Kharla Vezzetti

It is with sadness that CalNORML reports the death of Mike Gray, Gray was a documentarian and the award-winning screenwriter of the prophetic movie China Syndrome (starring Michael Douglas and Jane Fonda) who took an interest in the drug war after reading a 1992 article in the LA Times by DPA’s Ethan Nadelmann.

Written in documentary style after six years of research and writing, including a trip to Columbia, Gray’s seminal book, DRUG CRAZY: How We Got Into This Mess and How We Can Get Out (Random House, ’98) had a major impact on the drug war debate.…

California NORML Release April 30, 2013

US Attorney Melinda Haag has issued a spate of new landlord letters targeting medical cannabis dispensaries in Northern California.

Cal NORML has so far heard reports from dispensaries in San Jose, San Francisco and Ukiah. The letters warn landlords that the facilities are operating too close to a school or park. Under federal law, distribution of controlled substances within 1,000 feet of a school or youth recreation area is punishable by enhanced penalties. In addition, the letters warn landlords that they are liable for forfeiture under USC Title 21, Section 881(a) 7.…

SACRAMENTO, APRIL 30. The State Senate Public Safety Committee approved Sen. Steinberg’s bill to regulate medical marijuana, SB 439. Steinberg said the bill was not yet in final form, but rather a “vehicle to engage stakeholders” in fashioning reasonable regulations and curbing abuses. He said he had been in contact with Assemblyman Ammiano (who has a companion bill, AB473, in the assembly) and that it could take as long as a year or two to finish the bill.

Steinberg argued that there was much of ambiguity and risk involved in current laws as well as a lot of sales that were not to people with serious illnesses.…

SACRAMENTO Apr 23. – The Assembly Public Safety Committee approved Tom Ammiano’s MMJ regulation bill AB 473 on a party line vote. The bill would create a new Division of MMJ Regulation and Enforcement in the Dept of Alcoholic Beverages Control to regulate commercial sales, production, manufacture, testing and transport for MMJ.

Testifying in favor were DPA, LEAP, and the CA Criminal Defense Attorneys. CRMM members ASA and Cal NORML also expressed support (qualified by concern about certain aspects of the legislation).…

April 14 – Serving as acting governor while Jerry Brown is in China on a trade mission, California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom called for the decriminalization of marijuana in his speech at the California Democratic Convention in Sacramento on Saturday.

Newsom joked about an acting governor library currently being constructed in the back of a medical marijuana dispensary in the Haight Asbury before speaking seriously about dual-diagnosed substance abusers, homelessness, poverty, job creation and economic development. He called for bold measures by the party, including the end of the death penalty, calling it “racially biased.”…

UPDATE 5/9: Stephanie Chaung of NBC Bay Area did some great research for this story, uncovering the fact that only four outdoor medical marijuana gardens were reported in complaints in Concord since 2009, and only one had a violent episode. The police sergeant she interviews speaks of home invasion robberies, something moving gardens indoors will arguably exacerbate. He cites one case where someone voluntarily moved their outdoor garden, something someone would be likely to do if they had problems.

Video at: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Tensions-Heat-Up-Over-Medical-Pot-and-Cops-206761321.html…

Federal researchers this week began a serious PR push arguing that chronic cannabis consumers suffer impaired psychomotor/cognitive skills for a period of up to 30 days or more post-abstinence and, as a result, should not be legally permitted to drive.

Note that this study did NOT actually examine the driving performance of cannabis consumers. Rather, it examined the residual THC in their blood, which it found to be detectable for 30 days.  

The study goes on to selectively cite other studies indicating that such chronic use is consistent with impairment and goes on to conclude that persons with THC in their blood should not be allowed to drive.…

ACTION ITEMS:
Oppose Correa DUI Bill SB289 (This bill has been referred to the Senate Public Safety committee; see Drug Testing News below.)

Support Federal Measures to Legalize Marijuana and Regulate Its Sales

City of Concord to vote on outdoor mmj cultivation ban on March 26

STATE NEWS:
Los Angeles Mayoral frontrunner Eric Garcetti urges the Obama administration to end the “hypocrisy” of current drug laws.

Blacks and Latinos Dominate Oakland Marijuana Arrests

Medical Pot a Huge Part of Silicon Valley

Former Prosecutor & Freshman Congressman Swalwell (Hayward) Announces Support for Rational Federal Marijuana Policy

A Marijuana Dispensary Was Not Robbed in SF This Week.…

Two bills to legalize production of industrial hemp have been introduced in the CA legislature:  SB 566 by Sen. Mark Leno (D-SF) and AB 1137 by Assemblyman Allan Mansoor (R-Huntington/Newport/Laguna Beach). Both bills would revise the definition of marijuana to exclude industrial hemp and authorize its production with the provision that its potency not exceed 0.3% THC.

The Leno bill would take effect only if hemp production is authorized by federal law. This is designed to address Gov. Brown’s objection to Sen.…

February 6 – The 3rd District Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of Tehama county on a challenge to their medical marijuana cultivation ordinance.

“This isn’t the end of the battle,” said CalNORML director Dale Gieringer. “There appear to be other legal options to ensure that patients are not precluded from their access to medicine.”

Because the court interpreted the case as a “facial” challenge, it did not look at whether or not the ordinance affected the plaintiffs individually. Further proceedings could make an “as applied” challenge, in which a patient, caregiver, collective or cooperative could argue their ability to cultivate medical cannabis is infringed upon by the ordinance.…

If you are not redirected, click here.…

January 30 – Daisy Bram, whose children were seized in Butte county last year because of a medical marijuana grow at her home, has now had her three children taken from her by Tehama county officials. When she arrived for an appearance in family court yesterday, officers blocked her car in the parking lot and told her they were seizing it because it had been purchased with drug proceeds. They have now left the young mother without transportation, by taking her 2002 Ford Explorer, while her children are in foster care.…

January 30 – Daisy Bram, whose children were seized in Butte county last year because of a medical marijuana grow at her home, has now had her three children taken from her by Tehama county officials. When she arrived for an appearance in family court yesterday, officers blocked her car in the parking lot and told her they were seizing it because it had been purchased with drug proceeds. They have now left the young mother without transportation, by taking her 2002 Ford Explorer, while her children are in foster care.…