Ruling by State Appeal Judges Is a Win for Medical Marijuana Patients, Advocates Say.

SANTA ANA - The Garden Grove Police Department must return seized marijuana to a medical marijuana patient, a state appeals court ruled today, setting a precedent for police agencies statewide to refrain from such seizures.

A three-justice panel from the state's Fourth Appellate District ruled that police must give back eight grams of the drug from Felix Kha of Garden Grove in June 2005 during a traffic stop.

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After 20 years of trying to combat methamphetamine production by restricting the chemicals used to create it, there are encouraging signs that the strategy has reduced the drug's use.

The number of domestic labs has decreased dramatically since the days consumers could buy unlimited amounts of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, crucial ingredients in methamphetamine, and the latest report on local adult and juvenile arrestees from 2006 found that people in custody said meth was harder to find and more expense.

However, methamphetamine producers have always bounced back from coordinated efforts to restrict the drug's precursors. At least one man with intimate knowledge of methamphetamine production thinks they will once again find a way around the restrictions against pseudoephedrine and ephedrine.

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Sheriff calls taping of deputy legal because of criminal investigation, but some officials say there wasn't one

Whether Sheriff Pat Hedges is guilty of illegal eavesdropping depends largely on whether he ordered a criminal investigation into his department's narcotics unit and a chief deputy, as Hedges said when defending his actions.

But two investigators in the Sheriff's Department and one former high-ranking sheriff's official have told The Tribune there was no criminal investigation.

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This Tuesday, the Salinas City Council will consider adopting an ordinance which will expressly prohibit the operation of medical marijuana dispensaries within the city.

While this proposed ordinance does not prohibit qualified patients from possessing or using medical marijuana as prescribed by a physician, it will prohibit legal patients from getting their prescriptions filled at regulated dispensaries within city limits. The number of patients in California who rely on medical marijuana for treatment continues to increase as physicians have expanded the use of marijuana to treat symptoms of diseases such as headaches, spinal injuries, cancers, heart disease, arthritis, anorexia and depression.

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Regarding Michael Rosenthal's November 15 column:

Marijuana prohibition has done little other than burden millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens with criminal records. The University of Michigan's "Monitoring the Future Study" reports that lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the U.S. than any European country, yet America is one of the few Western countries that punish citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. The short-term health effects of marijuana are inconsequential compared to the long-term effects of criminal records.

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Several recent letters argue that cannabis isn't medicine.

1974, Medical College of Virginia, researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health to find evidence that marijuana damages the immune system, found instead that THC slowed the growth of three kinds of cancer in mice -- lung and breast cancer, and a virus-induced leukemia.

1988, Francis Young, DEA administrative law judge, calls cannabis "the safest therapeutic substance known to man."

The five remaining patients in the Compassionate Investigational New Drug program receive about half a pound of medical cannabis cigarettes each month from their pharmacists, provided by the U.S. government, grown at the University of Mississippi.

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If Oakland's newest college had a football team, the players would probably be more interested in snacks than sacks.

Imagine a school where the student teacher ratio is 15 to 1, and discussions range from politics and the law to how to bake brownies. Has Alice Waters gone academic? Nope. It's Oakland's Oaksterdam University, aka Cannabis College, and it opened in an empty storefront on 15th Street just last month.

The name is a play on similar institutions in freewheeling Amsterdam, and course offerings include Distribution, Weighing, and Packaging; Cooking and Concentrates (the aforementioned brownie class); Retail Management; and Budtending - which really needs no explanation, unless you're over the age of 80. And according to the school's ad in the SF Weekly, the money graduates jonesing for a career in weed can look forward to is surprisingly good - from $50K to $100K annually.

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San Lorenzo Critics Question Operation of Dispensaries

SAN LORENZO -- Along with two names on the ballot for one open seat on the San Lorenzo Village Homes Association board will be a question about whether residents want the board to approach the county about how medical marijuana dispensaries are being operated.

"We in San Lorenzo would like to know from our members if they feel the county should continue to operate them in their current form," said Homes Association President Wulf Bieschke. "A lot of residents feel the wool has been pulled over their heads."

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I was reading the classified section, and there was an ad that I found very interesting: "215 CAREGIVER seeks patients. Quality, affordable . . . Must have 215." What it should have said is, "Doper wants someone with a 215 card in order to be able grow marijuana legally."

This is what is wrong with the 215 law. The law is very clear. Section 11362.5 sub-section (2) (d), Section 11357, relating to the possession of marijuana, and Section 11358, relating to the cultivation of marijuana, shall not apply to a patient, or to a patient's primary caregiver, who possesses or cultivates marijuana for the personal medical purposes of the patient upon the written or oral recommendation or approval of a physician.

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Feds Say Outdoor Enforcement Is Driving Operations Inside

The Peninsula has sprouted a number of indoor marijuana cultivators in recent years, but this year in particular, indoor pot grows are popping up -- well, like weeds.

"Indoor grow operations are absolutely on the rise," said Cmdr. Mark Wyss of the county's Narcotics Task Force. "There's a huge profit in indoor growing for operators, and that's the driving trend."

The task force has busted 16 indoor grows so far this year -- and the number could easily rise to twice the amount of indoor marijuana cultivations in 2006.

