The California Department of Justice will receive $600,000 from the federal government to battle methamphetamine production and distribution in San Bernardino County. On Dec. 17, President Barack Obama signed into law a $447 billion omnibus federal spending bill, which secured the grant money Congressman Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, helped secure. The Justice Department will use the $600,000 for a methamphetamine interdiction program in San Bernardino County, which would pull resources from local and federal law enforcement agencies, including the Sheriff's Department and Drug Enforcement Administration, to dismantle superlabs and large-scale drug organizations. [continues 562 words]
Medical-marijuana patients will soon be able to get their long-awaited identification cards from the county, but as far as their medicine is concerned, they'll have to find it elsewhere, at least for about another year. A temporary moratorium on issuing permits for medical-marijuana dispensaries was extended by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday until June 19, 2010, so the county has more time to set guidelines for dispensaries. The board imposed a 45-day moratorium in June. [continues 311 words]
Final Score: Medical Marijuana 5, San Bernardino County Supervisors 0. But despite their victory Tuesday, the medical marijuana proponents are still angry because it will be almost two months or perhaps longer before the county begins issuing identification cards to people with doctors' prescriptions. "Our concern is seeing that the medicine gets out to our patients," said Ron Downey, a proponent who spoke at Tuesday's board meeting. A half-dozen others also spoke. That's how the years-long duel ended, with the supervisors voting unanimously to implement a medical marijuana identification card program. [continues 124 words]
Medical-marijuana advocates scored a win on Tuesday - but they won't be able to relish the victory for months. A years-long saga ended when the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to implement a program for medical-marijuana identification cards. But it will be nearly two months or even longer before the county begins issuing those identification cards to people with doctors' prescriptions. "Our concern is seeing that the medicine gets out to our patients," said Ron Downey, a proponent of medical marijuana who spoke at Tuesday's board meeting, along with a half-dozen others. [continues 445 words]
San Bernardino County will implement an identification card program for medical marijuana patients within 45 days, county spokesman David Wert said Tuesday. The Board of Supervisors gave the directive during its closed session meeting Tuesday that preceded its regularly scheduled public meeting. Officials from the state Department of Health Services will be in San Bernardino next week to begin training county staff in the administrative process, Wert said. At the county level, patients will fill out applications and provide public health department personnel with the necessary documentation, showing they are legitimate medical marijuana patients. That information will get bumped up to the state, which reviews the applications and issues the cards accordingly, said Dr. Maxwell Ohikhuare, county health officer. [continues 395 words]
The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors will meet in closed session June 2 to discuss its next plan of action following the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to hear its joint lawsuit challenging California's medical marijuana law. "I assume the board, in its judicious manner, will issue a decision forthwith," said Burt Southard, spokesman for Board Chairman Gary Ovitt, on Thursday. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a joint lawsuit filed in 2006 by San Bernardino and San Diego counties, that argued they didn't have to comply with the state law, passed in 2004, because the federal ban on marijuana pre-empted the state law. [continues 485 words]
SAN BERNARDINO - A marijuana advocacy group claims the Board of Supervisors violated the state's open meeting law by failing to disclose publicly its decision to appeal its lawsuit challenging California's medical marijuana law to the U.S. Supreme Court. The nonprofit Marijuana Policy Project maintains that the board, at its Aug. 26 meeting, voted in a closed-door session to appeal its joint lawsuit with San Diego County to the state Supreme Court after a San Diego County judge ruled in favor of the state. [continues 303 words]
COLTON - The City Council has unanimously approved an ordinance prohibiting the establishment and operation of medical-marijuana dispensaries. While it is legal in California for doctors to prescribe marijuana to patients in order to treat a variety of ailments, federal law prohibits it, said Mark Martinez, an attorney representing Colton. Faced with the possibility of being charged with a federal crime, he said it might be prudent for the city to err on the side of caution. "We have this conflict between these two laws," Martinez said. "Rather than deal with those types of issues ... it might be appropriate just to consider an outright prohibition." [continues 179 words]
BEAUMONT - Priscilla and Ed Khanoyan will never again look out their window and see Sergio Carrera Jr. lovingly pull his young son and daughter up and down the street in a little red wagon. Carrera's friend and neighbor Paul Castro will never be able to stand outside with his friend and chat about their children and share in the joy of watching them grow. Those moments will only be memories for the Khanoyans and Castro. They talked on Thursday about their friend Carrera, a 4-year veteran of the Rialto Police Department and a member of its SWAT team. Carrera was shot in the head during the service of a search warrant at a residence in Rialto where drug dealing was suspected. He was flown to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, where he died during surgery. [continues 504 words]
Slaying Of Witness Raises Shield Issues They muster the courage to walk into a courtroom and willingly testify against the most hard-core criminals: murderers, gangbangers, drug dealers and other street terrorists. Sometimes, they are threatened with acts of violence - by criminal defendants themselves or their families and friends. When this happens, county prosecutors can offer imperiled witnesses protection through the state Witness Protection Program. They can relocate witnesses and their families and put them up in new housing, even out of state, if necessary. [continues 1465 words]
Joshua Tree Man Wants $25m From County, Saying Deputies Pursued Him Maliciously JOSHUA TREE - A medicinal marijuana user has filed a $25million claim against the county, alleging false arrest and malicious prosecution for illegal cultivation after a case against him was dismissed based on lack of evidence. Joshua Tree Superior Court Judge Bert L. Swift dismissed the criminal case against Jeffrey Craig Canada, 48, arguing that prosecutors failed to prove the 20 plants found in Canada's apartment produced more marijuana than his daily prescribed dosage of five grams. [continues 330 words]
Sheriff's Department Is Fined More Than $60,000 For Alleged Safety Violations During Deputy Raids On Drug Labs. The Sheriff's Department exposed deputies to unsafe working conditions during clandestine drug lab raids, according to a state agency that slapped the department with more than $60,000 in citations on Wednesday. Eight of the 23 violations listed in a 28-page report released by the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Wednesday were serious violations that exposed San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies to physical harm or possible death, CalOSHA spokesman Dean Fryer said. [continues 461 words]
