Kharla Vezzetti

UPDATE 6/17/2014 – The bill passed by a vote of 10-2 through the Assembly Business and Professions committee and appears headed for the Assembly Public Safety Committee on Tuesday, June 24. Stay tuned.

Read CalNORML’s letter on the bill and see the latest version of the bill.

To see the Business and Professions committee hearing, go to: http://www.calchannel.com/recent-archive/ and click on Assembly Business, Professions & Consumer Protection Committee for June 17. It starts around 2:15

UPDATE 6/16/2014 – New amendments to the bill have been posted.…

It is with sadness that Cal NORML reports the death of former California Senator John Vasconcellos at the age of 82.

As well as his other accomplishments, Senator Vasconcellos was a champion of medical marijuana rights. In 2003, Vasconcellos authored SB420, which legalized medical marijuana collectives and established a baseline number of plants that could be grown by patients (at a time when some jurisdictions were allowing only a single plant, if any). He also authored a bill that year extending the lifetime of the California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, which his legislation had established in 2010.…

SACRAMENTO, April 30. The California Senate Health Committee approved Sen. Correa’s medical marijuana regulation bill SB 1262 by a vote of 6-0 after the author amended it to satisfy the objections of opponents, including medical marijuana advocates, the California Medical Association, and county governments.

In particular, the bill was amended to drop provisions restricting the practice of cannabis medicine, which had been strongly opposed by the CMA and MMJ advocates, including Cal NORML. Among them were provisions codifying the practice of cannabis medicine, requiring doctors to specify what kind of marijuana to recommend, requiring pediatricians to make recommendations for minors, and banning the use of butane hash oil.…

UPDATE 12:20 PM – AB2500 FAILED TO PASS THE ASSEMBLY PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE. Thanks to all the NORML members and supporters who wrote in about this bill.

April 29, 2014 – The growing popularity of marijuana has raised public worries about the risk of an increase in driving accidents due to marijuana DUIs. Fortunately, the most recent federal highway safety statistics show no evidence of a MJ/drug driving epidemic. According to data from NHTSA’s Fatal Accident Recording System (FARS), the number of fatal highway accidents in California declined from 3,148 to 2,632 between 1999 and 2012; in the same period, the number of accident victims testing positive for marijuana increased from 105 to 402.…

SACRAMENTO, April 21-22. – Two medical MJ regulation bills – SB 1262 by Sen. Lou Correa and AB 1894 by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano – passed their first committee hearings in the California legislature this week, heightening the likelihood that the legislature will finally pass some kind of comprehensive state legislation for the legal sales, production, distribution and manufacture of MMJ this year. However, the final details remain unclear, as there are significant differences between the two proposals and both face the prospect of further amendments.…

The Sacramento Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to ban outdoor medical marijuana cultivation in unincorporated areas of the county, but chose not to ban indoor cultivation and rather work with advocates to develop an indoor ordinance.

The move came after Supervisor Roberta MacGlashan introduced two ordinances to ban both outdoor and indoor cultivation of medical marijuana, in a county that has also banned dispensaries. MacGlashan said her office had received “a huge number of complaints” about the strong odor of outdoor grows, citing public safety concerns and also worries about water usage, especially in this drought year.…

UPDATE 4/22 – AB 1892 passed the Assembly Public Safety committee by a 5-2 vote.

SACRAMENTO – Tom Ammiano has re-introduced his medical marijuana regulation bill under a new bill number, AB 1894.

The new bill will be heard in the Assembly later this month, effectively replacing his other bill, AB 604, which had been pending in the State Senate. AB 1894 is essentially identical to AB 604, except for including an additional section authorizing counties and cities to levy a special transactions and use tax on medical marijuana, not to exceed 5% or 2.5%, respectively.…

UPDATE 4/29/2014 – AB2500 FAILED TO PASS THE ASSEMBLY PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE. Thanks to all the NORML members and supporters who wrote in about this bill.

UPDATE 4/23/14 – Assembly Bill 2500 has been amended to impose ‘per se’ criminal penalties to individuals who drive with trace levels (2ng/ml or above) of THC or other controlled substances in their blood — regardless of whether he/she is behaviorally impaired. NORML and California NORML opposes the imposition of this legislation.

Thank Your Assemblyperson for Voting No on AB2500

Read Cal NORML’s testimony on AB2500

BACKGROUND: From the March Edition of Cal NORML Reports.…