In Affluent Simi Valley, Houses Are Large, the SUVs Gleam and Many Kids Are Addicts A Christmas Tree in a Suburban Shopping Malls Helps Tell the New Story of Heroin Widespread Painkiller Prescriptions Helped Fueled Opiate Addiction and Death Town Center in the Los Angeles suburb of Simi Valley is not a remarkable place as malls go. A freeway runs alongside it. There's a Buffalo Wild Wings, a movie theater, and a motorized train that takes toddlers on rides around the mall. Since last Saturday, a large Christmas tree covered in ornaments stands in the middle of the shopping center, next to a Starbucks. [continues 1044 words]
Federal Government Remains at Odds With States on Drug Policy But Congress Is Giving States Leeway on Medical Marijuana Laws Ban on Federal Funds for Needle-Exchange Programs Gone, Too Somewhere a calculator is ticking, counting the billions of dollars the United States continues to blow on the war on drugs. Thankfully, Congress, seems to have gotten the memo that it's time for a strategic retreat in some quarters. For evidence of this, look no further than its $1.1 trillion spending bill, set for a vote this week. [continues 379 words]
Thousands Attend Emerald Triangle Festival for Cannabis Industry With New Regulations for Medical Weed Coming, Many Are Happy Others Are Wary of Changes That Will Cost Them More Money, Time Tim Blake shook his head in awe as he stepped out of the smoky shadows and into the spotlight of a stage at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. Behind him, two huge red banners, each emblazoned with a cannabis leaf, hung unapologetically above the tables of trophies made to look like intricately blown glass bongs. Before him, thousands of weed aficionados were on their feet, cheering. A thick curl of pungent blunt smoke wafted by, not that anyone else besides me turned around to find the source. [continues 679 words]
Marijuana Should Not Be Easier for a Minor to Access Than Alcohol Ballot Measure Includes Strictest Child Safeguards Proposed in Pot Legislation Measure Would Help Restore Natural Resources, Prevent Unauthorized Water Diversion As the former division chief for preventive medicine at the California Department of Public Health, I know that, like alcohol, marijuana has potential health consequences for California youths. Unfortunately, our current legal approach to non-medical marijuana use is failing to protect our kids. It is unregulated yet widely available without any child protections. [continues 566 words]
Re "Weed law will not protect kids" (The Conversation, Letters, Nov. 15): We need draconian laws against illegal parking! Stiff fines, jail terms, confiscate the cars. Why, you ask? All reckless drivers have dabbled in illegal parking at some point. Ridiculous? This argument works for pot, why not illegal parking? The same argument implies that mother's milk and alcohol and tobacco lead to drug addiction. Doris Concklin wrote that "it is without question an entry drug for those who will come to embrace a drug culture." Actually there is a lot to question here. She says that all mothers who began with marijuana moved on to meth, heroin and cocaine. [continues 54 words]
Re "Help wanted: Medical pot chief" (The Buzz, Nov. 10): My neighbor grows a single 10-foot marijuana plant. Pot is not nicknamed skunk weed for nothing. Due to the stench, I have no enjoyment of my patio and yard. If this new medical marijuana rules chief allows people to grow even a single plant, then neighbors should be allowed to sue for the nuisance. We are getting closer to approving recreational pot, so maybe everyone will be on their couches scarfing peanut butter cups and nobody will care about the outdoors anyway. Dan Fiske, Sacramento [end]
At first, Gavin Newsom's marijuana legalization initiative took on an air of inevitability Legalization initiative would limit local officials' ability to restrict marijuana businesses Corporations could control all aspects of marijuana business, from field to retail Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom's marijuana legalization initiative seemed to be giving off the scent of inevitability last week. Its unwieldy name aside, the "Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act" heading for the 2016 ballot would strengthen law enforcement and allow local control, the proponents claimed. And the kids would win, too. [continues 905 words]
Former State Public Health Official Will Head Ballot Effort Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom Says Measure Is in Line With His Views Doctors' Group Backs Legalization; Will Evaluate Measure Donald Lyman, a retired physician and former board member at the California Medical Association, said Monday he will lead a well-funded statewide effort to legalize recreational marijuana next year. Lyman, of Sacramento, is the chief proponent for the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, the long-awaited legalization measure introduced Monday that's expected to receive funding from former Facebook president Sean Parker and be guided by veteran Democratic political consultant Gale Kaufman. [continues 855 words]
