Washington, D.C. - Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, plans on introducing a bipartisan, bicameral bill this week that would make it easier for researchers to study marijuana. "This bill is about helping people," Farr said in a press release. "As more states pass their own medical marijuana laws, it's time for Congress to reexamine federal policy. This bill does just that by supporting research so policy decisions about the role of medical marijuana are based on science and facts instead of rhetoric." [continues 395 words]
BOULDER CREEK - In the wake of raids of marijuana grows in the San Lorenzo Valley by Santa Cruz County's Marijuana Compliance Team, members of the cannabis community are questioning the validity of the actions. After members of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office Marijuana Compliance Team served 15 search warrants in Boulder Creek on Thursday, growers whose plants were taken complained to advocates the raids weren't done properly. D'Angelo "Cricket" Roberto, a board member of Responsible Cultivation Santa Cruz, received several calls where growers said that officers did not tell some growers what ordinance was violated and did not identify specific parcels for individual warrants. [continues 370 words]
In New York City last month, a 14-year-old died when he jumped from a six-story roof to avoid being caught by the police. His crime? He and some friends were smoking pot. This was a tragic and needless death. Of course no one thinks smoking pot a good or healthy activity for a teenager, but it happens. And it's certainly not something someone should die from. But draconian drug laws turn children in to criminals. That's why I am completely baffled by the Santa Cruz County supervisors' decision to "re-criminalize" pot cultivation. Santa Cruz, which prides itself on its liberal image, has taken the most reactionary position on marijuana at a time when most of the rest of the country is recognizing that legalization, quality control, taxation and management is a far wiser and financially lucrative tactic. Colorado sold $5 million worth of marijuana products the first week it became legal. Believe me, Mr. McPherson, they are not going to stop selling it. The marijuana industry, right now, is the fastest growing industry in this country and Santa Cruz supervisors are choosing to opt out. [continues 218 words]
When even the organization representing local cannabis dispensary operators and marijuana growers supports a tax on pot sales, you'd think opposition to the city and county measures calling for the levy would be a pipe dream. Well, it's still a tax, and medical marijuana patients have voiced their displeasure about the 7 percent levy on dispensary receipts. We wonder if the anti-tax contingent also will vote against the measures, regardless of how people feel about medical marijuana. But it's not unfair to tax pot sales - mainly because the county and city need to find the money to enforce medical marijuana regulations. That's why we're recommending a yes vote on both Measure K in the unincorporated area of Santa Cruz County and Measure L in the city of Santa Cruz. The tax measures require a simple majority vote. [continues 420 words]
Medical marijuana - is this an industry that needs oversight, or what? The Legislature has not regulated pot dispensaries since Californians passed Proposition 215 in 1996, in part because police chiefs and the League of Cities have opposed legitimizing them. Now that has changed, and no wonder. It's crazy out there. Regulating city by city, or country by county, hasn't been good for dispensaries or their neighbors - or for law enforcement. State Sen. Lou Correa is sponsoring a bill, SB 1262, but it is still a work in progress. The Legislature should make it a priority to get regulations on the governor's desk this year. [continues 311 words]
WASHINGTON -- Complaints of a "wink-wink" headache and the $40 prescriptions that qualify thousands for marijuana in California won't work in the newly opened medicinal marijuana dispensaries in the nation's capital. In July, Washington joined a budding number of states to allow medical marijuana to be sold legally. But with the Justice Department and Drug Enforcement Agency calling D.C. home, the district's medical marijuana program varies quite a bit from its California counterpart. In Washington, the dispensaries actually look like medical offices. [continues 896 words]
SANTA CRUZ -- While formalizing new medical marijuana dispensary rules long in development, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday signaled a quick pivot to another pressing issue: how those shops get their pot. To go into effect shortly after the new year, new dispensary rules impact the approximately dozen shops in the county's unincorporated area. They set limits on hours and location, require background checks for management and eventually ban any new clubs from opening. But a new controversy over growing medical pot has sparked debate on the board and within the county's vibrant marijuana industry. While strict rules are coming on growing pot in dense neighborhoods, the board largely rejected limits the industry viewed as draconian. [continues 503 words]
SANTA CRUZ -- A divided Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a suite of new medical pot rules, adding the county's name to a small roster of California governments to effectively sanction a gray area of green commerce. The 3-2 vote puts into place new restrictions on the operations, location and staff of the approximately dozen dispensaries in unincorporated areas of the county, an effort to encourage good business practices in an industry still viewed as illegal by federal law. Eventually, the new rules will ban any new clubs. [continues 615 words]
Regarding your Oct. 20 editorial, no further research is needed. The results are already in. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. If the goal is to deter use, marijuana prohibition is a failure. The United States has double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is legal. The criminalization of Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis has no basis in science. The war on marijuana consumers is a failed cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public health campaign. It's time to stop the pointless arrests and instead tax legal marijuana. Robert Sharpe, Common Sense for Drug Policy [end]
