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UPDATE: May 30, 2011 – SAN DIEGO’s BOTCHED CANNABIS ORDINANCE SUSPENDED BY REFERENDUM

Congratulations to the California Cannabis Coalition and Citizens for Patients Rights for collecting over 46,000 signatures to suspend San Diego’s ill-considered medical cannabis ordinance severely restricting collectives.

The ordinance was officially suspended as of 4:20 PM, Friday May 27th, when the signatures were turned in. It will stay suspended until the registrar validates the count. If there are over 31,029 valid signatures (as seems likely), the ordinance will stay on hold and go before the voters for a referendum; otherwise, it will go back into effect.…

The conference was held on March 19, 2011 at the
Ricardo Montalban Theatre in Hollywood.

Congressional candidate Marcy Winogrand and Assemblymember
Jim Beall spoke on the Public Perspectives panel.

West Hollywood Mayor Pro Tempore John Duran with conference
co-sponsor Dale Gieringer of California NORML.

UCLA School of Public Policy professor Mark Kleiman said
attending the conference opened his mind to new ideas.

Dale Sky Jones of the Prop. 19 campaign, Stephen Gutwillig of
the Drug Policy Alliance and Dale Gieringer in front of conference
sponsor/yummy food vendor VizziTruck

MPP’s Sarah Lovering and Dan Rush of United Food and
Commercial Workers hold court in the food court

Diane Goldstein of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) answers
a question from the crowd during the Movement Building Panel, with
Gretchen Burns Bergman of A New PATH, Dan Rush, and Antonio
Gonzalez of the Latino Voters League.…

Cal NORML Reports March, 2011

SACRAMENTO. Several important cannabis reform bills have been introduced to the California legislature. They include protecting Prop 215 patients from workplace discrimination, reducing cultivation penalties, legalizing industrial hemp, and establishing full-scale medical marijuana licensing schemes.

In the State Senate, Mark Leno (D-SF), has re-introduced a bill to protect medical marijuana patients from workplace discrimination. The Medical Cannabis Patient Employment Non-Discrimination Bill, SB 129, would declare it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a person because of his or her status as a qualified patient or a positive drug test for marijuana, except for safety-sensitive jobs.…

Also see: Appeals Court Rules in Favor of Tehama County Cultivation Ordinance

UPDATE February 20: CalNORML has filed its appeal.

UPDATE February 6: California NORML will appeal a court decision upholding Tehama’s ordinance restricting patients’ right to grow medical marijuana. The ordinance, which declares it a nuisance to cultivate any marijuana at all – indoors or outdoors – within 1,000 feet of a park, church, school, school bus stop, et al., effectively makes it impossible for many patients to obtain their medicine in accordance with Prop.…

TELL YOUR STATE SENATOR TO SUPPORT THE LENO EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS BILL
January 31 – Before hundreds of attendees at the California NORML statewide “Next Steps” conference on Saturday, January 29, Senator Mark Leno (SF) announced he has re-introduced his bill to end employment discrimination against medical marijuana users. SB 129, The Medical Cannabis Patient Employment Non-Discrimination Bill would declare it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a person because of their status as a qualified patient or a positive drug test for marijuana, except for safety-sensitive positions and certain health-care workers.…

On Monday, November 22, California NORML director Dale Gieringer will receive the High Times Freedom Fighter of the Year Award in Amsterdam at the magazine’s annual Cannabis Cup celebration.

Gieringer has been the state coordinator of California NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) since 1987. He is also Vice-Chairman of the national NORML board of directors, director of the California Drug Policy Forum (DPFCA) and treasurer of the Oakland Civil Liberties Alliance (OCLA).

Dr. Gieringer has published research on medical marijuana usage, marijuana smoke harm reduction, potency testing, marijuana and driving safety, and drug urinalysis, and has testified before the legislature and in court on issues concerning personal use of marijuana.…

October 30 – California’s CAMP (Campaign Against Marijuana Planting) marijuana eradication reported 4,320,314 plant seizures in 2010, slightly less than last year’s all-time record of 4,463,917.

CAMP estimates the wholesale value of the destroyed crop at $17.2 billion – enough to qualify for agricultural disaster aid for any other crop. This works out to $4,000 per plant, or over 1 lb per plant. At this rate, the total amount of marijuana destroyed by CAMP works out to over four times the estimated consumption of the entire state of California (1 million lb/year).…

UPDATED 10/18 – Several cities will be voting on marijuana business tax measures on this November’s ballot. In addition to applying to medical marijuana sales, some would apply to recreational marijuana in the event Prop 19 passes.

Cal NORML opposes Albany Measure Q, La Puente Measure N, Rancho Cordova Measure O, San Jose Measure U, and the dispensary bans in Santa Barbara and Morro Bay. We support Berkeley’s Measure T and are neutral on the other tax measures.

The city of Albany is proposing a $25/square foot tax on non-profit medical marijuana facilities of any kind, plus a 1.8% business tax on for-profit cannabis businesses.…

Californians will have an historic opportunity this November to vote on a landmark initiative to legalize adult use and sales of marijuana. Polls indicate a tight race, with Prop 19 leading in most of them, presenting the likelihood that California will actually become the first state to legalize.

Prop 19 is by no means a full legalization measure. Statewide, its major effect is to legalize private adult possession of one ounce for personal use and home cultivation of 25 square feet or less.…

Cal. NORML Press Release May 27, 2000

A state report on the impact of California’s medical marijuana initiative, Prop. 215, showing that use of marijuana by students declined slightly following passage of the 1996 initiative after having increased for several years previously, is being suppressed by the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs.

The report, authored by Rodney Skager, professor emeritus of the UCLA Graduate School of Education and founding director of the California Attorney General’s Student Survey on drug use, contradicts the main arguments against passage of Proposition 215 in the 1996 state election.…