Pot Group Takes DEA To Court Over Claim ‘Marijuana has no medicinal value’

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The medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) and the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis (CRC) on Thursday challenged the federal government's decision to keep marijuana classified as a dangerous drug with no medicinal value.

The Drug Enforcement Administration denied a nine-year-old petition to initiate proceedings to reschedule marijuana in late June, claiming that, "marijuana has a high potential for abuse, has no accepted medical use in the United States, and lacks an acceptable level of safety for use even under medical supervision."

The petition sought to have marijuana removed from schedule 1 of the federal Controlled Substances Act and rescheduled in schedule 3, 4, or 5. Currently, the DEA classifies marijuana as a schedule I drug: the most restrictive classification reserved for street drugs like heroin with a high potential for abuse and no real medicinal value.

"By ignoring the wealth of scientific evidence that clearly shows the therapeutic value of marijuana, the Obama Administration is playing politics at the expense of sick and dying Americans," said ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford, who filed the notice of appeal today. You can view that PDF here: http://americansforsafeaccess.org/downloads/CRC_Appeal_Notice.pdf

"For the first time in more than 15 years we will be able to present evidence in court to challenge the government's flawed position on medical marijuana."

The use of medical marijuana has been legalized in 16 states and the District of Columbia. But, according to the DEA, marijuana cannot be considered to have medicinal value because there is a lack of scientific studies assessing its safety and efficacy as a medicine, and the scientific evidence is not widely available. The agency also noted there are no U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved marijuana products at present.

Although hundreds of studies have found marijuana has medical value, its status as a schedule I substance has prevented clinical studies, like those conducted on pharmaceutical drugs, from taking place in the U.S.

Just days after the DEA insisted that there is no medical value to marijuana, the White House appeared to contradict the position, saying in a report that there may actually be "some" medical value to "individual components of the cannabis plant."

The statement was just a small part of the Office on National Drug Control Policy's yearly update on the progress of the drug war and its goals moving forward. Overall, the document only serves to affirm the federal prohibition of marijuana and what it calls "'medical' marijuana," which it still views as illegitimate.

The American Medical Association, the largest physician's organization in the U.S., adopted a resolution in 2009 calling on the DEA to reclassify marijuana to faciliate research on marijuana-based medicines.

"Results of short term controlled trials indicate that smoked cannabis reduces neuropathic pain, improves appetite and caloric intake especially in patients with reduced muscle mass, and may relieve spasticity and pain in patients with multiple sclerosis," the AMA's resolution reads.

"The future of cannabinoid-based medicine lies in the rapidly evolving field of botanical drug substance development, as well as the design of molecules that target various aspects of the endocannabinoid system," the resolution continued. "To the extent that rescheduling marijuana out of Schedule I will benefit this effort, such a move can be supported."

Americans for Safe Access argues that by failing to reclassify marijuana, the federal government has stifled meaningful research into a wide array of therapeutic uses that could benefit patients.

"With science on our side, we will put an end to the government's political posturing," Elford said, "and force the Obama Administration to adhere to its own stated policy of emphasizing science over politics."

An ABC News poll found last year that eight in 10 Americans favor legalizing medical marijuana.

Medical Marijuana Patient Wins Unemployment Benefits

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From: Raw Story - Click Post Title For Full Story


A Colorado man who was fired from his job after testing positive for medical marijuana properly obtained under state law has won an appeal that grants him full unemployment benefits, in spite of his former employer's objections.
Lauro Sosa's claim for unemployment benefits was filed against the Swift Beef Company, after they forced him to undergo a drug test.

Sosa's employer allegedly noticed him acting as if he were intoxicated and when confronted, the employee admitted that his test would be positive due to recent consumption of medical marijuana.
But when tests came back showing as much and Sosa was fired, an unemployment officer decided to honor his claim and ruled the termination was no fault of his own.

When Swift lawyers appealed, the state's Industrial Claim Appeals Office agreed with the employer and struck down Sosa's benefits, which were reinstated again this week by a Colorado court of appeals

City To License & Tax Pot Growers Due To Budget Deficit of $42 Mil.

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From The Associated Press:

OAKLAND, Calif.— Local governments in California and other Western states have tried to clamp down on medical marijuana, but Oakland has taken a different approach.
If you can't beat 'em, tax 'em.

After becoming the first U.S. city to impose a special tax on medical marijuana dispensaries, Oakland soon could become the first to sanction and tax commercial pot growing operations. Selling and growing marijuana remain illegal under federal law.

Two City Council members are preparing legislation, expected to be introduced next month, that would allow at least three industrial-scale growing operations. One of the authors, Councilman Larry Reid, said the proposal is more of an effort to bring in money than an endorsement of legalizing marijuana use _ although the council has unanimously supported that, too.

The city is facing a $42 million budget shortfall. The tax voters approved last summer on the four medical marijuana clubs allowed under Oakland law is expected to contribute $1 million to its coffers in the first year, Reid said. A tax on growers' sales to the clubs could bring in substantially more, he said.

