Thursday, Nov. 19 2009 @ 12:59PM
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| The November Coalition |
| Drug War protester at Huntington Beach, Calif. |
In a laudable nod to the obvious, members of the California Medical Association's (CMA) House of Delegates have endorsed a resolution stating that the criminal prohibition of marijuana is a "failed public health policy."
As enacted, Resolution 704a-09, the "Criminalization of Marijuana" states: "[The] CMA considers the criminalization of marijuana to be a failed public health policy, ... and encourage[s] ... debate and education regarding the health aspects of changing current policy regarding cannabis use." [
PDF] The CMA has more than 35,000 members statewide.
A
report just published in the
British Columbia Mental Health and Addictions Journal highlights another good reason to question marijuana prohibition: Health-related "social costs" per user are eight times higher for alcohol users than for those who use marijuana, and more than 40 times higher for tobacco smokers.
Wednesday, Nov. 18 2009 @ 11:59AM
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| Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office |
| D.A. Steve Cooley (left) and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich: They'll keep busting dispensaries no matter what the City Council says! |
It was a petulant fit of pique, certainly entertaining, and potentially hilarious -- if safe access for so many medical marijuana patients weren't hanging in the balance.
After things
didn't go his way at Monday's Los Angeles City Council joint committee meeting, District Attorney Steve Cooley pronounced Tuesday that he'd keep prosecuting medical marijuana dispensaries, even if the council adopts an ordinance that doesn't ban sales. Cooley said his office was already prosecuting some dispensaries, and he promised to step up such efforts in December.
The D.A.'s public meltdown was a result of his frustration that the council ignored the advice of L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and changed a provision in L.A.'s proposed medical marijuana ordinance, allowing cash transactions as long as they complied with state law.
"The City Council has no authority to amend state law or Prop. 215. Such authority is solely possessed by California voters," Cooley said. "What the City Council is doing is beyond meaningless and irrelevant."
Tuesday, Nov. 17 2009 @ 5:30AM
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| Photo by Shay Sowden, Wikimedia Commons |
| L.A.'s dispensaries remain open, for now. |
Ignoring the advice of anti-pot City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, two Los Angeles City Council committees yesterday rejected a proposed ban on sales of medical marijuana.
Anti-pot zealots within L.A. city government had coordinated an 18-month assault on the dispensaries, with headline-grabbing pronouncements from media hogs Trutanich and Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley dominating coverage of the issue in recent weeks.
Both Trutanich and Cooley have been widely quoted in the press as claiming that most of the dispensaries are operating in violation of state law. Cooley's recent declaration that "
approximately zero" of the dispensaries were operating legally sent chills and outrage through the medical marijuana community, seeming to echo San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis' statement that there are "
no such things" as legal dispensaries.
Friday, Nov. 13 2009 @ 3:59PM
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| Photo by LiveBloid, Wikimedia Commons |
| Watching you? |
Five medical marijuana dispensaries in Dana Point are appealing an Orange County Superior Court ruling ordering them to turn over records -- including client lists -- to the city as part of an investigation into dispensary operations.
"I think everyone kind of had the same idea about appealing the order for the reason of protecting third-party names and some of the privileged items that we believe shouldn't be disclosed," attorney Lee Petros, representing the Point Alternative Care dispensary, told the
Orange County Register.
All five pot dispensaries in Dana Point must hand over their records to the city by Dec. 7, according to a ruling by Judge Glenda Sanders. Sanders also ordered the disclosure of member names to be limited to city attorneys, a financial consultant retained for advice in the investigation, and the assistant city manager, "who will oversee and assist the consultant in his analysis," according to the Register.
Tuesday, Nov. 10 2009 @ 10:30AM
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| Photo by Coaster 420, Wikimedia Commons |
| Coming to a dispensary near you |
For years, one of the main arrows in the quiver of anti-pot zealots in arguing against medical marijuana (along with the federal pot prohibition, recently blunted by the Obama Administration) has been "But the American Medical Association says pot has no medical value." As of today, that's no longer true.
