Uncategorized

February 4, 2014 – By a vote of 5-0, the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors voted to table an ordinance that would have banned medical marijuana dispensaries and outdoor cultivation today. The board acted on the recommendation of the planning commission, which voted 6-1 to scrap their own plan after nearly 100 citizens showed up for the meeting and 20 spoke against it (with none speaking in favor).

After a presentation by Community Resources Director Bev Shane noting that California might have an initiative on the ballot in November, and state legislation was also pending in Sacramento, a motion was made and seconded to delay any action until November.…

January 26, 2014 – As the popularity of cannabis e-cigs and vaporizers has taken off, California NORML has been busy fighting bills to ban e-cigs in non-smoking areas. These bans are especially harmful to the many seriously ill patients who cannot legally smoke medical cannabis indoors due to the state’s stringent anti-smoking laws, some of which even ban smoking in private rental units and apartments. California law generally defines e-cigs broadly to include any device capable of vaporizing nicotine, which includes most every vaporizer on the market.…

Cal NORML News Alert

January 2, 2014 – Los Angeles Judge Hammock has upheld the city’s medical marijuana ordinance Proposition D. LA-area collectives should expect that the city will proceed to enforce the ordinance.

In other LA news, the police department has begun to deploy oral saliva swabs for DUI checks. Oral swabs typically detect marijuana smoking for several hours after last use; their sensitivity varies from a couple of hours to a couple of days. The tests can in no way detect whether drivers are actually impaired.…

UPDATE: 3/27/2014 – The California Supreme Court refused to hear the case, so the appellate court ruling stands. Read more.

January 3, 2014 – In a lawsuit supported by California NORML, attorney Joe Elford is filing a petition today asking the State Supreme Court to review a recent Third District Appellate Court decision, James Maral v City of Live Oak, that upheld the right of local governments to ban medical marijuana cultivation entirely.

The petition argues that local governments are pre-empted by state law from banning cultivation by qualified medical marijuana patients, insofar as California’s Compassionate Use Act (Prop.…

Join CalNORML and support our efforts in 2014!

December 2013 – Cal NORML kicked off 2013 with a successful conference in January marking the 100th anniversary of marijuana prohibition in California this year and setting goals for ending it. Over 300 people from across the state attended the conference in San Francisco, which hosted 56 speakers.

Then it was off to Sacramento, where we worked to derail a bill that would have made it an automatic DUI to have any amount of THC in drivers’ blood.…

UPDATE January 6, 2014 – Gutierrez will be sentenced on Friday, January 10 at 10:30am Oakland Federal Courthouse 1301 Clay Street

October 4, 2013 – A jury in federal court has found KPFA citizen journalist Jose Gutierrez guilty of assaulting a US marshall during a protest of the raid on Oaksterdam University on April 2, 2012.

Gutierrez was wearing a bull mask and holding a sign saying “Department of Injustice: BULLIES” when the incident happened at the neighboring Blue Sky coffeehouse in Oakland.…

UPDATE 9/27/2013 – Governor Brown signed the bill into law.

SACRAMENTO, Sept 11th – The State Senate unanimously passed Sen. Mark Leno’s industrial hemp bill, SB 566.

The bill would exclude hemp with THC content <0.3% from the definition of marijuana when cultivated for industrial purposes, and would regulate its cultivation under the state Dept of Food and Agriculture. In an important stipulation, the bill would not become operative until "authorized under federal law" as determined by the state Attorney General. This condition was designed to win support from Gov. Brown, who vetoed a hemp bill last year on grounds that it conflicted with federal law. Republicans joined Democrats in approving the hemp bill. Republican Allen Mansoor of Costa Mesa sponsored a parallel bill in the State Assembly. …

UPDATED 8/14/2013

August 12 – US Attorney General Eric Holder was aware that coming to California’s Bay Area meant encountering drug policy reform advocates. His May appearance at UC Berkeley law school saw him greeted by medical marijuana advocates, including a banner in the sky saying, “Holder: End RX Cannabis War”

In advance of his appearance this morning at the national American Bar Association meeting in Los Angeles, Holder announced the results of a Justice Department review that recommends a re-evaluation of mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes as racist, unjust, ineffective and expensive.…

By Dale Gieringer, CalNORML director

One hundred years ago, on August 10, 1913, an obscure law banning the possession of “Indian hemp” took effect in California.

Also known as cannabis indica or hasheesh, Indian hemp had long been available in drugstores without causing any evident problems; hemp was also grown as a fiber crop in the Central Valley. Only later did it become familiar by the Mexican name “marihuana,” a word unknown to white Californians in 1913.

Public concern about Indian hemp was nonexistent in 1913.…