"Looking at the economic analysis, we will generate a considerable amount of additional revenues, and that will certainly help us weather the hard economic times that all urban areas are having to deal with," Reid said.

How much money is at stake isn't clear because the tax rate and the number of facilities the law would allow haven't been decided. A report prepared for AgraMed Inc., one of the companies planning to seek a grower's license, said its proposed 100,000-square-foot-project near the Oakland Coliseum would produce more than $2 million in city taxes each year.

Given their likely locations in empty warehouses in industrial neighborhoods, the marijuana nurseries under consideration would have more in common with factories than rural pot farms.
Dhar Mann, the founder of an Oakland hydroponics equipment store called iGrow, and Derek Peterson, a former stock broker who now sells luxury trailers outfitted for growing pot as a co-founder of GrowOp Enterprises, have hired an architect to draft plans for two warehouses where marijuana would be grown and processed year-round.

READ MORE HERE: Page 2 3

Medical Marijuana Patient Released From Prison Pending Appeal

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John Wilson was freed from Southern State Prison on $15,000 bail Thursday. Earlier this week, a court ruled he could be released while he appeals his drug conviction.

As he left prison, the 37-year-old was more concerned with getting a shave and a haircut than a joint.
New Jersey lawmakers have adopted a medical marijuana law set to take effect Aug. 1.

"Whenever they open the program, I would register and abide by the law," Wilson said. "You know what I mean."

Wilson, 37, was convicted last year of manufacturing marijuana and possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms. Last month, he was sentenced to five years in prison. His case is a prime example for medical marijuana advocates of how the system now gets these cases wrong. Even under New Jersey's law, patients will not be allowed to grow their own pot. They'll have to get it through state-authorized treatment centers.

Wilson argues the judge in his trial in Somerset County last December erred by not allowing him to enter evidence about his medical condition or tell jurors that he was using pot to treat it.
He says the pot plants growing in the yard of the home he rented in Franklin Township were only for his own use.

As he emerged from prison around 1:30 p.m. Thursday, his bleach blond hair was shaggier than he'd like and he was bearded — to his mother's consternation. He said the prison razors hurt his face too much to shave. Wilson said prison was "scary" but that aside from some muscle spasms, his health was OK while he was in custody.

He said he was due to begin receiving his traditional MS drugs on Friday, but declined. When he's free on bail, he said, he can't afford to pay the $3,000-a-month cost.

The Argument Against Marijuana Is Losing Steam.

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How is it that we have a Federal Law Enforcement Agency dedicated to Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, yet the focus remains on marijuana as if it were the most lethal substance known to man.

Below are the statistics for 2009 in the United Stated for deaths related directly to Alcohol, Tobacco, Fireams, and Marijuana.






Alcohol................................. .85,000

Tobacco ...............................435,000

Incidents Involving Firearms.....29,000

Marijuana ........................................0

There seems to be no logical argument for not legalizing marijuana. I don't mean just for medical proposes. I mean for any adult who cares to use marijuana. There is a shopping center near my home where I can buy a bottle of booze, a carton of smokes, and a God Damn shotgun and box of shells in a matter of minutes. That's perfectly legal and there are folks all over the country where that may seem like a typical day of shopping.

Exactly who is the beneficiary of the war on drugs and particularly the war against marijuana? - What about the more then half a million Americans that will die as a direct result of Alcohol, Tobacco, or Firearms? - Shouldn't we launch a war on those three controlled substances first? - It makes sence if we're trying to save lives. Let's close down all of the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearm dispensaries. It's time to make a serious choice. Either Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firarms will have to be outlawed like marijuana, or marijuana will have to be legalized for sales, pruchase, and consumption like alcohol, tobacco, and firearms.

Proponents of an initiative to make California the first state to legalize marijuana have collected about 693,800 signatures, virtually guaranteeing that the measure will appear on a crowded November ballot.

"This is a historic first step toward ending cannabis prohibition," said Richard Lee, the measure's main backer.

Advocates, trailed by television cameras and photographers, dropped off petitions with elections officials in the state's largest counties, including Los Angeles, where organizers said 143,105 voters signed.

Lee, a successful Oakland marijuana entrepreneur, bankrolled a professional signature-gathering effort that circulated the petition in every county except Alpine, which only has about 800 registered voters.

The initiative would make it legal for anyone 21 and older to possess an ounce of marijuana and grow plants in an area no larger than 25 square feet for personal use. It would also allow cities and counties to permit marijuana to be grown and sold, and to impose taxes on it.

Polls have shown growing support nationwide for legalization. In California, a Field Poll taken in April found that 56% of voters in the state and 60% in Los Angeles County want to make pot legal and tax it.

Foes also have started to organize. Paul Chabot, founder of the Coalition for a Drug Free California, said teachers, youth activists, religious leaders, small-business men, law enforcement personnel and elected officials are putting together a coalition. "We're going to fight them head on; we're not going to go away," he said. "We're looking forward to victory in California and spreading that message like a tidal wave across the United States."

