Kharla Vezzetti

*** Cal NORML Action Alert ***

Click here to call on Senators Feinstein and Boxer to support the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment, which would prohibit the US Department of Justice from spending resources to interfere with California’s marijuana laws.

Cal NORML director Dale Gieringer congratulates Rep. Dana Rohrabacher on his legislative success.

June 2, 2014 – In a historic vote, the House of Representatives approved an amendment by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Newport Beach) and Sam Farr (D-Monterey) denying the Department of Justice funding to prevent states from implementing their own marijuana laws.…

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.…

UPDATE: This story was corrected on March 27 to reflect the news that the decision was not unanimous. According to the Court’s website, Justices Kennard, Werdegar and Liu thought the petition should be granted, and the four other justices disagreed.

March 26, 2014: In a disappointing setback for Prop 215 patients’ rights, the CA Supreme Court denied review of the Maral v Live Oak appellate decision, which upheld the right of local governments to completely ban personal use cultivation by medical marijuana patients.…

March 7, 2014 – California NORML, the state chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, has launched an advertising campaign in response to Governor Jerry Brown’s pronouncement on “Meet the Press” that “potheads” are unable to compete in the modern workforce, and that therefore he does not favor marijuana legalization in California.

“The world’s pretty dangerous, very competitive. I think we need to stay alert, if not twenty-four hours a day, more than some of the potheads might be able to put together,” Brown said on the March 2 edition of the NBC program, asking, “How many people can get stoned and still have a great state or a great nation?”…

UPDATE 3/11: The bill failed in committee.

The California Assembly Public Safety Committee will be hearing AB 1588 (Conway) on March 11th.

The bill would expand the minimum distance of dispensaries or collectives from schools to 1,000 feet from the present 600 feet. It would also impose an additional fine of $500 to $10,000 for anyone illegally cultivating within a 1,000 foot radius of a school (not including individual Prop 215 patients and their caregivers). The 600-foot rule was copied from the state’s rule for siting of liquor stores.…

This story was updated on March 3. Many others who were also involved in the campaign are probably still not credited. This story is meant to be inspirational to others who want to get active locally.

Against all odds, the citizens of Shasta county have turned in an estimated 13,080 signatures on a referendum to repeal their outdoor cultivation ban, only 20 days after their campaign began. The number is more than twice the 6,600 valid signatures needed to overturn the measure.…