Tag: medical marijuana

Via the Oregonian:

Oregon opened another chapter in U.S. marijuana history when at 4:20 p.m. Friday, about three dozen people christened the nation's first cafe for licensed residents to sit down, sip coffee and smoke marijuana.

...Excited patrons spilled down the outside steps at 700 N.E. Dekum St. as the cafe prepared to open at the appointed hour -- "420" being slang for using marijuana. In line were military veterans, grandmothers, young workers, men and women, old and young, black, white and Latino.

The Los Angeles City Council today rejected a proposal to ban sales of medical marijuana. And in Colorado, Attorney General John Suthers issued a legal opinion that medical marijuana sales are subject to taxation, and dispensaries must obtain a sales tax license.

Yesterday was a big day for medical marijuana in Colorado when a Denver District Court judge tossed last week's ruling by the State Board of Health changing the definition of "primary caregiver." Today, the reactions come in. Here are a few:

• Aurora Sentinel Editorial: Stop Playing Games with Medical Marijuana
• Westword: Brian Vicente on victory in hearing to void Board of Health's medical-marijuana ruling
• Aspen Daily News: Dispensaries prepare for more regulation

Last night in Boulder, just after midnight, the City Council passed temporary rules regulating dispensaries by restricting where they can be located. [More...]

Update: Judge rules for medical marijuana advocates. He even awards them attorneys' fees. From Westword,the Judge said:

[T]he Board of Appeals violated an court order two years ago that agencies considering marijuana rule changes would first notify people impacted by the rule changes.

"By the evidence presented here today, I find that the defendants have violated the court order when in November there was a meeting without notice that complied with the law and the parties changed the rules," says Naves. "I find that there was no emergency. The justification for an emergency was a Court of appeals decision that was not even final. And the Court of Appeals could not use the [Board of Appeals rule in question]...

[More...]

Grand Junction, in Mesa County, Colorado, is considering this ordinance banning new medical marijuana dispensaries for 12 months. It provides penalties -- anyone who holds themselves out as a primary caregiver for the purpose of acquiring, possessing, producing or transporting medical marijuana or paraphernalia, without having a sales tax license is committing a misdemeanor. No new sales tax licenses will be granted for 12 months. Businesses with existing sales tax licenses cannot add medical marijuana to their inventory.[More...]

After a four hour hearing last night, the Boulder Planning Board unanimously decided not to recommend a ban or moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries to the city council.

City planners recommended a four-month moratorium while new regulations or a ban are considered. That's the route many other Colorado towns have taken. But after hearing more than two hours of testimony -- none of it from neighbors or business owners concerned about the proliferation of dispensaries -- Planning Board members questioned the urgency of a moratorium.

The board instead proposed a few regulations: [More...]

Maine is now the third state to legalize medical marijuana dispensaries.

In a landmark vote, Maine voters today approved Question 5, making the state the third in the country to license nonprofit organizations to provide medical marijuana to qualified patients and the first ever to do so by a vote of the people.

...Under the measure, the state will license nonprofit organizations to provide medical marijuana to qualified patients and set rules for their operation. While 13 states permit medical use of marijuana, only Rhode Island and New Mexico have similar dispensary provisions, both of which were adopted by the states’ legislatures....Question 5 also expands the list of medical conditions qualifying for protection under Maine’s law to include several conditions that are included in most other medical marijuana states, including intractable pain, agitation of Alzheimer’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (“Lou Gehrig’s disease”).

[More...]

Bump and Update: The amendment to the rule defining "significant responsibility for managing the well-being of a patient" for marijuana caregivers, prompted by last week's Colorado Court of Appeals decision, passed unanimously just before noon, but not without a fight, when the Board refused to hear public comments. The old rule, 5 CCR 1006-2, passed in July and made effective in August, 2009, is here. It defines the responsibility of a caregiver as:

“Significant responsibility for managing the well-being of a patient” means assisting a patient with daily activities, including but not limited to transportation or housekeeping or meal preparation or shopping or making any necessary arrangement for access to medical care or services or provision of medical marijuana. (my emphasis)

Question: How long will it be good for? Colorado's State Administrative Procedures Act provides that resolutions passed at agency emergency hearings are generally only valid for three months. A copy of the revised rule passed today (and rule on emergency hearings) is here (pdf). A full public hearing will be held Dec. 16. When will the appeals (pdf) begin? [More...]