On a lighter note: "When it absolutely, positively has to be there tomorrow." don't ship weed to your homegirl via FedEx. I'm just sayin'

- Chico Brisbane

DEA Raids Marijuana Lab

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DEA Raids Marijuana Lab





Last week's DEA raid of Genovations, a Colorado Springs medical marijuana laboratory, was the second time in recent weeks that the agency had swooped in on a lab that had applied for a license in an attempt to prove its forthrightness and responsibility; the same scenario played out in January at Full Spectrum Laboratories.


But these searches and seizures were mere prelude to the Friday arrest of Chris Bartkowicz, who had created a marijuana grow in the basement of his Highlands Ranch home. His invitation to the DEA? A story on 9News that appears to have embarrassed authorities so much that they decided to punish Bartkowicz for his willingness to bring his story up from the underground.

Medical marijuana advocates have denounced these arrests, arguing that they violate the spirit of an October memorandum from Deputy U.S. Attorney General David Ogden stating that the Justice Department should defer to states that have legalized medical marijuana -- a policy decried by Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, among others.

Just over a week ago, a man named Chris Bartkowicz in Highlands Ranch, Colorado made a questionable (at best) PR move. He agreed to be interviewed by a local television station about his medical marijuana grow operation. Granted, he believed he was in compliance with state law and had no reason to fear prosecution. But, come on, dude. It’s one thing to make six figures growing marijuana in your home for patients; it’s quite another to advertise it on television. It’s like putting a "Home Invasions Encouraged" sign on your door.

What Bartkowicz wasn’t expecting – if he was really thinking things through at all – was that the DEA would show up the next day at his house, take all of his plants, and forward his case to the U.S. Attorney, who subsequently filed charges carrying a 5- to 40-year prison sentence. This, despite the fact that the Obama administration has instructed U.S. Attorneys not to prosecute individuals who comply with state medical marijuana laws.

Was Bartkowicz in compliance with state law? Maybe yes, maybe no. By the DEA’s admission, he was a caregiver for at least 12 patients, which would allow him to have 72 marijuana plants. The complaint – available on this page as a pdf – alleges that he had 224 plants, more than 100 of which were "clones" or "starter" plants; the others were "in various stages with root systems." So what we are talking about here is a matter of degree. If someone can legally grow marijuana for patients, but exceeds the allowable number – perhaps for fear that some plants would not mature or perhaps because they felt more patients would need help before the plants matured – is it an intelligent use of taxpayer dollars to raid, prosecute and imprison this person for 40 years?

The truth is, as discussed in my last column, the DEA is not concerned with using taxpayer dollars intelligently. They are merely focused on using taxpayer dollars. Cases like this demonstrate that they are no better than ambulance-chasing lawyers. They see an "accident" on television and they run like two-dollar hookers to keep themselves busy and make a couple bucks. Why waste your time investigating people manufacturing meth when you can look up a medical marijuana grower on the Internet (which the DEA acknowledges in their complaint was a major part of their "investigation") and raid his house?


And now the media is even helping the DEA advertise for clients. Inciting fears of possible house fires from marijuana growing, the DEA has launched a new campaign to fight this "menace." In addition to dutifully reporting on this "danger," the media helped steer business to the DEA by publishing this advice from George Morkovin, of the Denver Fire Department:


Morkovin said additional regulations are needed to protect residents from these marijuana fires, but until that happens, he recommends notifying authorities if someone believes a grow is taking place next door.


How convenient. With this information, the DEA won’t even need to waste time looking up an address. They can just use Google Maps and they’re on their way. They no longer deserve to be called the Drug Enforcement Administration. They are simply the Drug Employment Administration, keeping themselves busy by raiding people who are not raising the ire of state authorities, but are merely trying to cultivate marijuana so that there is an adequate supply for the tens of thousands of registered patients in the state.


Fortunately, we have rock star advocates like Brian Vincente of Sensible Colorado calling out the DEA and the U.S. Attorney on their true motivations. (This is just one quote from Vicente in an interview in which he simply shreds law enforcement):


"I think the U.S. Attorney and the DEA view marijuana laws as a continuing employment act. It gives them something to do, and they’re afraid that if they were to recognize the will of the voters, they’d be out of work. So I question the motivation for prosecuting these kinds of individuals. I think it’s driven by their own need for job security."

Colo. Sheriff: Medical Marijuana Enforcement Waste Of Time

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In the past six months, seven of 10 search warrants served at local marijuana growing operations were for people following the law, said Derek Woodman, undersheriff and Summit County Drug Task Force director. The caregiver in the recent failed bust, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said officers with guns approached his home the evening of Oct. 16. They “pulled us outside” for their protection, he said. But the he showed them the patients' medical files and cards, and the seven officers were gone an hour later. The plants were left unharmed and the house wasn't dismantled.

