A letter writer sings the praises of a program designed to keep kids sober and safe. Many people are dying from diseases caused by tobacco, alcohol and drug use. This is happening because of addiction. We are losing precious lives, because most of the time children and adults don't know the possible effects of using these substances. However, one program can teach us about what can happen if you take drugs. This program is called D.A.R.E., or Drug Abuse Resistance Education. [continues 351 words]
Editor - I have to admit that when I read Matier & Ross on Dec. 5 ( "DEA cracks down on landlords of medical pot clubs"), I was deeply disturbed. I have to wonder if the feds are this harsh on the other states that have medical marijuana, or is it just the Bay Area? Our illustrious Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger keeps saying that he vetoed the gay marriage bill because people voted against it. Well, the people voted for Proposition 215. And with a mandate from the people, why don't we have marijuana dispensaries on state-owned land? Isn't it about time that the state of California backed up its own laws? Rupert Coles Novato [end]
Editor - It's encouraging that The Chronicle is exposing the current racist effect of drug laws on minorities ("S.F. is toughest on black drug offenders" Dec. 4), but it's evident most drug laws were enacted as a racist means to incarcerate minorities to begin with. For bigots who instituted America's drug laws, they are working as planned. Dillon, Colo. [end]
Restrictions to Be Considered MONTEREY PARK - The City Council voted Wednesday to temporarily ban medical marijuana dispensaries. In a unanimous vote, the council moved to impose a 45-day moratorium on pot shops. During that time, the city will consider zoning restrictions and other guidelines for dispensaries, officials said. The move follows two inquiries on the city's dispensary licensing process, officials said. There are no marijuana shops in Monterey Park, and the city has no regulations for the "clubs," which can under state law distribute pot to those with a doctor's prescription. [continues 336 words]
SISKIYOU COUNTY - More than four years after the California Legislature's passage of Senate Bill 420, Siskiyou County is taking steps to implement a voluntary registration of Proposition 215 recommendation users. Proposition 215 - also known as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 - allows people with a valid doctor's recommendation to possess and cultivate marijuana for personal medical use. According to Siskiyou County District Attorney Kirk Andrus, SB 420 'puts some rules into Prop 215.' 'Pardon the pun, but SB 420 weeds out those who are in compliance with the law and those who aren't,' he said. [continues 661 words]
Zoning Restrictions Mulled MONTEREY PARK - The City Council voted Wednesday to temporarily ban medical marijuana dispensaries. In a unanimous vote, the council moved to impose a 45-day moratorium on pot shops. During that time, the city will consider zoning restrictions and other guidelines for dispensaries, officials said. The move follows two inquiries on the city's dispensary licensing process, officials said. There are no marijuana shops in Monterey Park, and the city has no regulations for the "clubs," which can under state law distribute pot to those with a doctor's prescription. [continues 336 words]
OROVILLE -- When a Paradise woman began growing and selling medical marijuana as part of a "collective" involving more than 50 other local patients, she never thought she could end up losing her home. Documents show that after being contacted by Butte County sheriff's officers, federal prosecutors obtained a lien against Patricia Hatton's two-bedroom residence under a separate asset-forfeiture action in U.S. District Court in Sacramento. Though Hatton said she still doesn't feel she committed a crime, she agreed to plead guilty to pot cultivation in exchange for receiving a 20 percent share of the sale of her 6893 Lunar Lane house, which the ridge woman said was recently appraised at $190,000. [continues 519 words]
Judge Expected To Decide Friday If Felony Charges Will Stand For 3 Men A Riverside County judge will decide on Friday whether three men accused of profiting from a former Palm Desert medical marijuana dispensary will stand trial on felony charges. Stacy Hochanadel, who owned CannaHelp in Palm Desert, and managers James Campbell and John Bednar, all 31, contend they were running a legal medical marijuana business under Proposition 215 and Senate Bill 420. The men are charged with multiple drug-related felonies, including possession of marijuana for sale and the transportation and sale of marijuana. Authorities also contend the trio profited from the business. [continues 377 words]
Proposition 215, the California Compassionate Use Act, was enacted by the voters and took effect on November 6, 1996, as California Health & Safety Code 11362.5. The law removes criminal penalties for personal use possession and cultivation of marijuana for medical purposes by patients (and their designated "primary caregivers") who have a physician's recommendation or approval. Senate Bill 420, a legislative statute, went into effect on January 1, 2004, as California Health and Safety Code 11362.7-.83. This law broadens Prop. 215 to transportation and other offenses in certain circumstances; allows patients to "collectively or cooperatively" cultivate for medical purposes; allows probationers, parolees, and prisoners to apply for permission to use medical marijuana; and sets limits on where marijuana may be smoked. The law also establishes a statewide, voluntary ID card system, which when fully operational, patients with ID cards will be protected from arrest provided they adhere to specified quantity limits. [continues 394 words]
RANCHO CUCAMONGA - When Lanny Swerdlow decided to attend a meeting in October of the Inland Valley Drug Free Community Coalition, he intended to hear the group's message and pass out fliers in support of medical marijuana. Instead, the activist ended up in the back of a San Bernardino County sheriff's squad car, arrested for allegedly assaulting a guest speaker who denied him entry to the public event. On Wednesday Swerdlow pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge. Swerdlow insists he did not push the speaker, Paul Chabot, and was denied entry and subsequently arrested because of his stance on medical marijuana. [continues 438 words]
Mexican drug trafficking organizations have expanded the marijuana cultivation in public lands in Mendocino County in a major way since 2000. Based primarily on the number of plants eradicated by the County of Mendocino Marijuana Eradication Team, 2007 appears to have been a bumper marijuana crop year with more than 320,000 plants eradicated this season. Mexican DTOs find it cost effective to grow pot in this and other rural Northern California counties for a number of reasons. The penalty for growing pot continues to be substantially lower than for drugs of other varieties. Personnel apprehended for marijuana grows do not typically face long jail sentences, and one needs only look at arrest logs to determine Mendocino County arrests do not appear to discourage many from repetitively participating in the business. [continues 648 words]
