Outgoing Mendocino County District Attorney Meredith Lintott has ruled the August 18 shooting of Mariano Lopez-Fernandez, 31, of Boonville, by the Mendocino County SWAT Team was justified. The district attorney's office conducted an on-scene investigation following the shooting, interviewing witnesses and gathering forensic evidence. The district attorney concluded Lopez-Fernandez died after he "took a position of cover behind a large group of trees and pointed a loaded semi-automatic rifle at the SWAT team. The three deputies on the SWAT team fired at Lopez-Fernandez from a distance of 10 to 15 feet" with their rifles. Lopez-Fernandez was struck several times, and although deputies stopped shooting once he dropped his weapon and "immediately rendered first aid," he was pronounced dead at the scene. [continues 234 words]
Marijuana Fans Are Calling It the Mutiny in Montana. Five jurors raised questions about marijuana prosecution in a routine marijuana possession case in Missoula, Mont. It all began last Thursday, when a group of prospective jurors in Missoula were seated for a two-day trial of a repeat offender by the name of Teuray Cornell, whom the local police had arrested and charged with selling marijuana, a felony, and possession of a small amount of the drug, a misdemeanor. To seat a 12-person jury, Judge Robert L. Deschamps III of Missoula County District Court had called a passel of Montanans to serve, and 27 had arrived at court on Dec. 16. So far, so good. [continues 435 words]
Council Suspends Its Proposal for Four Large Operations After D.A.'S Warning on Liability. California's most cannabis-friendly city has temporarily suspended a plan to permit and tax four large marijuana-growing facilities because of ongoing legal concerns. The Oakland City Council voted 7 to 1 this week to send the measure back to legal staff for reworking after the city received a letter from the Alameda County district attorney. The letter suggested not only that the city's plan may violate the law, but also that elected officials could be legally liable. [continues 675 words]
The Oakland City Council abruptly halted plans to allow some of the world's largest legal marijuana farms to open in the city after prosecutors warned city officials that they could be vulnerable to prosecution. The council on Tuesday suspended the city's cultivation ordinance, which council members adopted in July to raise new city revenue and rein in the sometimes dangerous black-market farms that are now the norm. The decision came two weeks after Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley warned that the ordinance was problematic because it conflicted with state law. [continues 490 words]
It appears there are two drug wars being waged in America. One is being waged by the U.S. government against the illegal drug cartels, costing taxpayers billions of dollars. The second war is being waged by the prescription-drug cartels, aka Big Pharma, against the very same taxpayers by price-gouging billions for needed medicines. Is the medical-industrial-government complex great or what? Walter Sikora [end]
It's been a difficult year for progressives, and most other Americans as well. While I feel discouraged about many things happening in our country and around the world, and have lost lots of my "Yes We Can" glow from only two years ago, the issue that is closest to my heart -- ending the war on people who use drugs -- continues to bring me hope and cautious optimism. The debate around failed marijuana prohibition and the larger drug war arrived in a big way in 2010. Below are some of the most significant stories from 2010 and the reasons why I'm encouraged that we can start finding an exit strategy from America's longest running war. [continues 1351 words]
LANSING - Michigan's two-year-old law allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes is leaving communities, courts, patients and police locked in disputes over what is legal and what isn't. Many patients who have the state's OK to use marijuana to ease their pain from conditions ranging from cancer to Crohn's disease have been arrested and others have been fired because of different interpretations of the law approved by Michigan voters in late 2008. Courts face a rash of medical marijuana cases, with the law raising so many questions one state appeals court judge described reading it as a "maze." [continues 855 words]
HOLLAND TOWNSHIP - Every few weeks, lung cancer survivor Lynette Houting ventures inside a nondescript business just off U.S. 31 to buy medical marijuana. To Houting, a 59-year-old West Olive woman who had one-third of a lung removed this year and endured chemotherapy to battle lung cancer, the marijuana has been a blessing to relieve nausea and pain. She gets the marijuana from Patient Solutions 420, one of very few known businesses in West Michigan plying in the medical marijuana trade. [continues 744 words]
The Orchard Lake City Council voted on Monday, Dec. 20 to extend a moratorium on allowing medical marijuana operations in the city for another six months. The moratorium is set to expire June 21, 2011. The recommendation was forwarded to the City Council by the Planning Commission. "It allows the Planning Commission more time to deliberate and allows for more time for the implementation of the legislation to develop," said City Clerk Janet Overholt-Green. Initially the City Council imposed a six-month moratorium on medical marijuana operations to give planners and officials adequate time to study areas within the city where medical marijuana facilities might be permissible, in response to Michigan voters legalizing marijuana for medical use during the 2008 general election. [continues 225 words]
A Colorado doctor under fire for recommending marijuana to a pregnant woman says he provided the patient with appropriate care and disputes that pregnancy and medical marijuana don't mix. Dr. Manuel Aquino, who could lose his medical license over the recommendation in January, also says the woman's behavior was "intentional, reckless or grossly negligent" in not telling him during the exam that she was pregnant. He also accuses the Colorado Medical Board of taking too long to bring a case against him and says newlaws requiring a fuller relationship between doctors recommending marijuana and patients seeking it were not in place when he made the recommendation. [continues 420 words]
