Weapons, Plants Seized; Owner With Felony Record Is Arrested A medical marijuana dispensary owner - who did prison time for embezzling $5 million while a state employee - was arrested Thursday on suspicion of operating his shop without a legal business license and of illegal weapons possession. Sacramento County sheriff's deputies shut down Alternative Specialties and arrested Louis Wayne Fowler after searching his Folsom Boulevard shop and his Rio Linda home, as well as his parents' and his sister's homes, said Sgt. R.L. Davis, sheriff's spokesman. [continues 774 words]
Medical marijuana dispensers in Northern California remained open and patients were getting their supplies Monday despite a Supreme Court ruling that federal law enforcement officials can ignore state law and arrest those who use pot to ease pain. "I grow my own plants, and I'm going to continue to do so no matter what," said Ryan Landers, a 33-year-old HIV patient and medical marijuana advocate from Sacramento who uses pot to alleviate nausea, vomiting and stomach pain caused by his prescription drugs. "I've gotten calls from other patients today asking me if they should rip up their gardens, and my answer has been a big, fat 'no.' " [continues 785 words]
But Bakersfield Company Wants Answers About The Decision Change. CORCORAN - City officials said Monday they're indifferent to the state suddenly scrapping plans that could have brought two prisons into town. Corcoran's Planning Commission canceled a meeting Monday night after hearing that the Department of Corrections reversed its request for private companies to build and operate four 500-bed prisons around the state. The commission had been set to vote on a Bakersfield company's pitch to build two such prisons in Corcoran. [continues 373 words]
Decision On Whether The Town Gets Nod Could Come Next Spring. CORCORAN - A decade ago, locals in this Kings County town counted on a new state prison to alleviate chronic unemployment caused partly by the farming economy. In 1997, they got another round of hope when the walls of a second state prison for substance-abusing inmates went up. Those expectations fell short. Fewer than 20% of the prisons' current employees are Corcoran residents, according to Don Pauley, who recently stepped down from nine years in the city manager's post. Unemployment in September was 10.4%. And farming operations remain the main source of jobs outside government. [continues 407 words]
OAKLAND -- The Oakland City Council is expected tonight to make designated providers of medical marijuana "officers of the city," giving them legal immunity from criminal and civil actions. Robert Raich, attorney for the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, said the city's support should block the federal government's efforts to shut down the pot club. "This will hopefully blast a hole right through the Controlled Substances Act," said Raich, who is representing the club and its executive director, Jeff Jones, in the pending federal lawsuit. [continues 354 words]