The Summit County Sheriff said this week enforcement is a waste of resources: In the last few raids they've conducted, the individuals whose properties were searched were able to produce caregiver cards showing they were lawfully allowed by state law to grow the amounts found on their premises. Colorado law does not allow law enforcement to know the identities of caregivers, so they are shooting in the dark.

[T]here's no way for them to confirm a caregiver's authenticity without serving warrants. The state doesn't track the caregivers, who are named in the patients' documents.

In addition, the Sheriff said, his deputies have felt the need to water the plants and keep them alive after seizing them, just in case the grow turns out to be lawful under state law. Civil cases have valued plants as high as $5,000 per plant.

None of this mattered to the Summit County Commissioners, who have just imposed a 120-day moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated areas. While the Frisco Town Council noted it was important to have similar rules among the various towns within the county, the Summmit County Commissioners are walking their own path. This reminds me of the kid who used to arrive at school looking like he had been dressed by two different mothers -- Same place, same time, different rules, without rhyme or reason.

Colorado voters approved medical marijuana in 2000, not by statute, but by constitutional amendment. Whether zoning laws and land use regulations can trump or pre-empt a constitutional provision to allow a county or local government to ban dispensaries altogether, when the feds have said they won't prosecute dispensaries acting in compliance with state law, may be beyond the field of expertise of many criminal defense lawyers today. But if criminal prosecutions start, I have a feeling it won't be for long.

The Police Propaganda War On Marijuana Continues

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When it come to growing marijuana indoors, I couldn't tell you what would or wouldn't be considered a large indoor grow, but whenever I see or read about police raids in the news or on tee-vee, they're usually pretty elaborate taking up every room in the house.

These "indoor grows" also seem to be discovered because the where steeling power from Edison or they were using so much paid for power that Edison tipped off the cops.

But here is what chaps my hide over the issue of how the media reports on the subject of marijuana. In fact, let me correct that. My beef is with the misleading quotes by law enforcement that are either assumptive, misleading, or flat out bullshit propaganda.

In read 'this article'in a local Southern California newspaper and it always make me laugh when I read some of the most reduculous stuff. This was a story about a robbery that lead police to an illegal indoor marijauna operation.

So I read about the incident which began about 12:45 a.m. when a man was robbed of his wallet at gunpoint by two men near Amistad and Harold streets in Pico Rivera, sheriff's Sgt. Joe Van Damme said.

Okay, so that cool! - Then I read about how a "witnesses of the armed robbery provided deputies with a license plate number of the suspect vehicle and how Pico Rivera station deputies responded to the registered owner's address in the city of Whittier.

Awesome! - But Chico don't care about no stinking robbery - Come on man! - Give me the 411 on this indoor marijuana growing operation. Okay, so deputies sent in a police dog, which found the suspects and bit one of them and he was hospitalized for treatment of his injury according to LA County Sheriffs Sgt. Van Damme. OKAY! - You Go Jean Claude, but I wanna hear about the weed!

This is what I got at the very bottom of the news article: "While inside the house, deputies discovered a small marijuana growing operation of about three plants."

SAY WHAT! - 3 Plants? - That's a marijuana growing operation?"

I just don't understand the need or the desire for the law enforcemnents propaganda war on marijauna, particularly the issues surrounding medical marijuana and the dispensaries that provides it to patients.

You got Rush Limbaugh sending his maid into some shady side of town with a cigar box full of cash to make an Oxy-Cotin buy, you've got kids dropping dead at underground raves from meth O.D.s' and popping pills intended for large animals, you got meth labs popping up like dandilions, yet they seem hell bent on making marijuana out to be the worst of the worst when it comes to thier war on drugs.

Mile High City Wants 4% Tax For Getting High

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Denver: Mile High City Wants 4% Tax For Getting High.

With so much going wrong in the country, Charlie Brown - No not that one, but Denver's District 6 City Councilman, Charlie Brown has taken up the fight against the evil, highly addictive narcotic called marijuana. Sometimes referred to as Marijane, Wacky-Tobacky, Grass, Weed, Bud, Chronic, and Cush. It's not a pretty place once you travel into the deep dark underground where the marijuana addicts commit their violent crimes and sell their own children into prostitution so they can feed their weed habit. Some say that marijuana is 10 times as addictive as heroine and methamphetimine combined. However, those same people are completely and utterly full of shit.

I have been amazed at the narrative that is being spoon fed to the media by law enforcement, anti-marijuana activists, and local politicians looking for the next "vote winning" cause. However, someone had better let Councilman Brown know that across this great land of our, majorities of Americans are in support of legalizing marijuana above and beyond medicinal use. As far as I'm concerned, I couldn't give a flying fuck in a rolling donut who smokes weed as long as they don't jump behind the wheel of a car while their high like society requires of alcohol consumption.

Is anyone really prostituting themselves to support a marijuana habit? - I can't imagine anyone pawning their VCR for a dime bag.......I'm not running to the defense of Marijuana Dispensaries and hope that they will go away someday. But hopefully that day will be when every American has the right to add marijuana to their herb garden right next to parsley, rosemary, and tyme.

