Kharla Vezzetti

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.…