Panel Rejects Proposed Del Aire Facility, Citing a Nearby Child-Care Facility. County regional planning commissioners Wednesday turned down a permit application that would have allowed a medical marijuana dispensary near Los Angeles International Airport. The decision came after Del Aire residents complained that the store would contribute to the area's seedy atmosphere and be too close to a child-care facility. A closed bar, check-cashing business, strip club and motel stand near the vacant building at 11816 Aviation Blvd. in the unincorporated neighborhood of Del Aire. [continues 485 words]
Humboldt State University Economics Professor Erick Eschker, who also chairs the Economics Department, created a major kerfuffle with a report that has housing prices plummeting downward as much as 40 percent. Titled "It's A National Housing Market," the piece set off a quick reaction from local realtors, who took out full-page ads in both Eureka dailies that said, in essence, that the lowered housing prices make this a great time to buy. Eschker arrived at his conclusion after noting the historical bond between rental costs and housing prices, which have diverged near-exponentially since around 2003. Realtors, accustomed to the steady upward march of home prices (and commissions) were quick to pooh-pooh the relationship and thus the prediction, but other studies since the October report have arrived at similar conclusions using entirely different criteria. [continues 415 words]
Raids and Regulations As the operators of Santa Barbara's remaining medical marijuana dispensaries braced themselves for possible federal raids, the ordinance committee of the Santa Barbara City Council met on Tuesday to grapple with how best to regulate the operation of such facilities--legal under state law but federally prohibited--throughout the city. Based on the remarks of the councilmembers involved, the regulatory approach will consist of a mix of the rules that currently guide the operation of pharmacies and adult bookstores. Borrowing from similar ordinances in about nine other California cities, city planners crafted a grab bag of proposed regulations that received mixed reviews from medical marijuana proponents and councilmembers alike. [continues 628 words]
The Sonora City Council voted unanimously Monday to ban marijuana smoking in public, but the revised ordinance it adopted says nothing about consuming the weed in other ways. "The smoking of marijuana" has been added to the prohibitions listed in Ordinance No. 778, Public Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages. The revision was proposed by Sonora Police Sgt. Turu VanderWiel in September. VanderWiel saw the need to make all marijuana smoking, even with a prescription, illegal on city streets. The revision was introduced at an Oct. 15 city council meeting. At that time the ordinance was to be retitled, "Public Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages or Use of Marijuana." [continues 113 words]
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is pushing to close San Francisco's cannabis clubs by turning its guns on their landlords - warning them that renting to pot dispensaries could cost them their buildings. The agency intends to send letters by week's end to 80 owners of buildings housing medical marijuana clubs, similar to notices it fired off recently to landlords in Los Angeles and Sacramento, according law enforcement sources. "By this notice, you have been made aware of the purposes for which the property is being used," said a copy of the letter sent to Sacramento landlords, signed by the special agent in charge of the DEA's San Francisco office, Javier Pena. [continues 464 words]
Hearing Resumes at 1:30 P.M. INDIO - An ATM that was regularly stocked with thousands of dollars was found inside a now-defunct medical marijuana dispensary that also offered videos, hats and T-shirts for sale, a sheriff's investigator testified today in the preliminary hearing for the dispensary's owner and managers, who are facing drug charges. Stacy Hochanadel, the former owner of CannaHelp, and managers James Campbell and John Bednar, all 31, are charged with felony possession of marijuana for sale, transport and sale of marijuana and keeping a place to sell a controlled substance. [continues 833 words]
Garden Grove police are ordered to return a suspect's marijuana. But the ruling is not as strange as it sounds. There's no denying that it sounds wacky: The California Court of Appeal has upheld a lower court decision ordering the police to give back the marijuana seized from a driver during a routine traffic stop. This is likely to generate a wave of "Only in California" jokes, but just because it's wacky doesn't mean it's wrong. [continues 388 words]
San Francisco imprisons African Americans for drug offenses at a much higher rate than whites, according to a report to be released today by a nonprofit research institute. In a study of nearly 200 counties nationwide, the Justice Policy Institute found that 97 percent of large-population counties have racial disparities between the number of black people and white people sent to prison on drug convictions. The institute, which is based in Washington, D.C., and researches public policy and promotes alternatives to incarceration, says whites and African Americans use illicit drugs at similar rates. But black people account for more than 50 percent of sentenced drug offenders, though they make up only 13 percent of the nation's population. [continues 814 words]
To the Editor: Your Nov. 15 story, "Pot busts way up in '07," omitted important context regarding this record-setting year for California's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP). Despite a roughly 2,000 percent increase in plant seizures over the past decade, there is no evidence that CAMP has made even a dent in the supply of marijuana, which remains the state's number one cash crop. The U.S. Department of Justice's just-released National Drug Threat Assessment found that these "eradication" campaigns are simply driving growers to new locations - often indoor operations in residential neighborhoods. What does the Justice Department predict for the future of "marijuana eradication?" Let me quote their exact words: "Increased cannabis cultivation may result in reduced marijuana prices. ... Criminal groups that traditionally grew cannabis outdoors will likely move operations indoors ... the groups will produce higher-potency marijuana year-round, allowing for an exponential increase in profits." This is crazy. If California regulated marijuana production just as we regulate our wine industry, the problems associated with marijuana cultivation would evaporate. After all, when was the last time you heard of criminal gangs planting vineyards in national parks or suburban homes? Bruce Mirken, director of communications Marijuana Policy Project, Washington, D.C. [end]
Inside California