Yet here in Los Angeles, running a meth lab or smuggling cocaine is becomming easy and more lucrative with city and state law enforcement so focused on marijuana. Has anyone ever noticed that no matter what the circumstances are surrounding an arrest or a raid on a medical marijuana clinic, or an illegal indoor grow, the Mexican Mafia or Cartel is always inserted into every news story strictly for propaganda purposes.

In California, some highschool boys created a marijuana garden in the hillside above the athletics field of their high school. It was discovered and abated by the police and at the time when it was unknown who was responsible for the grow, it was speculated by law enforcement on secene that the "techniques being used in the grow and the spacing of the plants" may as well have been signed "Sincerely, The Mexican Drug Cartel."

Really? - The Mexican Mafia is running illegal outdoor marijuana gardens in the middle of a 75% white, upper middle class suburban comminity? - Are you sure about that Detective Flatfoot? - Of course once the responsible parties where discovered to be 3 teenagers, 2 of which were honor students, not a single word about that was printed in any newspaper that reported the original story except for the community newsletter that is given out for free.

But wait! - Don't you want to hear the story about one of the three teenagers and how he saved a kid from drowning in a backyard swimming pool? - Or the other young man that has only missed 2 days in nearly 4 years of highschool? - That's good, right?

I think the answer to that is: Nope! - If we can't tie it to the God Damn Mexican Mafia, then fuck it! - Who in the hell want's to read about white boys who grow thier own weed, especially if they go to school everyday, maintain gpa's of 3.0 or above, and save drowning children in a single bound? ... But I digress.....

Anyway, I don't want to nail Councilman Brown to the cross over the issue because he isn't that far over the top like a few local leaders out here in my neck of the woods. It's just that when it comes to marijuana, if your out there spinning your bullshit for political purposes, I'm gonna call you to the carpet over it because here's the bottom line.

You legalize marijuana and the Mexican Drug Cartels stop comming north to use organized gangs to peddle thier marijuana. Then the police can focus on the real evils of society when it comes to illicit drugs. You know? the kind you have to manufacture that could actually make someone to resort to prostitution and violence to feed a habit.

Councilman Charlie Brown wants to establish a broad raft of regulations on the businesses. The Post editorial board is weighing in Friday on the statewide problem of a lack of regulation of medical marijuana, and in doing some research for the editorial, I chatted with the councilman about his plans.

"I don’t think we stop people from having access," Brown, just back in his office after visiting a dispensary, told me. "But we do need to have some oversight."

Brown says that the situation has gotten completely out of hand. Huge numbers of people who likely aren’t at all suffering from anything other than a desire to get high are getting permits for medical pot meant to go to people with a "debilitating medical condition."

Not that I have the slightest problem with someone wanting to get completely baked out of his mind. (Though I also make the buzz-kill assumption that personal accountability and responsibility are to prevent the smoker from acting lawlessly or becoming a drain on society.) The Post supports legalizing marijuana and regulating and taxing it like alcohol, and so do I. The drug war is a goof and you’ve heard the arguments. But using the medical-marijuana law as a back-door path to legalization is not the solution.

Councilman Brown says the "legitimate" dispensary owners he’s talked to desire reasonable regulation. They’re tired of being treated like second-class citizens catering to stoners when they’re really just trying to provide solace to the truly sick and suffering. So what’s he want to do? Brown would seek to apply the Denver sales tax on medical marijuana sales and a 4 percent tax "on edibles sold at dispensaries and consumed off-site."

(I just love the humor behind that one: A munchies tax!)

He would charge a dispensary applicant "the same as if they were applying for an adult cabaret license," or an application fee of $2,000 and a yearly license fee of $3,000 thereafter. Dispensary applicants would have to get a full FBI background check, follow state laws that liquor stores follow, including how close a dispensary could be located to a school. And applicants under Brown’s proposal would have to be more accountable to neighborhoods. "Perhaps we need a ‘needs and desires’ hearing similar to liquor," he says.

Finally, Brown is concerned about the consumer. He wants to make sure permit holders get quality weed grown right here in Colorado and not from some gun-toting Mexican drug cartel that could be treating the dope with God knows what. I’m not sure I get the "adult cabaret" business. That seems to assume that legitimate and lawful permit holders are still doing something uncouth. Wouldn’t any regulations for pharmacies be the more analogous application? Brown says he expects to have a draft of his legislation by late next week.

Fox News Reports On Deadly Indoor Grown Marijuana

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To address the increase activity relating to the cultivation of marijuana, the Narcotics Bureau initiated a Marijuana Enforcement Team (MET) comprised of Sheriff's narcotic investigators and members of the United States Forest Service. Its mission is to eliminate illicit indoor and outdoor marijuana grows.

In a few recent videos posted here at ChicoBrisbane.Com, we've illustrated that in spite of the White House's comments that it was a waste of time to go after medical marijuana users. Law enforcement in the Los Angeles has seemingly stepped up it's attack on the medical marijuana dispensaries.