In a move considered historic by supporters of medical marijuana, the AMA voted today to reverse its long-held position that marijuana should continue to be classified under federal law as a Schedule I substance with no medical value. The organization, which is the largest physician-based group in the United States, adopted a report, "Use of Cannabis for Medicinal Purposes," drafted by the AMA Council on Science and Public Health (CSAPH), which affirms the therapeutic benefits of medical marijuana and calls for further research.
The CSAPH report concludes that "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."
Thursday, Nov. 5 2009 @ 10:01AM
The most extensive study yet undertaken on U.S. marijuana arrests and penalties, released today, finds no relationship between marijuana arrest and use rates. The report further finds that current penalty structures act as a price support mechanism that boosts the illegal market.
Assembled by Jon Gettman, adjunct assistant professor in criminal justice at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va., the new report claims:
• Marijuana arrests have almost doubled since 1991 -- but levels of marijuana use have remained fundamentally unchanged
• Penalties that increase for larger amounts of marijuana encourage consumers to make multiple small purchases, acting as a de facto price support for the illicit market
• Florida has the nation's harshest marijuana penalties, while the District of Columbia has the highest arrest rate for marijuana offenses
• Although African Americans use marijuana at a rate only about 25 percent higher than whites, blacks are almost three times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession as whites
·• California marijuana arrests have risen much faster than the national figure since 2003.
• Despite rising arrests and plant seizures, California had more marijuana users in 2007 than 2003.
Tuesday, Nov. 3 2009 @ 10:59AM
Ah, "guidelines." They're a little more lax than "rules," which are a little looser than "laws." When it comes to guidelines, that's their strength -- and that's their weakness. Whereas laws and rules are "broken," guidelines can simply be "ignored."
That truism is abundantly illustrated by this week's statements from George W. Bush appointee Joseph Russoniello, federal prosecutor for the northern district of California. "I think it's unfortunate that people have for some reason picked up on this as a change in policy," Russoniello told
Mission Local, "because it's really not a change at all."
When asked if federal officials will halt investigation, prosecution, and Drug Enforcement Agency raids of medical marijuana operations in California, Russoniello replied, "The short answer is no."
Thursday, Oct. 29 2009 @ 12:30PM
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| Photo: Coaster420, Wikimedia Commons |
| Medical marijuana: Legal as long as you don't actually buy it anywhere? |
It's a classic case of disconnect between public policy and public opinion. As District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis continues with her medical marijuana
dispensary crackdown in San Diego, a new poll indicates that a hefty majority of city residents favor leaving the pot shops open and regulating them.
About 77 percent of San Diego's adult residents agree that the city has an obligation to ensure convenient access to medical marijuana and 69 percent say the drug should be treated like any other prescription drug.
Only 9 percent want to completely ban the dispensaries.
Dumanis received heavy publicity for saying there are
"no such things" as legal marijuana dispensaries, despite state law. A voter initiative, Prop 215, legalized medical marijuana in California in 1996, and SB 420 clarified and expanded the law in 2003.
Tuesday, Oct. 27 2009 @ 2:59PM
U.S. Representative Sam Farr (D-Carmel) and more than 20 bipartisan co-sponsors introduced legislation today that would allow defendants in medical marijuana cases the ability to use medical evidence at trial, a right they currently do not have.
Due to the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Gonzales v. Raich, the government has the discretion to enforce federal marijuana laws even in medical marijuana states. The Raich ruling also allows federal prosecutors to conveniently exclude evidence of medical use or state law compliance in federal trials, all but guaranteeing convictions of medical marijuana patients and providers.
Last week, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder formalized a departure from Bush Administration policy when he issued new guidelines to federal prosecutors discouraging them from prosecuting cases in which patients and providers are "in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws."
Unfortunately, the new DOJ guidelines neither direct U.S. Attorneys to abandon the more than two-dozen pending federal medical marijuana cases, nor allow defendants the ability to use medical evidence to exonerate themselves.