Judge Recently Ruled That Congress Has Banned Federal Actions Against State-Permitted Marijuana Businesses Ruling Cited Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, Which Was Shuttered in a 2011 Federal Crackdown Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana Operator Lynnette Shaw Plans to Reopen the Business In 1991, amid the AIDS crisis in San Francisco, a former jazz and blues singer named Lynnette Shaw was hired as the intake officer at the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club, California's first medical marijuana dispensary. The modest Cannabis Buyers Club would eventually transform into a flamboyant weed emporium on Market Street that founder Dennis Peron dubbed "the five-story felony." Shaw, who would partner with Peron in backing California's Proposition 215 medical marijuana law, went another direction months before the initiative passed in 1996. She ventured across San Francisco Bay to establish California's first locally permitted and regulated medical marijuana provider. [continues 1410 words]
New Group of Prominent Law Enforcement Leaders Say Too Many Nonviolent Offenders Are in Prison Bipartisan Bill on Sentencing Reform Passes Senate Committee President Obama is on a tour to promote reform and should bring it to California President Barack Obama listens during a community discussion Wednesday in Charleston, W.Va., on the prescription drug and heroin abuse epidemics. Steve Helber The Associated Press By the Editorial Board A critical mass appears to be forming to limit America's prison population growth. [continues 317 words]
Big donors, led by former Facebook president Sean Parker, are lining up to fund a 2016 California initiative to legalize marijuana for recreational use. But behind the scenes, legalization efforts are splitting California marijuana advocates with national drug-policy groups over such things as including initiative language to protect marijuana users from job discrimination or over how tightly to restrict pot cultivation or cannabis industry operations. With billionaires now readying to fund legalization efforts, some cannabis activists fear they will be left on the sidelines on an issue they pioneered and elevated to political relevance. [continues 1376 words]
Re "Pot industry ready for budding market" (Insight, Oct. 19): Unless California's law regulating cannabis pressures the federal government and the FDA into a complete rescheduling of pot and its decriminalization, it falls far short of sane or humane policy. Weed, or any other substance when used as medicine, should be treated like all medicines. It should be sold in any pharmacy by prescription, dispensed by health professionals, untaxed, and totally removed from the notion of dispensaries, which force our elders, terminally ill and people beset with pain to find their way to some remote location, where someone tells you that exorbitantly priced Supernova Blue buds are dynamite. [continues 56 words]
Gov. Jerry Brown this month signed regulations he said would bring "robust controls" to govern California's long untamed medical marijuana industry, with clear standards for "local government, law enforcement, businesses, patients and health providers." Steve DeAngelo, executive director of Oakland's Harborside Health Center medical marijuana dispensary, said the new rules signal that "we're going to move from a nonprofit service model to a for-profit service model." Michael Allen Jones Sacramento Bee file His signature also may bring something else: a decidedly robust new era for cannabis commerce. By 2018 or sooner, marijuana businesses from small pot farms to cannabis superstores effectively can begin earning legal profits under the nation's most diverse state licensing scheme for pot. [continues 1642 words]
California's billion-dollar medical cannabis industry, for years overseen by local governments that complained about an anything-goes environment, will come under a statewide regulatory system through a package of bills Gov. Jerry Brown signed on Friday, calling the framework "long-overdue." "This new structure will make sure patients have access to medical marijuana, while ensuring a robust tracking system," Brown wrote in a signing statement. Brown's endorsement of the sweeping package came nearly two decades after California legalized medical marijuana a period in which cities and counties have struggled to regulate proliferating dispensaries and vast outdoor grow sites and just over a year before a ballot measure seeking full legalization will almost certainly go before California voters. [continues 342 words]