Usually anyone law enforcement official before the news cameras will go out of his or her way to get their negative narrative regarding medical marijuana out in the media and in the minds of Americans. You will always hear thinly vailed connections to the Mexican Drug Cartel, but in the case of this video clip below, you'll see how Fox News takes marijuana from tainted with toxic pesticides, to straight out deadly. You smoke it, you die!

The Los Angeles County area continues to be a hub of narcotic activity. The highly developed transportation routes and the close proximity to the United States/Mexican border create a unique threat by making Los Angeles County a major distribution, storage, and supply center for illicit drugs destined for cities throughout the United States and beyond.

WATCH VIDEO:

LA City 4th Revision Ordinance On Medical Marijuana Clinics

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Los Angeles: Fourth Revised Draft Ordinance Regarding Medical Marijuana Collectives Issued.

On Tuesday Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich submitted to Los Angeles City Council a 4th revision of the cities draft ordinance regulating the medical marijuana collectives in the city. This is a draconian piece of legislation that would ban the sale of medical marijuana for cash, ban the sale of medibles (medicinal edibles), ban the production of concentrates and also prohibits any on site consumption of medical marijuana.

Advocates in Los Angeles were shocked when this was presented and plans are in the works for major protests and several attorney's that I contacted yesterday and this morning have stated they intend to hash this out in the courtroom.

In Los Angeles we have a City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and a County DA Steve Cooley that are out of control as well as out of touch with the wishes of the voters of Los Angeles, city and county.

A vote on this is expected shortly, possibly within the week.

Calls in to folks at city hall for more details have not been returned at this time.

A copy of the proposed ordinance is attached.

Obama Admin Policy Change On Medical Marijuana

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"There has been a change in policy with regards to medicinal marijuana from the Obama administration. This comes in response to the policy under George Bush to ignore state laws, again demonstrating that many Republicans are only concerned about states’ rights when it suits their policies." From The Assicoated Press

The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new policy guidelines to be sent to federal prosecutors Monday.

Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws.

The new policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal anti-pot laws regardless of state codes.

Fourteen states allow some use of marijuana for medical purposes: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

Nevertheless, local and state law enforcement agiencies in the states that currently have medical marijuana statutes on the books, all seem to be stepping up attacks on clinics and dispensaries that assist patients that have been perscribed marijuana by a board certified physician.

There seems to be little debate that there is a political, as well as a financial motivation in these on going "FBI Style" raids on despensaries. Many agencies compete for statewide funds for thier contributions to the war on drugs. Somebody just needs to refax the memo to advise then that once a person has a prescription, marijuana is no longer an illegal drug, but a perscription medication.

California and Nevada in perticular have seen an increase in cases being dropped in the Superior Courts of reasons mostly related to "over ergorness" on the part of investigators, but there are a few case in California that are currently under review regarding the accuracy of imformation in an afidavit for a search warrant.

Oakland Ca. - A Marijuana Mecca

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Downtown Oakland, Calif., has become a modern marijuana mecca.

On the corner of Broadway and 17th Street in downtown Oakland, nudged between a Chinese restaurant and a hat shop, Oaksterdam University greets passersby with a life-size cutout of Barack Obama and the sweet smell of fresh marijuana drifting from a back room. Inside, dutiful students flip through thick plastic binders of the day's lessons, which, on a recent Saturday began with "Pot Politics 101," taught by a ponytailed legal consultant who has authored a number of books on hemp.

The class breaks for lunch around noon and resumes an hour later, with classes on "budtending," horticulture, and cooking, which includes a recipe for "a beautiful pot pesto."

There are 50 students in this class, the majority of them Californians, but some have come all the way from Kansas. In between lectures, the university's founder, Richard Lee, 47, rolls in and out on his wheelchair greeting students, looking the part of a pot-school dean in Converse sneakers, aviator glasses, and a green "Oaksterdam" T shirt.

Locals refer to the nine-block area surrounding the university as Oaksterdam—a hybrid of "Oakland" and the drug-friendly "Amsterdam," where marijuana has been effectively legal since 1976. Nestled among what was once a rash of vacant storefronts, Lee has created a kind of urban pot utopia, where everything moves just a little bit more slowly than the outside world.

Among the businesses he owns are the Blue Sky Coffeeshop, a coffeehouse and pot dispensary where getting an actual cup of Joe takes 20 minutes but picking up a sack of Purple Kush wrapped neatly in a brown lunch bag takes about five.

There's Lee's Bulldog Café, a student lounge with a not-so-secret back room where the haze-induced sounds of "Dark Side of the Moon" seep through thick smoke and a glass-blowing shop where bongs are the art of choice. Around the corner is a taco stand (Lee doesn't own this one) that has benefitted mightily from the university's hungry students.

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Read Full Story Here

California Poised To Legalize Marijuana - Cops Say No!

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California law makers have introduced Assembly Bill 390 which will pave the way in leagalizing the personal use of marijuana for adults 21 and over.

