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Also see: California Measures Taxing Medical Marijuana Win Big At Ballot Box AP, 11/5/14

November 5, 2014 – California voters at the local level continue to favor taxing marijuana, but aren’t sure the want to see it grown, or sold.

On a night when Washington DC, Oregon and Alaska voted for adult legalization measures, and 57% of Florida voters approved medical marijuana (falling short of the 60% needed in that state), Californians voted by 58.5% to approve Proposition 47, a measure to defelonize drug possession.…

UPDATE 4/15 – Judge Mueller denied the motion.

3/11/2015 – Mueller has given herself until 3/25 to make a decision.

2/11/2015 – Judge Mueller says she will issue her ruling within 30 days.

1/5/2015: Schedule I Hearing Briefs Filed, Next Hearing in February

Depiction of the courtroom scene with Dr. Madras testifying by Ron Mullins.

SACRAMENTO, Oct 29th – The fourth and fifth days of U.S. court hearings before Judge Kimberly Mueller on the constitutionality of marijuana’s schedule one classification was spent in cross-examining the government’s only witness, Dr.…

UPDATE: Prof. Madras Defends US Government Position on Marijuana Scheduling at Court Hearing in Sacramento

October 29 – Dr. Bertha Madras will take the stand today in federal court in Sacramento to defend her 36-page declaration (augmented by footnotes and a lengthy resume), arguing that marijuana should remain in Schedule One (no accepted medical use; high potential for abuse). Read more.

Excerpts from her testimony:

Starting in the 19th century, chemists began to isolate pure chemicals from medicinal plants, study them, and make safer variants: the active drugs morphine from the opium poppy, cocaine from the coca bush, digitalis from the foxglove plant, salicylic acid (converted to aspirin) from willow bark, ephedrine from the Ma Huang plant, and quinine from cinchona bark were isolated (or, at times, further modified).…

Also see: Prof. Madras Defends US Government Position on Marijuana Scheduling at Court Hearing in Sacramento

October 28 – Dr. Carl Hart (right) left the witness stand as unscathed as Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner following his masterful testimony on cross-examination by US Attorney Gregory Broderick yesterday. Read more.

He was followed by Dr. Philip Denney, a retired medical cannabis practitioner who had offices in Sacramento, Redding and Lake Forest from 1999 to 2010. US Attorney Richard Bender opened amicably, noting that he and Dr.…

Also see: Day Two of Scheduling Hearings: Drs. Carl Hart and Philip Denney Take the Stand

Government Witness to Defend Marijuana’s Schedule One Status Today

October 24 – Dr. Gregory Carter was cross-examined by video today in Judge Kimberly J. Mueller’s federal courtroom in Sacramento, after Carter submitted a declaration in support of defendants’ claim in United States v. Pickard, et. al. that there is no rational basis to treat marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance. Read more.

The government tried four times to vacate the matter.…

October 15, 2014 – Federal District Court Judge Thelton Henderson ruled yesterday that medical marijuana patients have demonstrated a strong likelihood of prevailing at trial on their claim that law enforcement raids in Lake County unconstitutionally violate their Fourth Amendment rights. The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed earlier this year in San Francisco federal court, challenging Lake County’s enforcement of Measure N, an ordinance that restricts medical marijuana cultivation in the county.

Judge Henderson ordered that, “Defendant County of Lake, its officers, agents, and employees, and any other persons acting in active concert or participation therewith, are enjoined from enforcing Ordinance No.…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 14, 2014
Contact: Ellen Komp, Deputy Director CaNORML 415-563-5858

Statewide Reform Group Endorses “No on A” in Shasta County

California NORML, the state chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, has endorsed the No on Measure A campaign in Shasta county.

Cal NORML deputy director Ellen Komp, who has been tracking local ordinances across the state, has seen a trend towards cultivation bans. “Everyone agrees the problem lies in large grows that are already noncompliant with state and local zoning laws,” Komp said.…

The California Attorney General’s office has released its 2013 Crime Report.

According to the report, there were 13,779 felony marijuana arrests in California in 2013, up slightly from 13,434 in 2012. Hispanics were the most-arrested ethnic group, with 5,419 felony arrests, followed by whites (4,516) and blacks (2,538).

The largest age group for arrestees was 20-29, which accounted for 5,876 of the felony arrests, in sharp contrast to arrests for “dangerous drugs,” which were up to over 85,000 in 2013 and remained high for all age groups.…