Berkeley may be the first city to declare itself a cannabis sanctuary city. A customer shops at marijuana dispensary MedMen in West Hollywood in January. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) The Berkeley City Council voted unanimously to declare the city a sanctuary for recreational marijuana, a move that may be the first of its kind. The resolution, adopted Tuesday, prohibits Berkeley's agencies and employees from using city resources to assist in enforcing federal marijuana laws or providing information on legal cannabis activities. [continues 367 words]
Berkeley Is Mandating That Poor People Can Get Free Medical Marijuana. S.F. Is Not on Board. Before there was medical marijuana, before there was legalization talk, there was free weed. There are a few happy stories to come out of the dark days of AIDS in the 1980s. One is the woman who roamed the ward at San Francisco General Hospital, where the gay men were dying in droves, giving out cannabis-laced brownies. [continues 766 words]
The Berkeley City Council, obviously driven more by passion than intellect, has unanimously decided to force pot shops to give 2 percent of their "medical marijuana" to those who can't afford to buy it (e.g., students, unemployed, addicts, et al). First of all, marijuana is not medicine. It is a drug of abuse. Second, many of those who can't afford to buy it already suffer from substance abuse. Third, the impacts on the brain and babies in the womb, and doubling of traffic deaths suggest it is more of a lethal weapon. Fourth, if they can't pass a drug test, they can't get a job, so handing out an illicit drug just exacerbates the problem. Let's hope they don't give alcohol to alcoholics to help treat their illness. Roger Morgan, Lincoln, Placer County [end]
Can you update us on some of the latest developments in the world of medical-cannabis research? - -Wanda Wellness Yes, I can! A new study by Israel's Meir Medical Center has found that inhaled cannabis is very effective for people with Crohn's disease. The study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, gave 11 people two joints per day for eight weeks. They also gave 10 other people placebo doobies. Out of the 11 people on the real weed, five of them saw their Crohn's disease go into complete remission, with the others reporting that their symptoms had been cut in half. All patients reported increased appetite and better sleep, with no adverse side effects. [continues 410 words]
A local medical cannabis business will be moving its operations out of Berkeley after the City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to declare it a public nuisance. As part of the declaration, the city ordered Perfect Plants Patient's Group -- also known as 3PG -- to shut down due to complaints from community members and multiple violations of the Berkeley Municipal Code, including operating in a commercial zone and being located within 600 feet of Longfellow Middle School. "I'm really disappointed that it took so long for the issue to be resolved," said Councilmember Darryl Moore. "It was an illegal operation from the very beginning, but it took 14 months, and that is just way too long." [continues 364 words]
One of Berkeley's medical cannabis collectives has closed and another is at risk of being shut down following concerns that the businesses were illegally operating as dispensaries rather than collectives. On Dec. 8, the city's code enforcement supervisor Gregory Daniel sent letters to the Perfect Plants Patient's Group and 40 Acres Medical Marijuana Growers Collective -- two of the city's several collectives - -- notifying them that they were in violation of the Berkeley municipal code because they were operating in a non-residential zoning district. [continues 322 words]
A recent federal decision determining that marijuana has no accepted medical use and should be classified as dangerous as heroin may prove to be another obstacle for Berkeley's Medical Cannabis Commission as it prepares for its first meeting. The commission, which will meet July 21 for the first time since its reconstitution, is responsible for making recommendations to the Berkeley City Council regarding the implementation of Measure T. The measure was approved by 64 percent of voters last November and allows for the opening of six 30,000-square-foot cultivation sites as well as a fourth dispensary while also calling for the commission's reconstitution. [continues 542 words]
California Is Not Just Deciding Whether Pot Should Be Legal. It's Determining the Shape of a Major New American Industry. When my wife and I bought a house last year in the little town of Ukiah, California, the first person to offer us advice about growing marijuana was our realtor. The house was a stolid 1909 prairie box that had been partitioned into four units, with a front porch, dark green trim, and a couple of fruit trees in the yard. It was charming, but we probably would have settled for a yurt. What mattered most to us was having a foothold in Mendocino County, a place we had long ago decided was the most beautiful in America. [continues 7597 words]
Dispensaries Are Split Over Marijuana Production and Tax Proposals Berkeley residents will vote on two ballot measures Tuesday that could lead to a greatly expanded medical cannabis industry in the city - and hundreds of thousands of new dollars for the city's coffers. Measure T would increase the number of locations where marijuana is sold from three to four, and also permit six 30,000-square-foot indoor growing areas in the city's industrial zone in West Berkeley. These places would not be open to the public, but would be used to grow cannabis, test it, distill it into tinctures or creams, or cook it into food products. [continues 1035 words]
Leslie Hennessy, owner of Hennessy's Wines & Specialty Foods in San Francisco, waved his hand over a glass case that sits next to his cash register, across from the deli section where he sells cheeses, gourmet salads and olives. Inside the case were colorful boxes of Macanudo and Romeo y Julieta cigars. But Mr. Hennessy imagines that the case will soon contain another smokable product - marijuana, packaged attractively because "a rolled up joint in a baggy isn't going to do it," he said. [continues 1107 words]
