Archive for October, 2009
Testimony from California Assembly committee hearing on legalization of marijuana
October 30th, 2009
Dakta Bourbon
Yesterday’s testimony by supporters and foes of Assembly Bill 390, an act to tax and regulate marijuana in California, is now posted on the web at the following URLs:
Part I: http://www.calchannel.com/channel/viewvideo/798
Part II: http://www.calchannel.com/channel/viewvideo/799
Part III: http://www.calchannel.com/channel/viewvideo/800
Retired Orange County Superior Court Judge James P. Gray’s testimony was one of the last to be heard, and to use a World Series metaphor, we couldn’t have asked for a better “clean up” hitter:
One City’s Insane Fight Against Obama’s Sane New Pot Policy
October 28th, 2009
Dakta Bourbon
The way law-enforcement officials read the new Obama policy, nonprofit Los Angeles pot dispensaries like this one should turn into farming collectives that can’t accept cash. “We are in the fight for our lives,” one prominent shop owner tells Esquire.com.
Taken from http://www.esquire.com/the-side/richardson-report/obama-medical-marijuana-laws-102709
The administration has officially put a stop to crackdowns on the medical-marijuana business, but to hear the dispensers tell it, nothing’s stopping Los Angeles from finding every last ridiculous loophole
By John H. Richardson
Two years ago, in the throes of a Bush administration that disregarded states’ rights whenever it felt like getting high on itself, there were fewer than two hundred medical-marijuana outlets in Los Angeles. Today, even the most conservative estimates say that number has quadrupled. On one stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard alone, four thriving pot shops estimate their tax payments at $4 million a year. Got an emergency radiation treatment and can’t find the nearest store? There’s an iPhone app for that.
With patient demand pushing dispensaries in several of the fourteen states that allow medical marijuana to expand their business, the Obama administration last week ordered the Justice Department to respect state laws and stop harassing them.
You would think, after our new president’s ups and downs on what is ultimately the road to wholesale legalization, that calling off the pot bullies would be, by all accounts, A Good Thing. Hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of Americans have used the approved stuff, after all, whether as therapeutic medicine or therapeutic something else.
N.J. lawmakers ask Gov. Corzine to pardon ill Franklin man facing marijuana charges
October 28th, 2009
Dakta Green
FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP (Somerset County) — A pair of New Jersey lawmakers are asking Gov. Jon Corzine to pardon a Somerset County man who is facing trial for growing marijuana to alleviate the symptoms of multiple sclerosis.
Sens. Nicholas Scutari and Raymond Lesniak (both D-Union) are urging Corzine to drop the most serious charge pending against Franklin Township resident John Ray Wilson, who is accused of first-degree maintaining or operating a drug-production facility and other offenses. If convicted, the 37-year-old faces up to 20 years in prison.
The case, being prosecuted by the state Attorney General’s Office, is an “inappropriate” and “inhumane application of the letter of the law,” the senators said in a release today.
“It seems cruel and unusual to treat New Jersey’s sick and dying as if they were drug cartel kingpins,” said Scutari (D-Union), who is the prime sponsor of the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, which is pending before the state Assembly.
john-wilson-marijuana.JPGPatti Sapone/The Star-LedgerJohn Ray Wilson listens during his hearing in Somerset County Superior Court in July. Wilson, who has multiple sclerosis, has been charged with growing marijuana plants.Wilson was arrested in August 2008 after a helicopter pilot spotted marijuana plants growing behind his home. Detectives then found well-worn trails leading to 17 plants, some up to 6-feet tall. His case has drawn widespread attention as lawmakers ponder whether New Jersey will become the 14th state to give patients with debilitating illnesses structured access to the drug.
BREAKING NEWS: California Lawmakers To Debate Marijuana Legalization Tomorrow!
October 28th, 2009
Dakta Bourbon
California state lawmakers are scheduled to hear testimony tomorrow in support of taxing and regulating the commercial production and distribution of marijuana for adults age 21 and older.
Members of the California Assembly Committee on Public Safety have called for the hearing, entitled “Examining the Fiscal and Legal Implication of the Legalization and Regulation of Marijuana.” The hearing will be chaired by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), sponsor of Assembly Bill 390, the Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education Act. It will take place at 10am in room 126 of the State Capitol.
A press conference will take place prior to the hearing at 9 am in Capitol Room 317.