Recent opinion polls show that a majority of California voters would be in support of the initative, which will decrimalize the very controlled substance that L.A. County law enforcement seems to have focused too much of their time and attention and too many of our tax payer dollars upon.

Meanwhile, gang related crime, homicides, and houshold meth labs go unabated by L.A. Counties poorly focused law enforcement comminity. In an October 9, 2009 artical in the Los Angele Times about L.A. County District Attorney Steve Cooley and L.A. County Sheriff Leroy Baca, outline their common belief that 100% of medical marijuana dispensaries are illegal operation.

Cooley and Baca sent letters to every Mayor and Cheif of Police in L.A. County asserting that they beleive this to be illegal and that they plan on closing down each and every dispensaries.



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California Protest Police Raids On Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

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In Montebello, Ca. today, Los Angeles County's top law enforcement officer seemed to tilt the balance against providers of medical marijuana Thursday when he said he would prosecute for-profit dispensaries.

I'm not sure that it helps the cause with some protesters holding signs that read: "Chronic Nugs Heal." referring to the nugget sized appearance of the very powerful medical marijuana buds.

District Attorney Steve Cooley was one of dozens of guests at a conference in Montebello where the topic was the "eradication of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County," according to a flier advertising the event hosted by the California Narcotics Officers' Association. After the meeting, Cooley said he would prosecute any for-profit dispensaries.

"It is our job to ensure that the law is followed as written and approved by California voters," he said in a statement to the press. "Current
and future enforcement and prosecution actions are directed at illegal over-the-counter sales for profit operations."

The meeting was also attended by Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen A. Trutanich. District Attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said too many dispensaries were claiming that they were "caregivers," which would allow them to provide marijuana to anyone with a doctor's note. The caregiver is supposed to be a family member who provides for a disabled relative, not someone in a shop, she said.

"They're selling marijuana basically over the counter, and that's illegal," she said of the about 900 dispensaries in Los Angeles County, most of which are in Los Angeles.

Not-for-profit cooperatives composed of medical marijuana patients would not be prosecuted, she said. A spokesman for a major medical marijuana advocacy group wasn't sure what to make of the statement.

Attorney General Jerry Brown has set guidelines prohibiting for-profit dispensaries, said Kris Hermes, a spokesman for Americans for Safe Access. Very few dispensaries operate in a for-profit manner, but they are often raided anyway, advocates said. Hermes claimed that police often raid dispensaries in a militaristic fashion rather than using civil measures common to investigations of most businesses.

"They would fine them or subpoena their records," he said. "I would argue that law enforcement doesn't really know if a dispensary (is for-profit) until they look at the paperwork. These raids are completely unjustified."

About 75 people protested the meeting, which was held in the Quiet Cannon restaurant.

"The voters of California have made it clear, Los Angeles City Council has made it clear, we don't want them eradicating medical marijuana. We want them implementing it," said Don Duncan, who helped organize the protest.

"I'm a primary caregiver for an AIDS patient," Duncan said. "Doctors have nothing to stem his pain or help him hold down food."

Nevertheless, with outragous perscription prices on pain medication, there are many people suffering from cancer and other conditions that leaves medical marijuana their only means of relief from dabilitating pain. For AIDS patients, marijuana has long been known to be an effective reliever of nausia.

However, the law enforcement community intends to turn a blind eye to gang related homocide, suburban meth labs, cocaine pouring across the border from Mexico. Yet they never fail to try and paint a false perception that leagalized marijuana being connected to Mexican drug cartels.


Chico Brisbane

L.A. County D.A. To Prosecute "ALL" Marijuana Dispensaries

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Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said today that all the medical marijuana dispensaries in the county are operating illegally, and that "they are going to be prosecuted."

There are hundreds of dispensaries throughout the county, including as many as 800 in the city of Los Angeles, according to the city attorney's office. They operate under a 1996 voter initiative that allowed marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes, and a subsequent state law that provided for collective cultivation.

Based on a state Supreme Court decision last year, Cooley and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich have concluded that over-the-counter sales are illegal. Most if not all of the dispensaries in the state operate on that basis.

Cooley said his office had already begun preparing to prosecute a Culver City dispensary called Organica.

Widespread criminal prosecutions could deal a sharp blow to the medical marijuana movement in California, where advocates have argued that access to the drug has helped many cancer patients and others manage pain, nausea and other health issues.

Cooley and Trutanich announced their plans after a training session for narcotics officers at the Montebello Country Club. Outside about 100 medical marijuana advocates protested, saying that not allowing over-the-counter sales threatens the distribution of a product that many sick people have come to rely on.

Barry Kramer, operator of the California Patient Alliance, a dispensary on Melrose Avenue, said, "If this is the way it goes, we'll go underground again. There will be a lot more crime."

Police Use False Media Campaign On Medical Marijuana

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Diamond Bar, Ca. – Local law enforcement seems to be hell bent on creating an unfounded and often false narrative in the media to connect some marijuana growing operations to “The Mexican Mafia” or “Cartels” when the facts in those particular cases do not support such a claim.