Given politicians' predilection to appear tough on crime, a bipartisan compromise to possibly reduce draconian sentences for nonviolent drug offenders is a big deal. The long-awaited agreement, announced Thursday by eight key U.S. senators, would put into legislation some of the criminal justice reforms that President Barack Obama seeks to leave as a legacy. The bill deserves to move forward in Congress. Among other changes, the measure would shorten mandatory federal sentences for repeat drug criminals; give federal judges more discretion to make sure that low-level dealers don't get the same punishment as drug kingpins; and bring 6,000 inmates under a 2010 law that reduced the racially skewed disparity between sentences for crack and powder cocaine. [continues 388 words]
Re "Some marijuana regulation, finally" (Editorials, Sept. 20): We are supposed to be a nation of laws and not men - where the rules we live by apply to everyone equally. But how can our elected representatives compromise on legislation when there is no guarantee whether the legislation will be enforced? A classic example is immigration law and the legalization of marijuana. Arizona tried to enforce border security on its own, but the court ruled that it could not because border security was a federal responsibility and federal law prevails over state law. [continues 75 words]
The Bee's editorial board has proven it's streetwise, using the slang term "weed" in the editorial about cannabis regulation. Maybe the next time beer is mentioned in an editorial, the board can substitute the word "brewski." The editorial mentions there is a lack of hard science on cannabis. I think the board has been drinking too many brewskis and not doing its research. There is definitely scientific evidence demonstrating the efficacy of cannabis at relieving symptoms from a number of maladies including neuropathic pain. However, the federal government has been the biggest obstacle in furthering the science on cannabis. Research is happening around the globe, and it is accelerating. It's important to get the facts straight since there is plenty of ignorance to go around. Mark Collen, Sacramento [end]
After years of false starts and nearly two decades after California legalized cannabis for medical purposes, lawmakers Friday sent Gov. Jerry Brown a legislative package to regulate the billion-dollar industry. Medical marijuana would be newly defined as an agricultural product with rules for water use, discharge and pesticides, and would be tracked and tested through the process. The trio of bills would allow for testing and labeling of edible marijuana, overseen by the Department of Public Health, and prevent environmental degradation like water diversion via the Department of Food and Agriculture, which would also manage cultivation. [continues 908 words]
Re "State wants pot farms to become water-wise" (Page 1A, Aug. 30): It's encouraging that elected officials and regulatory agencies are finally seriously addressing legal cannabis cultivation's environmental impacts and trying to bring cultivators into compliance with existing law regarding water use. However, the focus needs to be broadened to include the breadth of environmental impacts. The photos accompanying The Sacramento Bee's article about the special enforcement program on cannabis cultivation were a stark reminder that cultivators clear cut large swaths of forest land, which breaks up forest ecosystems and damages wildlife habitat and corridors. [continues 63 words]
Willow Creek - The California Department of Fish and Wildlife helicopter circled over steep timberland in Humboldt County's coastal mountains, prowling for potential water diversions and environmental damage caused by what is arguably the state's most lucrative agricultural product: marijuana. The problems weren't hard to find. The pot farms below sprawled out with factory-like orderliness. From the air, the rows of budding plants resembled citrus orchards. Leveled terraces supported plastic-lined greenhouses capable of producing multiple marijuana yields. Giant water tanks stood nearby. [continues 2154 words]
Traveling with a large amount of cash can be risky in California. An owner of a food truck from Northern California traveled to Los Angeles to make a large purchase. He had $10,000 in cash with him - not unusual, given that he operated a cash-based business. Unfortunately, his $10,000 was taken - by law enforcement. His cash was seized at a drug interdiction stop and, while no illegal drugs were found in his vehicle and he wasn't charged with a crime, his money was taken anyway under a process called civil asset forfeiture. [continues 535 words]