Monday, Oct. 26 2009 @ 11:59AM
Los Angeles' proposed medical marijuana ordinance -- which would ban the sale of pot at dispensaries -- could cost the city $36 million to $74 million in lost sales tax, according to a marijuana advocacy group.
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| Photo by lavocado, Wikimedia Commons |
| Open for business on L.A.'s Ventura Boulevard... but for how long? |
Dale Gieringer, coordinator for the California chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (
NORML), said the proposed ordinance, supported by L.A. District Attorney Steve Cooley, would "effectively shut down the city's marijuana distribution system by banning all sales of marijuana and sharply curtailing collectives' ability to grow and obtain medicine."
No other city or county in California has regulated collectives while banning sales, according to NORML.
Under the proposed ordinance, also prominently backed by L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, only nonprofit medical marijuana collectives -- groups of qualified patients with physicians' recommendations and their primary caregivers -- would be allowed to cultivate the herb to relieve the symptoms of serious illnesses.
Thursday, Oct. 22 2009 @ 1:59PM
Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley may have believed he was safely playing to the grandstands when he promised to shut down all of L.A.'s estimated 800 to 1,000 medical marijuana dispensaries, magnanimously declaring that "
approximately zero" of the dispensaries were operating legally in exchanging weed for cash. But perhaps Cooley should check his numbers: In a new poll taken this week and released today, the reaction of Los Angelenos sounds more like a chorus of boos and hisses.
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| Photo by Coaster 420, Wikimedia Commons |
| Dear Weed: We love you, and we don't want you to go away. Signed, California |
More than three-quarters of the voters (77 percent ) in Los Angeles County want to see medical marijuana dispensaries regulated, rather than prosecuted and forced to close, according to the poll, funded by a pro-pot advocacy group and completed Monday and Tuesday. The poll also found that 74 percent support the California's medical marijuana law, while 54 percent want to see marijuana completely legalized, regulated and taxed.
The Marijuana Policy Project (
MPP), a national organization that supports marijuana legalization, commissioned the poll by independent firm Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, after Cooley threatened every dispensary operator in the county with arrest and prosecution. Cooley, along with newly elected L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, claim that the dispensaries are selling marijuana for profit in violation of state law.
Monday, Oct. 19 2009 @ 10:30AM
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| Photo by Rotbuche, Wikimedia Commons |
| Let my people grow. |
In a stunning bit of role reversal, law enforcement officials in dispensary-heavy Los Angeles County are gearing up for a massive mobilization against hundreds of pot shops even while the Obama administration backs away from the federal government's traditional role as marijuana enforcer in the states where medical pot is legal.
Today, the administration sent new,
more relaxed medical marijuana guidelines to federal prosecutors in the 14 states which have legalized weed for patients. Under the new policy, the federal government will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws.
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."
While keeping a promise President Barack Obama made on the campaign trail in 2008 and since affirmed by Attorney General Eric Holder, the new policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration line, which continued to enforce harsh, Nixon-era federal anti-pot laws regardless of state codes.
Friday, Oct. 2 2009 @ 12:59PM
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| George Gascon |
Did San Francisco Police Chief George Gascon
tacitly hint at the benefits of marijuana legalization during a press conference this week? That's one way to read the, er,
tea leaves.
At the conference, held Wednesday to tout the SFPD's recent raids shutting down illegal marijuana growhouses in the city, the first question from a reporter was whether legalizing marijuana could help prevent the house fires that sometimes result from illegal grow operations.
Gascon quickly noted that "the thing to recognize is this is not about marijuana use, this is about public safety." But, later, he noted "I've heard a lot of comments about this thing being an assault on the marijuana use, it really isn't. it has nothing to do with the merits one way or another, it's about public safety." And, just moments later, he added, "If we go back to the days of Prohibition, when alcohol was prohibited, people found ways to deal with the production and manufacture of alcohol. When alcohol was legalized some of that went away. It's hard to tell."