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The easy way is to follow the path of least resistance. But that was not Dr. Claudia Jensen's way.

She trod the harder, rockier route taken by those whose conscience won't let them coast.

The Ventura physician's good fight ended Sept. 15 when she died of breast cancer at age 52 in a Mission Viejo hospital.

She left behind two daughters -- ages 17 and 20 -- hundreds of patients and a legacy of doing what her heart told her to do.

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[Re: Letters, Aug. 16] I'm a person who has had seizures since 1975. It was when I started using cannabis in 2005 that I saw my seizures reduced from over 36 to five per year. The reason why patients use cannabis is because it works for so many people.

I've been living two years practically seizure-free and I'm thankful to Los Angeles CityBeat, whose articles on medical cannabis in 2005 alerted me to the use of cannabis for seizure disorders.

Yvonne Collins

Los Angeles

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'Tis the season for north state marijuana growers to smuggle their illegal crop south.

"The harvest is done, they've dried their product and it's on the move," said Kurt Heuer, spokesman for the California Highway Patrol in Redding.

As officers cope with increased holiday traffic, they are on the lookout for people who could be carrying drugs or large amounts of money for dealers, Heuer said.

"Usually the dope is going south and the money is coming north," he said.

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Agents Say They're Probing Businesses

LONG BEACH - Tuesday's raid at a local medical marijuana clinic was the first of its kind for Long Beach, but it may not be the last, according to federal authorities.

Federal agents served the search warrant at Long Beach Compassionate Cooperative, 342 E. Fourth St., at about 11 a.m. Tuesday, seizing 33 kilos of dried marijuana and about $10,000 cash, said Special Agent Jose Martinez, a spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Los Angeles Field Division.

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DEA Agents Serve Warrant at Dispensary, Seize Cannabis, Arrest One in First Action Vs. L.B. Clinic.

LONG BEACH - Federal agents served a search warrant at a local medical marijuana dispensary on Tuesday, seizing cannabis and money and arresting one individual, authorities said Wednesday.

Tuesday's raid was the first of its kind in Long Beach since the 1996 passage of state Prop. 215, the Compassionate Use Act that legalized marijuana for patients with certain medical conditions.

Although state laws authorize the distribution of medical marijuana in certain circumstances, federal law still prohibits distribution of the drug for any purpose, Special Agent Jose Martinez, a spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Los Angeles Field Division, said Wednesday.

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Within 90 days, the California Supreme Court will use the case of a medical marijuana patient who lost his job to determine whether or not companies can fire medical cannabis users for testing positive for marijuana.

The ruling hinges on Gary Ross, a U.S. Air Force veteran who was honorably discharged from the military in 1980 because of back pains. Ross used the computer knowledge he learned to start a career as a computer assistant, said Ross' attorney Joseph Elford.

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After months of discussion, the Salinas City Council has banned medical marijuana dispensaries within city limits.

A 4-3 vote Tuesday decided in favor of an ordinance that will keep them out of Salinas.

"I'm sorry for the people who have cancer, who'll die because they don't have this to make it better," Councilman Sergio Sanchez said. "We talk about being a city of peace ... if we don't respect their rights, we'll be hypocritical."

As in August's tied decision, Sanchez and council members Jyl Lutes and Gloria De La Rosa voted to reject the ban, while council members Janet Barnes and Tony Barrera and Mayor Dennis Donohue voted in its favor.

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Law Similar To Marina, Seaside Bans

Salinas became the third city in Monterey County to ban medical marijuana dispensaries after a divided council voted Tuesday for an ordinance that prohibits their establishment.

After 75 minutes of debate, Mayor Dennis Donohue joined council members Steve Villegas, Janet Barnes and Tony Barrera in voting to adopt an ordinance that bans stores from selling pot for medical use. Marina and Seaside adopted similar measures earlier this year.

Councilwoman Jyl Lutes, whose first husband died of cancer and saw the relief he experienced from marijuana, was the most fervent supporter of allowing medical dispensaries in the city. She said it was unfair to ask patients to drive to Santa Cruz -- the closest place where marijuana can be obtained legally -- or to grow it in their backyard, as Deputy City Attorney Chris Callihan said is allowed by state law for sick patients.

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Marijuana Seizures Soar in State, Sour Locally

Marijuana seizures nearly doubled this year in California, setting a record, but shriveled in Yuba and Sutter counties.

While Yuba-Sutter law enforcement officials normally can be found posing with piles of confiscated pot, this year a mere 1,001 plants were seized in rural areas, according to Mike Hudson, the new commander of the Yuba-Sutter Narcotic Enforcement Team, or NET-5.

All of the 1,001 plants, described as low-quality or "just crappy" by one law enforcement official, came from a seizure near Robbins in September. The growers had fled and no one was arrested.

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Council Members Had Voted In 2005 To Permit Medical Marijuana Dispensaries To Comply With The State Law.

HUNTINGTON BEACH Medical marijuana dispensaries are no longer legally allowed in Surf City after council members voted Monday to adopt an ordinance that essentially bans them from opening.

Surf City joined the increasing number of cities in Southern California that prohibit medical marijuana dispensaries after council members voted 5 to 2 to change the ordinance, after one person spoke against the ban.

Councilwomen Debbie Cook and Jill Hardy voted against the ban.

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