Every year, tens of thousands of Americans die of overdoses of prescription opioid painkillers. Every year, tens of thousands more overdose and live, many of them right here in Sacramento County. Also, every year, thousands of Americans die of a heroin overdose. The number jumps every year. And every year, a new study comes out showing the connection between the abuse of prescription opioids and heroin. None of this is a secret. But you wouldn't know that watching the federal government in action. [continues 499 words]
Pushing hard to at last regulate California's free-for-all medical marijuana industry, state lawmakers are wrestling with how a tightly regulated cannabis market would work. Increasingly, the answer looks to be a lot like the market for alcohol. Long-standing alcohol laws rigidly separate producers, distributors and vendors. The decades-old "tied-house" formula was conceived largely as an antidote to the gangsterism of Prohibition, seeking to disrupt the liquor monopolies organized crime groups had established. If Assembly Bill 266 passes - as looks more likely than with any previous attempt, given the support of law enforcement, cities and the large majority of Assembly members who voted it off the floor - a similar approach could apply to medical cannabis. [continues 946 words]
Here is a challenge for you. Reconcile the following: In 1791, the Bill of Rights was ratified, including the Fourth Amendment, guaranteeing "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures." In 2015, a 21-year-old woman named Charnesia Corley says she underwent a public body-cavity search for drugs at a gas station in Texas. Explain, if you can, how the former and the latter can be simultaneously true. [continues 559 words]
Media outlets, including The Sacramento Bee's editorial board, and public officials, including the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, have seized upon statements from state Fish and Wildlife officials about marijuana and water use in a few creeks in Northern California to greatly overstate the problem, causing unfair backlash for genuine medical marijuana patients. California NORML has challenged the figure of 5 to 10 gallons of water per day that's being used to further vilify cannabis during the drought ("Pot grown outside is a waste of water," Editorials, July 31). [continues 310 words]
Re "Legal pot would be detrimental" (Letters, Aug. 2): Letter writer Regina Viani wants to keep pot illegal for the sake of the children. She doesn't realize that the black market puts our kids at great risk. Drug dealers don't care about a child's age, and offer a wide range other illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine, and provide a product that could be laced with who-knows-what and contaminated with pesticides. There will always be a big demand for marijuana. Kids report that pot is easier to get than alcohol and they will continue to buy on the black market. Regulation and taxation is the only way to protect children. Jeff Meyers, Westlake Village [end]
Re "Pot grown outside is a waste of water" (Editorials, July 31): Your editorial on the outdoor cultivation of cannabis is absurd. The size of the cannabis plant will determine how much water she requires and how often she requires watering. I cannot speak to a plant that requires 5 to 10 gallons per day, as I have never come close to growing such a gargantuan plant. Nine plants of modest size drink between 4.5 and 9 gallons every two days, depending on the temperature and their stage of growth. That's a far cry from the 5 to 10 gallons of water per plant cited by your editorial. This amount of water can easily be recovered from one's shower or sink. [continues 79 words]
Re "Newsom takes high road on marijuana" (Forum, Dan Morain, July 26): What real value does legalizing marijuana for recreational use have? A euphemism for marijuana is dope. Its sole purpose is to get someone high. Isn't it enough that smoking cigarettes has been proven to be hazardous to our well-being? Instead of moving forward to a better future for our children and society, our lieutenant governor has nothing better to do than to promote this legislation legalizing a drug that will detrimentally alter not only your lungs, but every organ in your body. And, with this product, you can bake as well as smoke it. Yippee. [continues 55 words]
To hear local medical marijuana advocates tell it, they are martyrs and misunderstood victims of misplaced drought-shaming. But there's nothing misplaced about what the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors did earlier this week. With their minds rightly on conserving water in a drought, they doubled down on policies that limit how much pot can be grown in unincorporated areas of the county and penalize people who ignore those rules. In many ways, this issue is nothing new. Growing medical marijuana has been illegal outdoors since last year, when the supervisors decided to crack down on huge operations at the southern end of the county. It remains OK to do it indoors as long as it's only nine plants. [continues 308 words]
