About 1,100 Applications Are Handled a Month, and It Is Expected to Double in 2016 State health officials say they're looking to streamline the application process for medical marijuana patient cards - which some local physicians say is unduly burdensome - ahead of the first pot dispensaries to open in Hawaii next year. The fixes could be critical for the state Department of Health if it is to keep up with the demand once dispensaries open in the state. The department, which processes about 1,100 applications a month for new cards and annual renewals, expects that number could double in 2016. [continues 435 words]
A Bill That Would Allow for the Establishment of Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Passes Conference Committee and Is Due for a Vote Some 15 years after medical marijuana use became legal in Hawaii, lawmakers are suddenly on the verge of permitting dispensaries to sell the drug to the 13,000 patients across the state. In a highly unusual move, House and Senate negotiators Monday revived and then unanimously passed a medical pot dispensary bill that many observers had thought was dead and buried last week. The measure, House Bill 321, would allow for dispensaries at as many as 16 sites across the islands, including up to six locations on Oahu, starting as early as July 2016. [continues 883 words]
Hawaii's Medical Marijuana Patients Could See Outlets As Early As Next Year The push to allow for medical marijuana dispensaries in Hawaii - some 15 years after state leaders permitted medical use of the drug - continues to advance through the Legislature, with key lawmakers in support saying they hope to give the state's nearly 13,000 medical pot patients access to such outlets by early 2016. On Wednesday the state Senate Health and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs committees unanimously voted to approve House Bill 321, which would create a framework to permit medical pot dispensaries across the islands. [continues 595 words]
Authors: Unclear What Effect Dispensaries Might Have Over Time, Though As the debate over pot shops rages in the Coachella Valley and elsewhere, a study released Wednesday by UCLA researchers found no link between medical marijuana dispensaries and neighborhood crime. The study, published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, analyzed 2009 crime rates in Sacramento neighborhoods. It considered their population densities, unemployment and poverty rates, vacant homes, and other factors linked to violent and property crime rates. "Once you adjust for those, dispensaries are not related to crime," said UCLA associate professor Bridget Freisthler, the study's coauthor. [continues 550 words]
City Licenses Illegal Shop, Set to OK a Fourth Store Permit PALM SPRINGS -- The only city in the Coachella Valley to permit the sale of medical marijuana will soon make way for a fourth dispensary. The Palm Springs City Council voted 3-2 this week to amend the city's 2009 medical cannabis ordinance, which originally called for just two legal dispensaries. It added a third permit in 2010. Zoning changes to allow a fourth are expected to be finalized next month. [continues 535 words]
Experts: New Year Won't Bring Clarity on Legality, but Courts Could Answer Questions on Regulation Palm Springs - Just over a year ago, voters were on the verge of making California the first state to legalize marijuana for recreational use, but public opinion turned, and the idea swiftly went up in smoke. That voter rejection left courts and local municipalities to grapple, yet again, with medical marijuana laws that are often vague, confusing, contradictory and vary from city to city. In 2012, don't expect any new laws or decisions that will clear the murky legal landscape for the hundreds of thousands of Californians who use medical pot - or for opponents of legalization. [continues 844 words]
Already facing a potential crackdown by federal authorities, some Coachella Valley medical marijuana dispensaries must now contend with a new, local push to shut them down. During its closed session meeting Tuesday, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors authorized its attorneys to sue any pot shops in unincorporated areas - plus any property owners who allow them to operate - unless those dispensaries immediately close. Riverside County has prohibited medical marijuana dispensaries from operating on unincorporated land since 2006. Last year, county supervisors briefly considered an ordinance that would have regulated these dispensaries but later stepped back and decided to uphold the ban. [continues 305 words]
PALM SPRINGS - As efforts to open medical marijuana dispensaries have intensified, so has the debate over whether they bring more crime to a community. But an independent study released today finds no link between marijuana dispensaries and crime. The Santa Monica-based RAND Corporation analyzed crime rates around the huge number of pot stores and clubs in Los Angeles County, at one point believed to outnumber the Starbucks locations there before officials shut most dispensaries down last year. Read the RAND study on marijuana dispensaries and crime at www.rand.org [continues 642 words]
A new memo released this week by the Obama administration reaffirms federal authorities' right to target marijuana dispensaries - and those who cultivate and sell pot - regardless of state law. The move could expose non-sanctioned medical marijuana clinics operating in the Coachella Valley to greater risk of law enforcement raids, Palm Springs City Attorney Doug Holland said Friday. "We've always understood that the activity is illegal under federal law, and anyone who's engaged in that activity has to deal with that potential ramifications," Holland said Friday. [continues 543 words]
As Officials Grapple With How to Regulate Dispensaries, Access to Drug Getting Easier During the past four years, the Coachella Valley's elected leaders have limited and even banned medical marijuana dispensaries. But that hasn't stopped medical pot access from expanding in the valley in bold, creative ways. At least eight medical marijuana "delivery services" have opened across the valley during the past year and a half to cater to local patients. The services openly advertise on "WeedMaps.com." The operators of these services, who say they verify their customers as medical pot patients before making deliveries, are based in Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert and La Quinta. [continues 856 words]