A University of Michigan researcher has discovered that a person can actually become addicted to cookies. Believe it! Let's be completely honest with one another, at least during the reading of this commentary, and especially as the New Year approaches. Have you ever stocked up just a bit more of the sweet things for those so called unexpected visitors? Of course, somebody has to "finish them up." Have you ever awakened at night, crawled quietly out of bed, and tip-toed to the kitchen in search of something sweet? I have. How many of you have bought a bag of pretzels, potato chips, or Fritos and promised yourself you would only eat three, and end up eating the whole bag? I have. After this, did you feel rotten about yourself the next day? I have. How many of you do not keep certain items in your home because you will eat it until it is gone? You know, like ice cream. I have. [continues 656 words]
So we continue in our nonworking, nonwinnable, dismally failing, insane war on drugs. Until people in this country realize the political and financial hypocrisy of keeping such drugs as marijuana illegal and classified as a Class 1 drug, we will continue to see young lives ruined, millions of Americans incarcerated, and the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans and Mexicans. The Mexican cartels are killing each other, police officers, military personnel, reporters, children, and politicians because they want control of the approximately $40 billion a year drug flow into the single largest market in the world, the United States. The war is not only limited to Mexico but has expanded to Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Brazil. [continues 636 words]
A state official confirmed this morning that a Colorado doctor accused of recommending medical marijuana to a woman who was 6 months pregnant is the same doctor who was arrested over the summer in an undercover police sting. Dr. Manuel De Jesus Aquino could become the first doctor in Colorado to lose his medical license for providing sub-standard care in making a medical-marijuana recommendation. The Colorado Medical Board suspended his licence in November, after he was accused of recommending medical marijuana to a 20-year-old pregnant woman without giving her a physical examination, doing a thorough review of her medical history or asking whether she was pregnant. [continues 519 words]
It's disappointing that the least likely type of Republican to support medical use of cannabis (marijuana) and cannabis legalization in general ("Pot on the left & right," Dec. 15) is the "moral holy rollers" since God indicates He created all the seed-bearing plants, saying they are all good, on literally the very first page of the Bible (see Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-30). The only Biblical restriction placed on cannabis is to accept it with thankfulness (1 Timothy 4:1-5). Only an immoral and disobedient Christian would support caging humans for using what God says is good. Stan White, Dillon, Colo. [end]
TECUMSEH, Mich. -- The Tecumseh City Council and city planning commission met Monday night to discuss development of a local ordinance covering Michigan's medical marijuana law. Implementation of the law is proving to be difficult for local units of government, they were told. Many ramifications have yet to be determined, leaving local entities to deal with the details, said Tecumseh City Manager Kevin Welch. Welch, incoming city attorney Scott Baker, Police Chief Troy Stern and Development Services Department Director Brad Raymond explained the difficulties to the council and commissioners in a meeting that took place before the city council 's regular meeting. [continues 487 words]
SWARTZ CREEK, Michigan - City Planning Commission members will look over a zoning ordinance regulating medical marijuana businesses after the holidays. City attorney Paul Bueche said the council has been in discussions with Flint attorney Mike Gildner on how to best handle the zoning of possible dispensaries and growing facilities. The proposed ordinance to be discussed by the commission at its Jan. 4 meeting includes stipulations that do not allow dispensaries or growing facilities within 500 feet of each other. Both facilities also must not fall within 1,000 feet or schools, churches or public and municipal parks, while hours of operation for dispensaries and growing facilities must fall between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. [continues 183 words]
Arrests, Firings Follow 2008 Bill Michigan's two-year-old law allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes is leaving communities, courts, patients and police locked in disputes over what is legal and what isn't. Many patients who have the state's OK to use marijuana to ease their pain from conditions ranging from cancer to Crohn's disease have been arrested and others have been fired because of different interpretations of the law approved by Michigan voters in late 2008. Courts face a rash of medical marijuana cases, with the law raising so many questions one state appeals court judge described reading it as a "maze." [continues 666 words]
Medical marijuana debate in Stockton isn't about the drug Stockton is a latecomer to medical marijuana. The Bay Area, greater Los Angeles and even Sacramento are packed with medical marijuana dispensaries, while Stockton is just figuring out its policies and guidelines. But there's no question that the scent wafting through the air is not marijuana smoke but the unmistakable smell of money. It's unfortunate that The Record had to file a California public records request to pry from city officials the identities of those who applied - and passed a city-concocted test - to run one of the three Stockton medical marijuana outlets allowed under a new ordinance. [continues 286 words]
Cigarettes or marijuana? For teenagers across the country -- and in Montana -- the choice is apparently pot. For the first time since 1981, the number of high school seniors reporting they had smoked marijuana in the past 30 days outnumbered those who said they had smoked cigarettes. The rate of eighth-graders saying they have used an illicit drug in the past year jumped to 16 percent, up from last year's 14.5 percent, with daily marijuana use up in all grades surveyed, according to the 2010 Monitoring of the Future Survey. [continues 647 words]
A doctor accused of approving medical marijuana for a woman six months pregnant could become the first Colorado physician to lose his license for a sub-standard marijuana recommendation. Dr. Manuel De Jesus Aquino is accused of recommending marijuana in January to a 20-year-old woman at a Denver dispensary. In a formal complaint filed last week by the state attorney general's office on behalf of the Colorado Medical Board, Aquino is accused of not performing a thorough review of the woman's medical history, not listening to her heart or lungs, not asking her to come back for follow-up care and not taking any notes on the 3-minute evaluation other than on her marijuana-recommendation form. [continues 298 words]
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