There are certain issues where the tide of public opinion inexorably turns the level of discourse. That's what's happening with marijuana, where only a few years ago California voters turned down a ballot measure legalizing personal use of the drug. But that was so 2010. By this past November, voters in Washington and Colorado had voted to legalize pot. The ballot measures benefited from a long list of leaders who argue that continuing criminalization of personal use was a huge waste of resources -- and that officially regulating marijuana would bring in needed tax dollars. [continues 570 words]
SANTA CRUZ -- Three butane hash oil explosions in 10 days in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties have prompted police to warn of a dangerous trend that has been echoed nationally. Santa Cruz police believe the recent blasts are linked to a fall marijuana harvest on the Central Coast and attempts to preserve concentrated pot for later use. In Wednesday afternoon's blast on Walk Circle, a 29-year-old man was burned on roughly 40 percent of his body, said Santa Cruz Deputy Police Chief Steve Clark. The man remained in critical condition at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center on Thursday, authorities said. [continues 488 words]
The California Supreme Court has brought some clarity sense into the debate over medical marijuana -- but it's only a step forward in what remains a vexing issue for local cities and counties. In ruling Monday that local governments have the authority to ban pot dispensaries from operating within their jurisdictions, the court correctly interpreted the state constitution. Here's what Justice Marvin Baxter wrote: "The California Constitution recognizes the authority of cities and counties to make and enforce, within their borders all local, police, sanitary and other ordinances and regulations not in conflict with general laws." [continues 436 words]
The voters of Colorado and Washington state have made it clear the federal government can no longer get away with confusing the drug war's collateral damage with a comparatively harmless plant. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to deter use, prohibition is a failure. The United States has double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is legal. The criminalization of Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis has no basis in science. The war on marijuana consumers is a failed cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public health campaign. Robert Sharpe, Arlington, Va. [end]
Although your editorial points out that legal marijuana presents its own problems, it should be pointed out that marijuana was entirely legal for most of this country's history without significant problems. Continuing marijuana prohibition significantly inhibits important medical research. A.Leff, M.D., VP, Amercan Academy Cannabinoid Med, Boulder Creek [end]
If we didn't know better, we'd think the biggest topic of 2012 had gone up in smoke. Just consider the headlines in the Sentinel last week: "Indoor pot bust called county's largest." "Local CHP warns about smoking and driving." And then there was the latest crime report item regarding an armed robbery of a local medical marijuana dispensary, pointing out once again the legal morass medical marijuana has become in California. And, perhaps most significantly, this from the state of Washington: [continues 609 words]
DAVENPORT - On Sept. 5, 2002, the country was debating whether to invade Iraq to rid the country of weapons of mass destruction, just as it was bracing for the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Stocks were still down, but the Oakland A's had just notched their record 20th straight win. Early that morning, 30 federal Drug Enforcement Agency-led law enforcement officers stormed the Wo/Men's Medical Marijuana Alliance, a high-profile collective with a small pot farm outside Davenport, chopping down plants and setting off a furor with lasting impacts on the statewide medical marijuana debate that endures today. [continues 1425 words]
SANTA CRUZ - The state Supreme Court backed off ruling on a closely watched medical marijuana case Wednesday, saying the case was now moot. The move could clear the way for lifting a county moratorium on new pot clubs, after the case led the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors to suspend local dispensary rules. That left local providers in limbo amid a broad federal crackdown and a growing number of California governments banning pot clubs altogether. "It's terrific news," said Ben Rice, a local attorney who represents several local dispensaries. "Everybody's real hopeful that the county's going to engage all these folks again in regulating medical marijuana in the county." [continues 531 words]
Rep. Sam Farr wants to tie the federal government's hands when it comes to medical marijuana dispensaries, joining an effort to cut off funding for a burgeoning statewide crackdown. Farr, D-Carmel, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, and Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., are spearheading a bipartisan effort that should hit the floor of the House of Representatives today. During debate on a bill that funds the Department of Justice, the trio are expected to introduce an amendment barring the use of funds to prevent states from implementing medical pot laws. [continues 490 words]
SANTA CRUZ - One of the most significant threats to the state's medical marijuana industry since voters approved Proposition 215 in 1996 is going before the state's highest court, with the future of medical marijuana dispensaries at stake. The seven justices will decide whether pot shop regulations violate federal law, agreeing Wednesday to review a lower court decision that not only said they did, but suggested local officials could be jailed for issuing them. The October decision put the brakes on a burgeoning statewide effort to regulate storefront pot shops, including in Santa Cruz County, and has roiled the medical marijuana industry. [continues 511 words]
The rest of the nation appears to be catching up to Santa Cruz County in one unfortunate aspect: marijuana use among teens. According to a new government report released this week, one in 15 high school students in the U.S. smokes pot on a near-daily basis. Near daily. Not only is that a startling figure, it also reflects what appears to be the highest use since the druggy 1970s, and goes against other substance abuse trends showing use of alcohol, cocaine and even cigarettes declining in the same population. [continues 479 words]