A panel of academic, legal and law enforcement experts led by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom has produced a sensible set of recommendations on how California should legalize recreational marijuana, if that's the path we choose. Unfortunately, there's no guarantee these smart policies will be built into any of the legalization initiatives possibly headed to the November 2016 ballot. A new initiative reform, however, gives the Legislature the opportunity to work with advocacy groups to improve a marijuana ballot measure. In its report issued Wednesday after two years of study, the Blue Ribbon Commission on Marijuana Policy gives legislators a helpful blueprint. [continues 465 words]
A guy named Philip Morris opened a tobacco shop in London in 1847, or so the story goes. When Phil passed on, the widow Margaret Morris took over the humble family business. Today, Philip Morris Inc., also known as Altria, is the world's largest cigarette maker and counts revenue of $30 billion a year. Last week, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and friends issued a 93-page report focused on how to go about the highly complex task of marijuana legalization. The Blue Ribbon Commission on Marijuana Policy report, the product of numerous hearings and advice from experts, made clear that the Phil and Maggie of marijuana should not be allowed to become the next Philip Morris. [continues 882 words]
The Alturas Rancheria - totaling three members or nine, depending on which faction one believes had not been content with the earnings from its humble wood-plank gambling house, the Desert Rose Casino. It had pursued various ill-fated ventures, including payday lending and manufacturing cigarettes. Now, Del Rosa warned in a series of letters to authorities, the tribe was converting a cavernous, tented event center on the reservation into a huge facility for growing marijuana. "The tribe is acting as a beard for private operators who are attempting to use the medical marijuana law of this state and tribal sovereignty for massive personal profit," Del Rosa wrote Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Ferrari in a letter dated May 27. [continues 1796 words]
In my 34-year career in law enforcement, I have seen many misrepresentations of crime and criminal justice policies. That practice, sadly, continues as California makes important, necessary changes to its justice systems. The most recent example is the column "Safety is about more than securing our borders" (Insight, Marcos Breton, July 15). The column misrepresents the intent and impact of Proposition 47, a voter initiative Californians approved in November to change six low-level, nonviolent offenses from felony to misdemeanor punishments. I voted for Proposition 47 because it will reduce waste in a bloated prison system that has had a recidivism rate of 60 percent for decades. [continues 300 words]
Over the years, Will Smith has built plastic display cases for major department stores and custom cabinets for collectors of movie memorabilia. Lately the Fair Oaks resident has discovered a booming business making similar products for a different sort of user: operators of medical marijuana dispensaries and legal pot shops. "We're on a real successful track," said Smith, 59. He operates a conventional fabrication operation All Plastic along with his edgier side business in a 6,000-square-foot factory and showroom at 2271 Sunrise Blvd. in Gold River. [continues 536 words]
In words and in deeds, Barack Obama is ramping up his crusade for criminal justice reform, a worthy undertaking for the final two years of his presidency. In a rousing speech to the NAACP on Tuesday and in more measured tones at the White House on Wednesday, Obama made the case that we need a more just criminal justice system as an issue of civil rights and racial equality. Thursday, he became the first sitting president to visit a federal prison - a penitentiary in Oklahoma - to spotlight the subject. Earlier this week, he commuted the sentences of 46 federal drug offenders, doubling the number during his presidency and surpassing the total of his four predecessors combined. [continues 407 words]