Was this an acknowledgment by Gascon that his life would be easier if pot was legal? It sure could be taken that way.
Tuesday, Sep. 29 2009 @ 1:30PM
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| policeone.com |
| We got their Zig Zags, too! |
Pot-phobic law enforcement officers in California are trying out an unsettling new tactic. It's the latest iteration of their continued hissy fit about what should have been a settled issue for 13 years now (since Californians voted for Proposition 215, legalizing medical use of marijuana with a doctor's recommendation). Many cops, still pissed off and in deep denial that medical pot is legal in the Golden State, are desperately clinging to the federal prohibition of marijuana for threadbare justification of their irrational hatred of pot and its users.
This particularly unattractive phenomenon of "let's ignore the voters" increasingly involves strutting, macho displays of contempt for the law -- incredibly enough, by the cops themselves.
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| smartvoter.org |
| Long Beach Prosecutor Tom Reeves: "Dispensary owners = dope dealers" |
Even as the Long Beach City Council
tried to do something constructive by debating the regulation of businesses that provide medical marijuana to patients under the auspices of Prop 215 and SB 420 (the Medical Marijuana Program Act, passed by the Legislature six years ago to clarify and expand the intent of the law), City Prosecutor Tom Reeves wrote an op-ed piece "that essentially amounts to kicking in the door with the guns blazing," according to the
Long Beach Post.
Thursday, Sep. 24 2009 @ 1:25PM
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| dea.gov |
| Leave that weed alone, officer! |
Rural sheriff's departments in California may have to find a new pastime to replace bullying medical marijuana growers. In a major victory for pot advocates, the California Supreme Court -- right around harvest time! -- has refused to review a landmark appellate court ruling protecting the right of medical marijuana patients and their caregivers to collectively grow weed.
The 2-1 ruling by California's Third Appellate District Court also affirmed patients' ability to take civil action when their right to collectively cultivate marijuana is violated by law enforcement. The case, County of Butte v. Superior Court, involved a private seven-patient medical marijuana collective in Paradise, California (oh! the delicious irony -- props to God or whomever is responsible).
Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a nationwide medical marijuana advocacy group, filed a May 2006 lawsuit on behalf David Williams, 56, and half a dozen other collective members after the Butte County Sheriff's Department conducted a warrantless search of Williams' home in 2005. The officers forced Williams to uproot more than two dozen plants, threatening him with arrest and prosecution if he didn't comply.
Tuesday, Sep. 22 2009 @ 10:30AM
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| Courtesy Donna Lambert |
| San Diego medical marijuana patient Donna Lambert was arrested in Operation Green Rx as part of the "crackdown." |
First, we heard from ambitious, headline-seeking San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis that there are
"no such things" as legal medical marijuana dispensaries, despite state law. Now, even as a brutal crackdown on providers and patients is underway in San Diego County, officials from Los Angeles and other counties are being influenced by San Diego's anti-weed brigade to implement their hardline policies further north.
At a
Long Beach City Council meeting yesterday, City Prosecutor Tom Reeves was still flushed with anti-ganja fervor as he told the council of attending a summit last week held by L.A. County DA Steve Cooley, where the message was that
all dispensaries are illegal and will be prosecuted. What this means, he told the council, is that Long Beach can't or shouldn't try to regulate dispensaries.
Tuesday, Sep. 15 2009 @ 1:30PM
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| julianayrs.com |
| You can't argue with results. |
"There's no proof that medical marijuana works. It needs more study. There's only anecdotal evidence. It doesn't treat specific conditions. People just want to get high." Every cannabis advocate and medical marijuana patient has run into these arguments, threadbare as they are in 2009. Even from professionals who should know better -- such as many medical doctors -- the same tired arguments come up again and again.
As baffling as it may be, just listening to the patients (what a concept!) isn't considered "proof" by the medical establishment, which considers such evidence interesting, but "merely" anecdotal.
But after a new groundbreaking round-up clinical evidence for the efficacy of medical pot, however, such misconceptions are going to be a lot easier to shoot down.