Sheriff’s deputies Wednesday pulled up thousands of marijuana plants growing on a hillside near a residential neighborhood across from Diamond Ranch High School, officials said.

“One of our air units saw this grove that we’re working on right now. They took four people into custody, and what we are doing today is removing the marijuana and the water lines they were using to grow it” Said Los Angeles County Sheriffs Lt. Phil Abner.

The grove, which was located in the hills above Diamond Ranch High School near Scenic Ridge Drive, was estimated by Abner to contain “at least 2,000 plants, maybe more.” Abner went on to estimate the crops value between $8 and $12 million dollars.

Four suspects were taken into custody and are being charged with cultivating marijuana. Deputies have not yet released the suspects, but a local resident who did not want to be named described the individuals as you white males and possibly juveniles. Hardly the type one would associate with the Mexican mafia, which calls into question the reason or perhaps the motive for Sheriffs Lt. Phil Abner referring to such a sinister scenario as a “Mexican cartel” regarding this particular incident.

Abner said that an increase in the use of marijuana explained why the Department has seen a rise in the number of grow operations, blaming this partly on “baloney legislation” allowing the use of medical marijuana, which is an utterly false statement.

According to Abner, “there is no legal delivery system, so they have clinics that provide marijuana, but there’s no legal way for them to obtain it. So it’s illegally grown like this.” He said which is also not exactly a true statement.

Southern California is dotted with hundreds of licensed marijuana clinics that are supplied by licensed growers; the problem comes from unscrupulous clinic owners who grow their own marijuana on public lands to increase profits. The fact that this grow or any other grow is illegal is not in dispute, what is in dispute is an ongoing media campaign by local law enforcement to tie every raid on an illegal grow to California’s medical marijuana act and the Mexican Mafia or Drug-Cartels.

If Lt. Abner is going to be a spokesperson for the State Legislature, perhaps Sheriff Leroy Baca should see to it that he reads the bill and understands it fully before providing commentary to the media. We’re just saying.

L.A. District Attorney Says Buying Medical Chron-Bud Illegal?

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With slang names like "Cush" and "Chron-Bud" medical marijuana is flying off the shelves at
hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles. Eights, which is 1/8 of an ounce are typically going for about $45, but the dispensary owners don't refer to that as the selling price, but rather a donation since state law requires their stores to operate as nonprofit collectives.

But their critics -- police, the district attorney and the newly elected city attorney -- insist that it's a sale and that marijuana sales remain illegal under state law. The debate turns largely on the interpretation of one sentence in the law, but it touches on one of the biggest concerns about dispensaries in Los Angeles: that the rapid proliferation of stores is being driven by people who are hoping to profit from the so-called Green Rush and who are buying rather than growing much of their cannabis.

"The people who are simply trying to make a profit are the ones messing it up for those people that need it and those legitimate distributors who are trying to help people," said L.A. City Councilman Dennis Zine.

The issue boiled over at two recent meetings of the City Council planning committee, which has struggled for two years to write an ordinance to control medical marijuana.On Tuesday, the committee kicked an unfinished draft over to the Public Safety Committee without resolving some of the thorniest issues, including whether to prohibit sales.

"We punted," Zine said.

The City Council's drawn-out deliberations could be a civics lesson on unintended consequences. The council adopted a moratorium on new dispensaries in 2007, but failed to ensure it was enforced. It wasn't, and in the last two years the 186 dispensaries allowed to stay open during the ban have been joined by hundreds of others. That has irked law enforcement officials who argue that many, if not most, of the dispensaries operate as nonprofit collectives in name only. Next week, police officers and prosecutors from around the county plan to meet for a training lunch to discuss "the eradication of medical marijuana dispensaries.

L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley and City Atty. Carmen Trutanich have decided that, based on a state Supreme Court decision issued last year, the way most dispensaries in California distribute marijuana violates state law. Neither was available to comment Wednesday. The city's high-profile drive to gain control over dispensaries is moving slowly. Most dispensaries requested an exemption from the moratorium and opened without approval while their cases were pending.

Three months ago Councilman Ed Reyes, chairman of the planning committee, began the process of considering those requests and the council hasn't approved any so far. City officials said 82 requests have been denied. Of those dispensaries, 51 either never opened or have shut down, and 31 are defying orders to close. The city attorney has not decided whether to pursue fines or jail time for violations. The council's Sisyphean task was underscored by an exemption request it considered Tuesday. It came from Kedrin Rhodes, who opened King Collective Caregivers in Leimert Park just five weeks ago, almost two months after Reyes launched his campaign.

Rhodes, a retired probation officer whose mother-in-law died of cancer, opened her store on a block that police and neighbors say is traversed daily by middle school students.Listening to Rhodes, who responded to questions respectfully, council members appeared dumbfounded.

"Did someone tell you you had the right to open?" Councilman Jose Huizar asked.

"Yes, my attorney," she said, explaining that her lawyer said the city's contention that an exemption request does not give a dispensary permission to open was "just opinion."

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