California NORML Coordinator Dale Gieringer is scheduled to testify before the Committee at noon. [Editor's note: Read Dale's written testimony here.] NORML has also submitted prepared testimony to the Committee, which is available online here.
States Pressed Into New Role on Medical Marijuana
October 27th, 2009
Dakta Bourbon
Stephen Pfankuch, left, with Max Eisler, an employee at In Harmony Wellness, a medical marijuana dispensary in Windsor, Colo.
By KIRK JOHNSON on nytimes.com
GREELEY, Colo. — Health and law enforcement officials around the nation are scrambling to figure out how to regulate medical marijuana now that the federal government has decided it will no longer prosecute legal users or providers.
For years, since the first medical marijuana laws were passed in the mid-1990s, many local and state governments could be confident, if not complacent, knowing that marijuana would be kept in check because it remained illegal under federal law, and that hard-nosed federal prosecutors were not about to forget it.
Bongzai Challenge this weekend!
October 27th, 2009
Dakta Bourbon
Entires for the Bongzai Challenge are limited, so you may want to head into the Daktory and reserve yourself a place.
More details available on our facebook event page.
Judge rules L.A.’s ban on new medical marijuana dispensaries is invalid
October 21st, 2009
Dakta Bourbon
Taken from http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pot-moratorium20-2009oct20,0,2288177.story
Budtender Kim prepares an order for a client at Green Oasis, a medical marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles. A Superior Court judge decided that the city of Los Angeles’ moratorium on new dispensaries is invalid and granted a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the ban sought by Green Oasis, which had sued the city. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times / October 19, 2009)
Los Angeles’ ban on new medical marijuana dispensaries is invalid, a Superior Court judge said Monday in a decision that undermines the city’s 4-month-old drive to shut down hundreds of the stores.
The judge issued an injunction banning enforcement of the moratorium against Green Oasis, a dispensary in Playa Vista that had challenged the ban. But city officials acknowledged the ruling would effectively block current efforts to enforce the ban against other dispensaries.
The decision came on the day the Obama administration issued guidelines that limit federal prosecution of medical marijuana users and dispensaries. A Justice Department memo makes official a policy change that the president adopted earlier this year — one that inadvertently contributed to the city’s dizzying dispensary boom.
Stiletto Stoners
October 21st, 2009
Dakta Green
Marie Claire editor-in-chief Joanna Coles disagreed with Hollands view that there is a large social stigma attached to smoking marijuana.
I have to say, that’s not what we are hearing from readers, she said on the Today Show. First of all, its decriminalized in 13 states, and I don’t think this is a generation of people who get excited about the fact that its illegal.
The inspiration for the article, Coles said, was hearing from readers that they were feeling stressed. Clearly, the economy is a great deal of stress for people and they wanted a way to unwind. And they found more and more of them were doing this [smoking marijuana] and they found it had less impact on them when they were going to work the next morning. So they didn’t want to drink. Its cheap and they felt they could do it in the privacy of their own home, and it was a very effective way to calm down.
Breaking News: President Obama Issues New Medical Marijuana Guidelines
October 20th, 2009
Dakta Green
http://blog.norml.org/2009/10/19/obama-administration-new-medical-marijuana-guidelines-are-issued/
In what can only be described as major departure in the so-called ‘war on drugs’, the Obama Administration is issuing a new three page memo this morning mapping out the federal government’s new guidelines for states that have laws protecting medical cannabis patients.
In February Attorney General Eric Holder indicated in a press conference that the Obama Administration–which favors physician-recommended access to medical cannabis–would abate from what had been an aggressive law enforcement (and propaganda) campaign against medical access to cannabis.
Today’s memo from the Department of Justice formalizes these changes and is a MAJOR victory for citizens who support cannabis law reform!
Massachusetts’ wheels look to be rolling
October 15th, 2009
Dakta Bourbon
Much like the path that The Daktory’s own Dakta Green will be taking in December this year, The case for legalisation is being argued in Massachusetts’ court.
from NORML.org
Harvard Law School Professor Charles Nesson will be arguing the appeal of my marijuana conviction for sharing a joint at the 2007 Boston Freedom Rally on the historic Boston Common with High Times associate publisher Rick Cusick. We both took the stand at our trial and testified under oath that we were certainly sharing a joint, and were protesting the constitutionality of the very marijuana laws under which we were arrested. Read the rest of this entry »