In the landmark article, published in the Journal of Opioid Management, University of Washington researcher Sunil Aggarwal and colleagues document no fewer than 33 controlled clinical trials -- published over a 38-year period from 1971 to 2009 -- confirming that marijuana is a safe, effective medicine for specific medical conditions.
Monday, Sep. 14 2009 @ 11:45AM
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| The November Coalition |
| Drug War protester at Huntington Beach, Calif. |
Marijuana arrests in the United States declined in 2008 -- the first such drop since 2002 -- according to figures released by the FBI today.
According to the just-released Uniform Crime Reports, U.S. law enforcement made 847,863 arrests on marijuana charges, 89 percent of which were for simple possession, not sale or manufacture. More Americans were arrested for marijuana possession than for all violent crimes combined. During 2008, one American was arrested for marijuana every 37 seconds.
Marijuana arrests reached an all-time high at more than 872,000 in 2007. More than 12 million American citizens have been arrested on marijuana charges since 1965.
The new report comes on the heels of the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released Sept. 10, which showed increases in both the number and the percentage of Americans who admit having used marijuana.
Wednesday, Sep. 9 2009 @ 12:30PM
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| Students for Sensible Drug Policy |
| Hey, watch where you're going! |
Remember the first few times you drove high? You knew you were stoned, you knew it might be dangerous to operate a motor vehicle, and you drove like a little old lady.
This tendency of stoners to overcompensate for their impairment is one reason that marijuana-related car crashes aren't in the headlines every day. With estimates of current marijuana users in the United States varying between 40 and
100 million, you can bet that if weed really caused wrecks, it'd be a national tragedy on the level of drunk driving.
But you don't see those headlines, and you probably don't have anecdotes about "that time I was so high I couldn't even remember how my car got in the ditch." Seems all those stories have alcohol as a component instead. (That certainly goes for me, with 32 years of accident-free driving on pot. And, yes: There were a few alcohol-related crashes in my teens.)
Friday, Sep. 4 2009 @ 6:30AM
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| Campaign Against Marijuana Planting |
Every year since 1983, the
Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) has engaged in a quixotic quest to "eradicate marijuana" in California. And every single year -- all 26 of them -- it has failed miserably as marijuana became more and more available.
The waste, arrogance and abuse associated with the program -- which has unfortunately become the largest law enforcement task force in the United States, with more than 100 agencies participating -- have become legendary. Ordinary families have been terrorized by paramilitary units, peaceful homeowners have been buzzed by low-flying helicopters, and community relations between citizens and law enforcement have suffered almost everywhere CAMP has laid its heavy hand.
Of course all this is done at taxpayer expense, to the tune of millions upon millions of dollars. Good thing the state treasury's in good shape, flush with all that extra cash. Oh, wait...
Wednesday, Sep. 2 2009 @ 9:30AM
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| Save the medical marijuana, fire teddy! |
Sometimes the biggest signs of epochal change in society are those that are casually mentioned, five paragraphs down in a story. Such was the case with
Sunday's four-alarm warehouse fire in Bayview, where fire crews remained yesterday monitoring for flare-ups.
"Marijuana was found growing in one of the buildings,"
CBS5 reported, "but police Sergeant Wilfred Williams said this morning that the narcotics unit investigation found that the marijuana is being grown legally, 'for medicinal purposes'."
Now, of course, that's a completely normal sentiment to youthful San Franciscans. But for a child of the 1960s, it is nonetheless a big, happy deal. Youngsters, I lived in a time when such an incident could not have ended happily for the growers, who would have likely faced a prison term.
Friday, Aug. 28 2009 @ 11:30AM
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| Medmar Clinic |
| Medmar Clinic is under legal attack from the City of Fresno. |
You've gotta pity the poor, put-upon city officials of Fresno. After all, they've only had
13 years to suss out Proposition 215, this newfangled medical marijuana law that's being forced upon their fair city by more progressive Californians. And, heck, it's only been a little over
half a decade since the legislature amplified and clarified the intent of the law with SB 420, opening the door for medical marijuana dispensaries statewide.