The Newark Star Ledger joins two state senatorss and goes to bat today seeking a pardon for John Ray Wilson, a MS patient busted for growing 17 pot plants behind his house. He's facing 20 years. Prosecutors offered hin 3 to 9, which he turned down. The paper ends with:

Sens. Nicholas Scutari and Raymond Lesniak (both D-Union) have asked Gov. Jon Corzine to pardon Wilson, who declined an offer to plead guilty in return for a three- to nine-year sentence and is scheduled to go on trial Dec. 14. The senators want Corzine to throw out the first-degree charge, so Wilson can enter pretrial intervention on the lesser offenses. They have called the charges "inappropriate" and an "inhumane application" of the law.

Dude, they’re right, this is totally bogus.

[More...]

Summit County, Colorado is home to several Colorado ski towns, including Breckenridge, Frisco, Silverthorne and Dillon. Some of its land is not in any town, thus it has control over "unincorporated areas" of the county.

Breckenridge voters will vote Tuesday on whether to remove all criminal penalties for adult possession of up to one ounce of marijuana. A few years ago, voters passed a resolution mandating that medical marijuana enforcement be the lowest police priority.

Last week, Silverthorne joined Frisco and Breckenridge (pdf) in enacting regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries (pdf). Breckenridge has even posted the required forms online. Dillon is expected to do the same. [More...]

The Colorado Court of Appeals today issued an opinion holding that medical marijuana caregivers must do more than merely provide pot and must have significant responsibility for providing for the well-being of their patients.

The case involved a woman named Stacy Clendenin, who in 2006 was charged with cultivating marijuana in a Longmont home. Clendenin argued that the marijuana she grew in the home was then distributed to authorized patients through marijuana dispensaries.

But the appeals court ruled that simply knowing that the end user of marijuana is a patient is not enough. Instead, the court said, a care-giver authorized to grow marijuana must actually know the patients who use it....In a special concurring opinion, Judge Alan Loeb wrote that Colorado's constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana "cries out for legislative action."

Actually, the opinion (available here, pdf) said the trial court ruled the caregiver must personally know the patient, and it was deciding the issue on other grounds. [More...]

The DEA issued this statement today on the DOJ revised policy on medical marijuana busts in states where it is legal:

“DEA welcomes the issuance of these clarifying guidelines pertaining to the use of federal investigative and prosecutorial resources in states that have enacted laws authorizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

"These guidelines do not legalize marijuana. It is not the practice or policy of DEA to target individuals with serious medical conditions who comply with state laws authorizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Consistent with the DOJ guidelines, we will continue to identify and investigate any criminal organization or individual who unlawfully grows, markets or distributes marijuana or other dangerous drugs. Those who unlawfully possess firearms, commit acts of violence, provide drugs to minors, or have ties to other criminal organizations may also be subject to arrest.

[More...]

Is the medical marijuana dispensary business really booming? John Suthers, the Attorney General in Colorado says it is. He's looking for ways to regulate it. Some municipalities are putting "freezes" on new applications while they try to develop standards and rules. [More...]

Bump and Update: Here is the text of the DOJ memo.

The Department of Justice is sending out a three page memo to prosecutors in the 14 states that have legalized medical marijuana with new guidelines for prosecutions. According to unnamed officials,

... [the memo] emphasizes that prosecutors have wide discretion in choosing which cases to pursue, and says it is not a good use of federal manpower to prosecute those who are without a doubt in compliance with state law.

Without a doubt? Sounds like there's some wiggle room. [More...]

The Denver Post reports today on the sad cases of some disabled medical marijuana users, including one with MS, who are being evicted from federally subsidized housing due to regulations that prohibit illegal use of controlled substances. Under federal law, all marijuana use is illegal, even in states that allow it.

Even with the state's OK to use medical marijuana, people such as Hewitt can't live in federal housing or receive federal subsidies for rent under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Housing Choice Voucher Program.

Hewitt and another medical-marijuana user from Durango have challenged that policy with HUD's fair-housing division and in court. The policy has drawn lawsuits in at least two of the other 13 states that allow medical-marijuana use. But so far HUD has prevailed. HUD officials stress they have no choice in the matter.

The irony: [More...]

The FBI was busy in Denver today, raiding medical marijuana businesses, but, the U.S. Attorneys' office says they weren't after the pot -- even though they seized it.

FBI has busted an operation run by Russians who they say came up with an elaborate scheme to steal from credit card companies that somehow involves a local medical marijuana business and a local car dealership, according to sources and the U.S. Attorney's office.

Law enforcement officers arrested four people Friday morning across the metro area who were allegedly part of the bank fraud operation. FBI agents also served search warrants at more than a dozen locations, including personal residences, auto dealerships and the medical marijuana business called Alternative Medicine of Southeast Denver (AMSD), a company that is the same building as CannaMed, on Leetsdale Drive in Denver. CannaMed is where people can apply to get medical marijuana.

Four persons of Russian nationality were arrested and charged with bank fraud and making false statements on loan applications. [More...]