Re "It's past time to regulate medical marijuana" (Editorials, July 3): We at Cal NORML recognize that there are serious localized problems surrounding marijuana growing and its water use, and have been working again this year for the regulation of commercial-sized cannabis farms at a state level. However, statewide, the amount of water being used for marijuana is a drop in a bucket compared to the 35 million to 45 million acre-feet used for agriculture in California. We calculate that cannabis, licit and illicit, uses only 12,000 acre-feet of water yearly, which is in line with the Emerald Growers Association's estimate. Researcher Keith Humphreys of Stanford notes that, while the USDA data show that 936,000 acres are devoted to growing almonds, the marijuana consumption of the entire U.S. population could be cultivated using only 1 percent of that acreage. Let's be sure that we are looking at all possible solutions to the very real issues we face, instead of scapegoating a familiar, headline-grabbing one. Ellen Komp, Sacramento [end]
Re "It's past time to regulate medical marijuana" (Editorials, July 2): I appreciate the concern expressed in your recent editorial over the environmental harms of marijuana grows, especially here on the North Coast where I live. While it is common for growers to procure a medical marijuana recommendation, most of the marijuana grown on the North Coast is sold out of state on the black market. Regulated grow sites should have to prove they sell only to dispensaries, with none diverted to the black market. [continues 71 words]
Pot is killing coho salmon. Trickle by trickle, spring by tiny spring, the cold, clear water these fish need to survive is going to weed. Illegal marijuana cultivation is widely recognized as an environmental menace, polluting streams and forests with pesticides and damaging wildlife and habitat by bulldozing trees and soil to create grow sites. Less well known are the impacts of water diverted to pot plants and their cumulative effects on coho salmon, Chinook salmon and steelhead trout, all threatened species. [continues 594 words]
The cost of inaction couldn't be more clear. Acres of ancient trees are disappearing and illegal marijuana farms are popping up in their place. Streams and rivers are being sucked dry, diverted sometimes miles away through plastic pipes into tanks. Several species of fish, along with a rare breed of wild rodent, are on the verge of extinction. All of this is happening now, all across California, but particularly in the North Coast. All in the name of growing marijuana and meeting consumer demand. [continues 386 words]
Marijuana Growers Are Clear-Cutting Trees and Using Pesticides Bill would expand statewide a pilot program to address environmental problems In 1996, California voters decided that marijuana should be available for medical use. Since then, most of the state's medical cannabis has been grown in parts of Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties, known as the "Emerald Triangle." Nearly 30 years ago, my wife and I moved to Northern California to start a business and raise a family. We chose to escape the hectic pace of life in Southern California to a place of breathtaking beauty by day and night skies full of stars we hadn't seen in years. While residents and visitors may come from different places, we all share a profound appreciation for the natural beauty of the North Coast the majestic redwoods, beautiful rivers and abundant wildlife. [continues 343 words]
As a lifelong conservative, I'm no fan of government regulation. Even so, I'm convinced it's time for California to aggressively regulate the medical marijuana industry. I've spoken with concerned citizens, local government officials, rural law enforcement officers, federal officials, anti-drug crusaders and medical marijuana industry insiders. George Runner | courtesy candidate courtesy candidate I visited the Emerald Triangle with fellow Board of Equalization member Fiona Ma. Our April tour showed how we can work with the industry to generate greater voluntary compliance with California law. [continues 540 words]
The Mile High City definitely is. A survey by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment shows 18.5 percent of adults 18 and older in Denver have smoked, vaped or eaten marijuana in the past month. By comparison, 13.6 percent of Colorado adults statewide and 7.4 percent nationally have used the weed in the past 30 days. Kevin A. Sabet, head of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, an organization opposed to legalization, said the first major survey of marijuana use in one of the first two states to legalize the weed suggests consumption is rising, while it's leveling off in the rest of the country. [continues 390 words]
America was built on a foundation of second chances. For centuries, immigrants from all parts of the world have come to the United States for an opportunity to build a better life in a country where redemption is reality and where people thrive. But for communities of color especially immigrants that land doesn't really exist. Instead, many work for their second chance only to have it taken away from them. Our justice and immigration systems have evolved in such piecemeal, haphazard ways that enforcement of the law is uneven and the protections of the law are unequally applied, especially pertaining to drugs and deportations. This is a particular problem in California, where half of all children live in a household led by at least one foreign-born parent. [continues 509 words]