So what have they been doing all that time? It's hard to say, actually. But one thing seems pretty clear: They didn't find much time to study the law.
The city of Fresno is trying to shut down Medmar Clinic, the first medical marijuana dispensary in town -- along with seven other city dispensaries -- via the monumentally lame move of filing a suit through its city attorneys. But on Thursday, a judge said Medmar did not appear to post an immediate threat to public safety.
Tuesday, Aug. 25 2009 @ 11:59AM
By a 23-15 vote, the California State Senate yesterday approved a "joint resolution" urging the federal government to stop Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) raids on medical marijuana patients and providers. The Sen. Mark Leno-authored resolution additionally calls for the nation to "create a comprehensive federal medical marijuana policy that ensures safe and legal access to any patient that would benefit from it."
Marijuana advocates say recent enforcement activity, including DEA arrests following a raid in Upper Lake, Calif. last week, underscore the need for Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 14, introduced by Leno in June. Although both President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have signaled willingness to change federal policy on medical marijuana, the Administration hasn't come forward with an actual implementation plan.
"Patients and providers in California remain at risk of arrest and prosecution by federal law enforcement and legally established medical marijuana cooperatives continue to be the subject of federal raids," Leno said.
Tuesday, Aug. 4 2009 @ 12:45PM
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| Dispensary moratorium: Latest political fad? |
One by one, across California, the lights are winking out.
In city after city, town after town, patients who had dared hope they would at last have safe access to the medicine recommended by their physicians are having those hopes dashed by political cowardice, inertia, and the status quo.
In case you haven't noticed, medical marijuana is yet another front in the culture wars. Conservative hamlets which aren't yet ready for the 21st Century notion of patients being legally allowed to treat themselves with cannabis are turning off the light of hope for those who have already waited 13 years for the hope of Proposition 215 to become a reality.
Thursday, Jul. 30 2009 @ 12:30PM
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| Artwork courtesy Jim Wheeler |
| Can't we all just get along? |
A recent court case in San Diego has revealed some California police officers are basing their sworn court testimony in medical marijuana cases on badly outdated, legally inaccurate information.
This goes a long way towards explaining why it is that so many law enforcement officers in the state still seem to harbor such personal animosity toward medical marijuana and those who use it, even after it's been legal in the state for 13 years. Above and beyond the seemingly eternal cop/pot dichotomy, the cops' own "medical marijuana training materials" tell them that -- contrary to the law -- there's no such thing as medical marijuana, and that all marijuana is illegal!
This misinformation has real-life consequences. Californians who legally use and provide medical marijuana are faced with hostile police and judges who have only heard or choose to believe information which is plainly wrong regarding medicinal pot's legal status here, and inaccurate regarding its effectiveness as medicine, as supported by thousands of doctors and hundreds of studies.
Tuesday, Jul. 28 2009 @ 12:59PM
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| But the authorities say 'not so fast...' |
The
latest mainstream media narrative in California's marijuana wars is a spruced-up version of an old favorite: "Mexican drug traffickers" are growing massive amounts of pot in state and national parks, and are despoiling the natural environment in doing so. Once again, we are given to believe that pot is somehow scary and bad -- if not the herb itself, then at least the people who grow it.
As usual, there's a kernel of truth here, with lots of anti-marijuana spin wrapped around it. Tightening budgets have indeed reduced the number of sheriff's deputies and rangers patrolling parks, and that has indeed resulted in expanded grow-ops on public land, often by undocumented immigrants working for large cartels.
These migrant marijuana workers are considered disposable by the cartels for which they work, are often in the U.S. illegally, and often make less than $100 a day. Many have been told their families will be harmed if they stop working on the pot plantations, according to state drug enforcement officials.
Thursday, Jul. 23 2009 @ 4:59PM
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| Compassion Family Ministries |
| Yes, Grasshopper... Money grows on killa trees. |
Things are smoking on the marijuana front, and I'm not just talking about the ringing cash registers at newly emboldened dispensaries statewide. Time after time this week, the media brought together money and marijuana in public perception.