Current Medical Pot Laws Likely Need Revision Polls show there's a strong chance voters next month might pass Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana for recreational use in California. If that happens, Coachella Valley cities -- which already have spent more than four years grappling with what to do about medical pot dispensaries -- may have to revisit their laws on marijuana all over again, officials say. It's not yet clear what effects the measure would have on the valley. If passed on Nov. 2, Proposition 19 would make California the first in the U.S. to legalize pot beyond medical use, and its potential benefits and pitfalls have been debated for months across the nation. [continues 965 words]
Palm Springs' second licensed medical marijuana dispensary, Desert Organic Solutions, is scheduled to open its doors at 11 a.m. today, representatives of the dispensary say. The medical pot dispensary is located at 19-486 Newhall St. in North Palm Springs near Interstate 10 and Indian Canyon Drive. "We will be serving patients from the Coachella Valley and the Inland Empire, and that's why we chose such an accessible location" near the highway, Desert Organic Solutions President Gary Cherlin said in a news release. The facility cleared its city inspections and received final approval earlier this week, according to the release. The city's other licensed dispensary, CannaHelp, opened its doors last week at 505 Industrial Place. For more details on Desert Organic Solutions call 760-288-4000 [end]
For the first time in Palm Springs history, local medical marijuana patients can freely access a dispensary licensed under a city ordinance. California Newspaper Publishers Association The long-awaited CannaHelp dispensary, one of two allowed under a Palm Springs medical cannabis ordinance, officially opened its doors Wednesday -- registering patients and distributing medical marijuana. The dispensary's opening has been a long time coming for CannaHelp owner Stacy Hochanadel. "It's a profound day," he said. "We finally got there. CannaHelp is not Palm Springs' first dispensary. A handful of others have opened outside of the ordinance and the city says they're illegal. [continues 374 words]
City Council Votes to Allow a Third Medical Marijuana Dispensary to Open CannaHelp will not lose its permit to serve valley medical marijuana patients -- and Palm Springs will get an additional city-approved medical marijuana dispensary. The City Council opted with a 3-2 vote Wednesday not to suspend CannaHelp's permit to operate at 505 Industrial Place -- and to take steps to allow a third permitted dispensary. CannaHelp owner Stacy Hochanadel will have to report to council in May on progress to bring the dispensary into compliance with the building code. [continues 352 words]
CannaHelp will not lose its permit to serve valley medical marijuana patients -- and Palm Springs will get an additional city-approved medical marijuana dispensary. The City Council opted with a 3-2 vote Wednesday not to suspend CannaHelp's permit to operate at 505 Industrial Place - and to take steps to allow a third permitted dispensary. CannaHelp owner Stacy Hochanadel will have to report to council May on progress to bring the dispensary into compliance with the building code. Councilmen Chris Mills and Lee Weigel dissented -- Mills only because he could not support a third permitted medical marijuana facility, he said later. Hochanadel was visibly relieved after the council's vote. "I was at a point where I thought we could have lost it all for our patients," he said. [continues 301 words]
Palm Springs' process to select the Coachella Valley's only two approved medical marijuana dispensaries isn't done yet, even though a months-long selection process wrapped in February. City officials are recommending the City Council on Wednesday suspend -- and in May consider rescinding -- the permit for one of Palm Springs' two chosen dispensaries: CannaHelp. "There's been some questions raised on a number of fronts," City Attorney Doug Holland said Monday. They include health and safety hazards, and hundreds of marijuana plants already growing when city building inspectors visited CannaHelp's 505 Industrial Place location last month, according to Holland. [continues 421 words]
A legal challenge to Palm Spring's recent ordinance regulating medical marijuana collectives was overruled Tuesday by a Riverside County Superior Court judge, court records show. Judge Harold W. Hopp's decision to uphold Palm Spring's "authority to enact reasonable zoning restrictions" on collectives leaves the fate of several collectives in the city up in the air, said J. David Nick, attorney for Palm Springs-based The Holistic Collective. The collective, at 2235 N. Palm Canyon Drive, filed a June 4 demurrer, which Hopp overruled. The collective challenged the legality of a city ordinance enacted in April that limits the number of collectives to two and prohibits them from operating outside of industrial and manufacturing zones. [continues 221 words]
Desert Hot Springs on Tuesday joined four other Coachella Valley cities in voting to ban medical marijuana dispensaries. The City Council voted 4-1 to ban the dispensaries, with Councilman Karl Baker dissenting. The city's moratorium expires in February, and the ban will take effect 30 days after a second reading in January, City Attorney Ruben Duran said. Several on the council said they worried a medical marijuana cooperative or collective would strain an understaffed city police department that has its hands full with crime. [continues 291 words]
The Desert Hot Springs Planning Commission weighed in this week on two key issues affecting the city's future: medical marijuana and its art-in-public places program. The commission voted 3-2 on Tuesday to recommend banning medical marijuana dispensaries. The commission had tied 2-2 on the issue at a previous meeting, one that Chairman John Gerardi had been unable to attend. The commission also voted 3-1-1 to recommend a new fee structure for the city's proposed art-in-public-places program. Commissioner John Aguilar dissented, and commissioner Ron Stewart abstained. [continues 151 words]
The Desert Hot Springs City Council voted Monday to have the Planning Commission weigh a ban on medical marijuana facilities at a meeting next week rather than make an immediate decision. The council's 5-0 vote sends the Planning Commission two draft ordinances for consideration at its Nov. 17 meeting: One would prohibit medical marijuana dispensaries and the other would regulate the outlets. The city draft ordinance regulating medical marijuana would prohibit for-profit storefront dispensaries, and allow only for cooperatives or collectives in light-industrial zone districts. [continues 247 words]
