Assistant prosecutor discusses concerns with medical marijuana
Nov 29, 2009 Online Issue
According to one of Macomb County’s drug prosecutors, Michigan’s marijuana laws are starting to create some unforeseen problems.
Bill Dailey, Macomb County assistant prosecutor and chief of the department’s drug unit, visited with the Northwest Zero Tolerance Coalition on Nov. 12 to discuss growing drugs trends as seen by his office and what can be done about them.
One issue he said that continues to concern him is the use of medical marijuana.
“People’s opinions are changing a little bit, it seems like, in the state about marijuana,” said Dailey. “It is causing, in my opinion, a strain on our uniformed personnel because they are out there now, they are recovering marijuana on their traffic stops or they are recovering when doing a trash pull on a suspected marijuana house. It is very, very difficult for them or for us to find out if these folks have a medical marijuana card.”
Tags: Macomb County, Medical Marijuana
Council nearing decision on who can sell marijuana
Nov 29, 2009 Online Issue
Palm Springs city officials are close to choosing the two medical marijuana collectives that will be allowed to operate under an ordinance passed
last spring.
The City Council will review at its meeting Wednesday a list that narrows the field of 11 applicants hoping to operate as collectives in the city, according to City Manager David Ready.
“There’s a lot of criteria, and nobody meets all of the criteria exactly,” Ready said Tuesday.
Some applicants are located within the ordinance’s minimum distance allowed from a church or a school. Others face smaller issues like insufficient parking — items that could be resolved more easily, Ready said.
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New set of laws to make way for Breckenridge marijuana decriminalization
Nov 29, 2009 Online Issue
BRECKENRIDGE, Colorado — A new set of marijuana laws is nearing approval in Breckenridge, where possession of the drug and Read the rest of this entry »
paraphernalia by people over 21 is to be decriminalized Jan. 1.
The regulations would make public display and consumption of marijuana punishable by a $100 fine and up to 15 days in jail.
Breckenridge police chief Rick Holman said he doesn’t foresee much change in the town that, in 2008, issued only 10 tickets for possession of small amounts of marijuana and four for possession of paraphernalia under the municipal laws.
“We’ve never had a high incidence of public display and use in Breckenridge,” he said. “I don’t expect that to change.”
Medical marijuana finds social outlet in Ore. cafe
Nov 29, 2009 Online Issue
PORTLAND, Ore. — At the newly opened Cannabis Cafe, people sit around taking tokes from a “vaporizer” — a contraption with a big plastic bag 
that captures the potent vapors of heated marijuana. Glass jars hold donations of dried, milky-green weed, and the cafe serves up meals and snacks for the hungry.
It’s all perfectly legal and, for cancer patient Albert Santistevan, it’s about time.
“It’s a very positive atmosphere. We could use more places like that,” the 56-year-old former jewelry shop owner said.
A few weeks ago, Santistevan would have had no place to go. But with the Obama administration’s decision last month to soften the federal stance on medical marijuana, the Cannabis Cafe and a lounge across town popped up, bringing a little bit of pot-friendly Amsterdam to this working class corner of Portland.
FALLBROOK: ‘Mother Earth’ medical marijuana dispensary joins Chamber
Nov 29, 2009 Online Issue
The Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce has an unlikely new member —- a licensed medical marijuana dispensary.
Bob Riedel, co-founder of Mother Earth’s Alternative Healing Cooperative Inc., said last week he joined the chamber for the same reasons other members join: It’s a good way to get involved in the community and to network. The co-op has already signed up as one of the sponsors for Fallbrook’s Dec. 5 Christmas parade, for example.
“We wanted to get involved with the community and to let people know who we are,” Riedel said of his decision to apply for chamber membership. “We have an actual retail license. We are completely by the book.”
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Tags: Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce, Mother Earth's Alternative Healing Cooperative Inc
Rocky Mountain high
Nov 29, 2009 Online Issue
DENVER Inside the green neon sign, which is shaped like a marijuana leaf, is a red cross. The cross serves the fiction that most transactions in the store — 
which is what it really is — involve medicine.
The Justice Department recently announced that federal laws against marijuana would not be enforced for possession of marijuana that conforms to states’ laws. In 2000, Colorado legalized medical marijuana. Since Justice’s decision, the average age of the 400 persons a day seeking “prescriptions” at Colorado’s multiplying medical marijuana dispensaries has fallen precipitously. Many new customers are college students.
Customers — this, not patients, is what most really are — tell doctors at the dispensaries that they suffer from insomnia, anxiety, headaches, premenstrual syndrome, “chronic pain,” whatever, and pay nominal fees for “prescriptions.” Most really just want to smoke pot.
Tags: Rocky Mountain High
L.A. City Council puts off marijuana vote until next week at the earliest
Nov 29, 2009 Online Issue
The Los Angeles City Council this afternoon postponed a vote on a medical marijuana ordinance until next week at the earliest.
Councilman Ed Reyes, who is overseeing efforts to craft a law, introduced a motion that would make a series of major changes to the proposal, and asked that the council take more time to review them.
He also noted that other council members had proposed numerous amendments. “This is only the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
William Carter, chief deputy city attorney, agreed that it would be helpful for his office to have time to review the proposed changes to the ordinance that two committees sent to the full council on Monday.
Among the amendments is one that would reduce the distance to 500 feet from 1,000 feet that dispensaries must maintain from schools, parks, libraries and other places where children gather.
A city study showed that only a quarter of the 186 marijuana dispensaries legally operating under the moratorium adopted in 2007 would be able to meet the 1,000-foot requirement.
City officials have struggled for more than two years to write a law to regulate the dispensaries, which have proliferated across the city. Advocates say state law allows the collectives to sell marijuana to members who have a doctor’s recommendation.
But Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley says state laws do not allow dispensaries to exchange marijuana for cash, and has vowed to prosecute them even if Los Angeles officials adopt a measure allowing the stores to operate.
Discussion is continuing this afternoon in the council chambers.
The Los Angeles City Council this afternoon postponed a vote on a medical marijuana ordinance until next week at the earliest.
Councilman Ed Reyes, who is overseeing efforts to craft a law, introduced a motion that would make a series of major changes to the proposal, and asked that the council take more time to review them.
He also noted that other council members had proposed numerous amendments. “This is only the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
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