Kharla Vezzetti September 23, 2009 – PayPal, the online payment company, has told California NORML it has made the decision not to accept payments from our “type of business” over a disagreement about accepting listing payments from cannabis-recommending physicians. After years of offering free listings to physicians and collectives, CaNORML began charging a yearly membership fee to …
UPDATE September 28 Sept. 19 – As late as today, one report from Oregon says California-based hemp activist and author Jack Herer is still in critical condition after he collapsed from a heart attack at an event last weekend.
Fresno is taking legal action against landlords of Medical Marijuana Collectives. Fresno Bee story CBS47 TV news story ABC story The Madera County Board of Supervisors will be meeting next Tuesday to pass an emergency ordinance to ban the 4 dispensaries in the County. The public is asked to attend next BOS meeting on 9/22 …
September 20 – For the first time, officials are casting doubt on the popular myth that Mexican “cartels” are responsible for illegal marijuana grows on public lands in California. A story published today in the Sacramento Bee Mexican marijuana growers boldly operate in California says: U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration special agent Gordon Taylor said authorities …
September 11 – SWAT-style raids on 14 medical marijuana outlets in the San Diego area on September 9 resulted in 31 arrests, including a man in a wheelchair who was wrestled into a police car. The action was the result of a four-month investigation by the San Diego district attorney’s office, which claims the collectives …
August 23 – A recent University of Texas study that claims the active ingredients in marijuana spread and prolong pain is an isolated, theoretical lab study involving rodent cells and endocannabinoids. It is more compelling to consult the long list of human clinical studies examining actual use of marijuana for chronic pain. It’s noteworthy that …
As the California legislature debates how to reduce prison expenses, Cal NORML is proposing that prison sentences for marijuana be reduced by downgrading mandatory felony penalties for cultivation, sale and transport to alternative misdemeanors. Reform supporters who live in or near the district of a key decisionmaker in the state’s prison deal, Republican State Senate …
August 22 – In a troubling development, the state assembly is balking at passing the prison population reduction bill passed by the state senate. The major objection appears to be precisely the provision of most interest to marijuana and drug reformers, namely one which would empower a state sentencing commission to review existing felony penalties …
June 20, 2009 – California NORML testified at the EPA hearings leading to the decision to categorize marijuana smoke, along with aspirin, potato chips and french fries as a potential carcinogen. The Cal EPA did NOT claim that THC itself is carcinogenic. They were looking at the smoke from the burned leaf, which contains hundreds …
Aug. 24th, 2009 – UPPER LAKE, CA: In what are believed to be the first DEA medical marijuana arrests since President Obama took office, the federal government arrested five Lake County defendants on marijuana charges on Tuesday, August 18th. The arrestees include Tom Carter, a well known local contractor; Scott Feil, former manager of the …