal illnesses.

SAN FRANCISCO - The California Supreme Court appeared inclined Tuesday to uphold municipal bans against medical marijuana dispensaries. Meeting for oral arguments, the state high court considered the legality of a ban on dispensaries by the city of Riverside. Several justices noted that the state Constitution gives cities wide policing power over land use and suggested that the state's medical marijuana laws have not undercut that authority. "The Legislature knows how to say 'Thou Shall Not Ban Dispensaries,' " Justice Ming W. Chin said.

As a candidate in 2008, Barack Obama emphatically stated that medical marijuana use was an issue best left to the states. One of the first promises he made as the newly elected president was that he was "not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws. " This was even reiterated formally in the so-called Ogden memo of 2009, in which the Department of Justice instructed U.S. attorneys that federal enforcement should apply only to medical marijuana operations that were not in clear compliance with state law. Obama has since "clarified" those promises, but it still makes no sense that Matthew R. Davies, a business school graduate who set out in 2009 to create a medical marijuana dispensary that would be in full compliance with California law, is facing up to 15 years in prison - with a mandatory five-year sentence.

Even in the complicated world of pot politics, it's a confusing prospect: In the May municipal election, Los Angeles voters could face not one but three ballot measures geared toward regulating medical marijuana dispensaries. All three of the proposals would allow some pot shops to remain open, albeit under different regulations. The first two measures, which are sponsored by two groups of medical marijuana activists with competing interests, qualified for the ballot last week.

SAN FRANCISCO - A showdown over the fate of the country's largest medical marijuana dispensary heads to federal court here Thursday, and the outcome could hint at what lies ahead as a growing number of states opt for legalization. This fall, Oakland became the first municipality to sue federal prosecutors in an attempt to block them from shuttering a medical cannabis facility. Harborside Health Center, with facilities in Oakland and San Jose, has more than 108,000 members in its patient collective.

In adopting laws Tuesday that legalize recreational marijuana use, Colorado and Washington voters foolishly - or perhaps forthrightly - rushed in where California feared to tread. Should we follow, or simply watch and wait? The assertion of California's Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, when it was passed in 1996 was that growing, possessing, sharing or using marijuana was to be permitted in this state solely for patients who needed the drug for its medicinal value. Voters here dismissed the contention by federal officials that cannabis offers no health benefits; either we believed the federal law to be wrong, or perhaps we felt that whether or not the plant has medicinal value, it at least provides comfort to those with painful or terminal illnesses.

A stocky onetime mortgage broker is speeding through Costa Mesa in an old pickup with two pounds of weed in a paper bag. He wears gray cargo shorts and flip-flops and a faded cap with the image of a marijuana leaf stitched on the front. He just smoked a joint thick as a knuckle. Cypress Hill thumps through the cab. I'll hit that bong and break ya off somethin' soon I got ta get my props, Cops, come and try to snatch my crops These pigs wanna blow my house down For a man whose apartment was raided recently and now faces felony drug possession and cultivation charges, he doesn't seem particularly worried about the mission at hand.

With the fate of the city's medical marijuana industry in question, workers at more than a dozen Los Angeles pot shops have formed a labor union in part to help ward off a proposed citywide ban on dispensaries. The employees joined the ranks of grocery workers, healthcare providers and pharmacists at the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 770. At a news conference Thursday, the president of the union vowed to leverage the "full force" of its 35,000 members to keep dispensaries open.

As a candidate in 2008, Barack Obama emphatically stated that medical marijuana use was an issue best left to the states. One of the first promises he made as the newly elected president was that he was "not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws. " This was even reiterated formally in the so-called Ogden memo of 2009, in which the Department of Justice instructed U.S. attorneys that federal enforcement should apply only to medical marijuana operations that were not in clear compliance with state law. Obama has since "clarified" those promises, but it still makes no sense that Matthew R. Davies, a business school graduate who set out in 2009 to create a medical marijuana dispensary that would be in full compliance with California law, is facing up to 15 years in prison - with a mandatory five-year sentence.

Behind the bolted steel doors of an old brick warehouse, Big Wes meets a nutrient company scientist to see if he can increase his crop yield. Rows of hydroponic marijuana plants soak up solution flowing through plastic troughs and light blazing from high-pressure sodium lamps. Big Wes has spent more than half his life calibrating his system of growing high-grade marijuana to its utmost efficiency. At 50 years old, he harvests a crop of dozens of plants every week from five rented warehouses scattered along the rutted streets and alleys around the docks of Oakland.

With the fate of the city's medical marijuana industry in question, workers at more than a dozen Los Angeles pot shops have formed a labor union in part to help ward off a proposed citywide ban on dispensaries. The employees joined the ranks of grocery workers, healthcare providers and pharmacists at the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 770. At a news conference Thursday, the president of the union vowed to leverage the "full force" of its 35,000 members to keep dispensaries open.