Kharla Vezzetti

July 6, 2015 – California Governor Jerry Brown has signed Assembly Bill 258 (Levine), to end discrimination against medical marijuana patients who need organ transplants. The bill was sponsored by Americans for Safe Access, and also endorsed by California NORML, which gathered signatures on a petition to Governor Brown at the Grateful Dead Santa Clara shows (see photo) and elsewhere in the state.

While most are scrambling to regulate and tax medical marijuana establishments, the human rights of medical marijuana patients are not always being addressed.…

“Fish, Flow and Marijuana Grows: Drought and Illegal Marijuana Impacts to Fisheries” was the title of a hearing held July 1 in the California Assembly Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture, co-chaired by North Coast Senator Mike McGuire and his assembly counterpart Jim Wood, both freshman who have filed MJ regulation bills this year. Attending the hearing was veteran senator Jim Nielsen, who recalled the days when the CAMP program was first funded, and asked about heritage water rights for farmers in his Sacramento Valley district.…

June 2015 – Plans are proceeding apace for a California unity initiative to legalize marijuana for adult use in November 2016. A statewide coalition of reform groups, including Cal NORML, the Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform, DPA, MPP, LEAP, ASA, SSDP, Emerald Growers Association, the California Cannabis Industry Association, NAACP, William Velazquez Institute, UFCW and others are planning to file a comprehensive initiative with the Attorney General’s office later this summer.…

Also see: State Hearing Held on Drought and Illegal Marijuana Impacts to Fisheries

Cal NORML Challenges Fish and Wildlife Figures on Marijuana and Water Consumption

The press has been lapping it up like….well, water: the allegation that marijuana cultivation in California is contributing to the state’s drought crisis. The situation has led to local governments passing “urgency” ordinances naming the drought as an emergency, and stepping up enforcement against medical marijuana gardens with the same claim.

Police are issuing press releases tallying up the supposed water usage for eradicated crops (which, like their dollar amounts, seem quite inflated).…

By Ariel Clark and Nicole Howell Neubert, Clark Neubert LLP

On October 28, 2014, the United States Department of Justice issued a Memorandum titled “Policy Statement Regarding Marijuana Issues in Indian Country,” which effectively opened the door to Indian nations growing and selling marijuana on their lands. In so doing, the government signaled how tribes may chart a path to cultivating cannabis without federal law enforcement interference. Specifically, the memorandum reminded United States Attorney’s of the need for flexibility and effectively advised tribes seeking to legalize cultivation and use in Indian Country to (1) prevent all activities implicated by the eight federal priorities set forth in the August 23, 2013 “Cole Memorandum” and (2) to consult with the local United States Attorney’s Offices on a government-to-government basis, with each U.S.…

Veterans who met with Sen. Feinstein’s staffers in March along with California NORML.

On May 21, 2015, the Senate Appropriations committee voted 18-12 to approve the following amendment to HR 2029, the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016:

Sec. 246. None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available to the Department of Veterans Affairs in this Act may be used in a manner that would—

(1) interfere with the ability of a veteran to participate in a State-approved medicinal marijuana program;

(2) deny any services from the Department to a veteran who is participating in such a program; or

(3) limit or interfere with the ability of a health care provider of the Department to make appropriate recommendations, fill out forms, or take steps to comply with such a program.…

UPDATE: The Assembly Appropriations Committee approved a compromise medical marijuana bill combining the features of both AB 266 (Cooley) and AB 34 (Bonta and Jones-Sawyer). The bill would create a new Governor’s Office of MMJ Regulation to oversee and coordinate three new MMJ regulatory divisions in: (1) the Dept of Food and Agriculture for cultivation, (2) Public Health for product safety and labeling, and (3) the Board of Equalization for licensing (ABC has been dropped from the bill). The bill retains provisional licensing measures from AB 34 along with local licensing language from AB 266.…

SACRAMENTO 4/20 – Assemblyman Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale) sponsored a demonstration of a new oral swab drug test in the State Capitol today. Lackey is sponsoring a bill, AB 1356, that would allow CA police to use the test as an alternative to urine or blood tests for DUI stops. The tests were misleadingly billed as “breathalyzers,” although they can’t actually measure impairment like the alcohol breathalyzer.

Proponents were careful to state that the tests would not be a per se indicator of impairment, and would be administered only AFTER a driver had been stopped for a traffic offense and taken a field sobriety test.…