In light of the Berkeley City Council's proposed ballot measure to create seven new "cannabusiness" facilities, the Medical Cannabis Commission - which will likely be reconstituted under the measure - met Thursday to develop a comprehensive rubric to evaluate applications for facility permits. In July, the council placed a measure on the November ballot that would allow for six 30,000-square-foot cannabis cultivation facilities and a fourth dispensary within the city. Anticipating a flood of applications, the council asked the commission to develop a set of standards by which it could evaluate applicants. [continues 416 words]
Is the Proposition 19 pot initiative going to harm or help California? Proponents like Dale Sky Jones, executive chancellor of Oakland's Oaksterdam University, contend passage of the proposition will save hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars now wasted on enforcing the failed prohibition of cannabis. But Sacramento attorney John Lovell, whose current clients include the California Police Chiefs Association, points to a coalition of law enforcement organizations and argues that the threat of losing significant federal funding should be a deal-killer in itself. [continues 627 words]
Oakland's Massive Indoor Medical Cannabis Grows Will Consume Huge Amounts Of Electricity. But Will The City Make Sure They Don't Add To Greenhouse-gas Emissions? Cannabis is usually considered to be a "green" product, but when Oakland's four giant indoor medical marijuana growing operations receive permits early next year, they could become the largest energy consumers in the city. They also could become the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in Oakland - unless the city tightly regulates them. [continues 770 words]
Oakland's new medical marijuana ordinance permitting four "large-scale" growing facilities could be a game-changer for Bay Area cannabis cultivators as the new businesses' economies of scale could allow them to drastically increase production and lower the price of certain strains of cannabis. Berkeley growers hoping to take advantage of Berkeley's ballot measure authorizing six permitted growing locations - capped at 30,000 square feet each - will now have to take into account competition with Oakland's four facilities, which have no size limit. [continues 660 words]
Editors, Daily Planet: Please support medical cannabis in Berkeley by voting yes on Measure JJ. For many people in Berkeley living with HIV/AIDS, cancer, chronic pain, and other afflictions, the best way to ease their suffering is with doctor-recommended medical cannabis. Berkeley's three medical cannabis collectives have provided medicine and other wellness services for over seven years. Today these collectives are at risk. New development plans in Berkeley threaten to shut them down, and the city lacks a proper land-use procedure to relocate them. [continues 147 words]
City Resolves to Guarantee Access to Drug The Berkeley City Council unanimously passed a plan this week to help get medical marijuana to patients if Drug Enforcement Administration raids' shut down any of the city-permitted dispensaries. The resolution passed Tuesday night declares Berkeley a sanctuary for medical marijuana users and distributors and commits the city to "uphold patients' rights to safe access to medical marijuana" should the DEA move on one of two dispensaries in town. What that means is up to debate at the moment, but the city would at least help a new distributor get started or help one restart after a DEA raid, council members and activists said. The DEA has shut down five medical marijuana dispensaries in the Bay Area in the past year. [continues 98 words]
Berkeley City Council members unanimously approved a resolution last night to declare Berkeley a sanctuary for medicinal marijuana in the event of federal interference with dispensaries. The resolution, which was received with overwhelming support and applause from the audience, opposes attempts by the Drug Enforcement Administration to conduct raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in Berkeley, and urges city, county and state departments to not cooperate in the event that a raid occurs. By claiming itself as a sanctuary, Berkeley have committed to ensuring that residents are provided access to medicinal marijuana if dispensaries in the city are shut down. [continues 345 words]
LOS ANGELES -- Pitting itself against the U.S. government, the Los Angeles City Council approved plans Wednesday to limit new medical-marijuana dispensaries, regulate existing ones and urge a moratorium on recent clinic raids by federal agents. Despite warnings that it is treading on legally treacherous ground, the council voted 10-2 to adopt the plan amid concerns that hundreds of illegal clinics have sprouted up since 1996, when California voters approved Proposition 215 allowing the use of medicinal marijuana. "When (the) law was first passed, we had two clinics operating in the city," said Councilman Dennis Zine, who proposed the plan to regulate operators. "Now we have more than 400. [continues 639 words]
The Los Angeles Police Department and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency seized the assets of a Berkeley marijuana club Tuesday, following a raid of its sister club in Los Angeles. The Berkeley Patients Group, one of three medical marijuana clubs in Berkeley, serves about 3,000 people in the East Bay. Medical marijuana is against federal law but California, under Proposition 215, allows dispensaries to operate. "It's completely scandalous," said Becky DeKeuster, Berkeley Patients Group community liaison. "But we're determined to stay open and assist our patients in any way we can." [continues 134 words]
A Berkeley-based medical marijuana advocacy group filed a legal petition against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Monday, in an attempt to force the department to change its stringent policies on the drug. The group, Americans for Safe Access, argue that the department's stance on medical marijuana violates the Data Quality Act, which requires the federal government to use reliable scientific information in decision-making. In 2001, the department concluded that "scientific and medical evaluation reaffirms expressly that marijuana has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States." [continues 363 words]