Re "Hash oil burns are exploding danger" (Page 1A, June 7): Hudson Sangree's article underscores the need to crack down on illegal hash oil labs. These labs are ticking time bombs that could maim or kill not just the hash oil makers, but anyone in close proximity to them, including children. Hash oil lab explosions across California over the last three years have injured 10 children and left one dead. That is why I authored Senate Bill 305 earlier this year that would add a penalty enhancement against those who manufacture butane hash oil in the presence of children. It also would allow prosecutors to seek further enhancements when a child suffers great bodily injury. Even with broad law enforcement support, the Senate Appropriations Committee held SB 305 in May. The Sacramento Bee article emphasizes the need for the Legislature to act without delay. Sen. Patricia C. Bates, R-Laguna Niguel [end]
On her cellphone, Tracey Clark keeps snapshots of her two sons dressed as groomsmen at a family friend's wedding last fall. The younger boy, 13, smiles under a mop of curly brown hair. His older brother, 15, is clean cut and handsome. Flipping ahead in her phone's photo gallery, Clark shares pictures of her boys taken two months later, when they're almost unrecognizable. In November, the teens landed in intensive care at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Sacramento, enveloped in gauze, breathing tubes in their throats, their faces raw and red from the massive third-degree burns suffered in a fire, which prosecutors say was caused by an illegal hash-oil lab at their uncle's duplex in Butte County. [continues 1434 words]
Nearly two decades after California established a medical marijuana program, the patchwork of local regulations on the billion-dollar industry is often distilled to just two words: Wild West. Supporters and critics alike use the same description, but year after year in the Legislature, attempts to enact statewide controls on medical marijuana cultivation and sales fall through. Now that sophisticated political operators are crafting a 2016 measure to legalize pot, dispensary and law enforcement groups who want a regulatory framework for medical cannabis believe it's time to settle the issue. [continues 978 words]
Newsom Learned Lesson of Prop. 47 A blue ribbon commission led by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom deserves a pat on the back for taking a thoughtful approach to a likely 2016 initiative to legalize marijuana in California. In its first major progress report, the panel called Thursday for detailed study on issues such as how to tax marijuana in a fair way that eliminates the black market, how to determine driving under the influence of marijuana, and how to protect children and teenagers. [continues 534 words]
With the passage of Proposition 215, California became the first state in the nation to legalize medical marijuana. Nearly two decades later, it has fallen behind. As other states have moved to regulate the cannabis industry, California's industry remains the Wild West. The absence of a clear set of state regulations leaves a wildly inconsistent set of local ordinances that can literally vary from block to block. To the growing frustration of consumers and neighbors alike, this semi-legitimacy has also left workers vulnerable to a host of potential hazards. [continues 463 words]
Imagine this: You get pulled over by police. Maybe they claim you were seven miles over the speed limit, maybe they say you made an improper lane change. Doesn't matter, because the traffic stop is only a pretext. Using that pretext, they ask permission to search your car for drugs. You give permission and they search. Or you decline permission, but that doesn't matter, either. They make you wait until a drug-sniffing canine can be brought to the scene, then tell you the dog has indicated the presence of drugs - and search anyway. [continues 581 words]
The victory of Proposition 47 in California on Tuesday is another example of the public's waning support of 20th century tough-on-crime policies that stuffed state prisons to unhealthy levels. We sure hope the public knows what it is doing, because the provisions of the measure began Wednesday. That means, from now on, people convicted of drug possession and petty property crime will not face jail time. It is supposed to save the state hundreds of millions each year by diverting low-level felons into addiction and mental health programs some of which exist, others just imagined. [continues 426 words]