From Fox's attempted debunking of the tax benefits of State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano's
statewide regulation and taxation bill, to a huge bust in Fresno County, to Oakland's first-in-the-nation marijuana tax (
reported in this space), just about every marijuana story (pro- and anti-) reported this week had big dollar signs all over it.
• Fox News attempts hatchet job on pot revenue story: Fox News today published a
story by Joseph Abrams which attempts to pooh-pooh last week's report from the state tax board which indicated that the legalization and taxation of pot would add $1.4 billion per year to state coffers.
In typical Foxed-up fashion, the story indulges in good old faux-journalistic traditions like guilt by association, saying the Board of Equalization's estimate "appears to be based on hazy 'studies' conducted by marijuana advocates."
Monday, Jul. 20 2009 @ 3:59PM
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| Photo: chron.ron |
| The color of money |
Mail-in voting closes Tuesday on Measure F, a new ordinance in Oakland which would impose a special tax on sales of medical marijuana in the city's dispensaries. The measure would make Oakland the first city in the United States to have a business tax category for marijuana merchants.
Dispensaries have already been paying a rate of $1.20 per $1,000 of gross receipts. Measure F would create a separate category for marijuana sellers, at a rate of $18 per $1,000 of sales. Sales taxes is already assessed on purchases.
Many activists see the proposed ordinance as an incremental step toward complete legalization. After all, once government bean counters associate the marijuana business with a positive revenue stream, they're likely going to think in much more favorable terms about the herb -- and be a lot less inclined to crack down on dispensaries.
Friday, Jul. 17 2009 @ 3:30PM
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| mendonews.wordpress.com |
| Mendocino grow room: Puff, puff, pass? Not so fast |
It's not easy being a district attorney, especially in a mostly pot-friendly place like Mendocino County. Whatever law enforcement priorities you follow, it's guaranteed you're going to piss off one group while pleasing another.
Mendocino D.A. Meredith Lintott has gotten a compelling refresher course this week in just how precarious it can be hacking your way through the jungle of competing interests when it comes to enforcing widely unpopular marijuana laws in northern California.
Limited budgets, limited staffing, limited time -- all of these things are faced on a daily basis by the D.A.'s office. Even though it shies away from using words like "overwhelmed" when describing its caseload, the office could still be excused for having something of a besieged bunker mentality. Every arrest generates piles of paperwork; cumulatively, law enforcement efforts generate what must be an intimidating mountain of bureaucracy-ridden documents.
Tuesday, Jul. 14 2009 @ 2:35PM
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| Federal Art Project |
| The truth will set you free. |
Medical advice "City Bright" Doc Gurley published a column over at
SFGate purporting to be the latest, bias-free, data-based information on marijuana. On the face of it, that's a great and laudable idea; we'll agree there is, indeed, a "desperate need for data-based information looking at marijuana in the less emotional context of a pharmaceutical medication." So we suppose we'll have to give an "A" on the concept. But, disappointingly, the execution ranks a "C-" -- at best.
Gurley's summation of what she represents as "bias-free information" certainly makes a game attempt at seeming impartial, and we have no reason to doubt the doctor's fairness -- at least, until we actually read the article. That's where the danger lies, you see: Allowing one's personal biases and opinions to creep into a piece that dares to call itself "data-based."
If Doc Gurley is going to present her information as "bias-free," then she'd damn well better make sure that's what she's giving you -- because "bias-free" information pretty much settles it, right? Right?
Gurley is no stranger to marijuana research; she published a rather balanced
scientific paper about it a decade ago, and was the San Francisco public health administrator tasked with the initial implementation of Proposition 215, legalizing medical marijuana, back in 1996. Now she identifies "Six Crucial Public Health Issues" that will accompany what she rightly characterizes as the "seemingly inevitable" legalization of pot.
Let's examine those, shall we?
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