From “Obama administration won’t prosecute where medical marijuana is legal” in today’s WaPo:
Americans for Safe Access, a group that promotes medical marijuana reform nationwide, said that during the Bush administration, more than 200 federal raids occurred in California alone.
From “A federal about-face on medical marijuana” in today’s Los Angeles Times:
Steph Sherer, executive director of Americans for Safe Access, called the new guidelines an important step toward a comprehensive national policy on medical marijuana because they will allow states to implement their own laws without interference from the federal government.
“This is a huge victory for medical-marijuana patients,” said Sherer, whose group plays a leading role in nationwide medical-marijuana advocacy. “This indicates that President Obama intends to keep his promise and represents a significant departure from the policies of the Bush administration.”
ASA is encouraged to learn that the Obama Administration has taken a major step forward in defining its policy on medical cannabis today, when the U.S. Department of Justice issued a memo giving new instructions to federal prosecutors and law enforcement. This memo has been expected since we learned that the Committee report to accompany the Justice appropriations legislation would include specific language requiring a written policy.
Jerry Brown
A spokesperson for California Attorney General Jerry Brown told the New York Times that the nonprofit sales of medical cannabis in storefront patients’ collectives are legal. The Attorney General is speaking up in response to a growing controversy about how to regulate hundreds of collectives and cooperatives in Los Angeles. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich told City Councilmembers in September that storefront collectives and nonprofit sales of cannabis are illegal, despite guidelines issued by the Attorney General last year that indicate otherwise.
(This is a guest blog by Resipsa from the Landa Prison Outreach Project)
Stephanie Landa
Nearly three years ago, I drove veteran medical marijuana cultivator and activist Stephanie Landa to San Francisco to surrender herself to federal authorities. Her attorney, Allison Margolin, had managed to stall the court for an extraordinarily long time, but Stephanie’s luck had run out, and it she’d been ordered to present herself at the federal building to begin a 41-month sentence.
Americans for Safe Access (ASA) had really been there for Stephanie. Among other things, they helped make her last press conference a great success. Executive Director Steph Sheer and California Director Don Duncan personally walked her through the jailhouse door. I was crying and distraught. But I did manage to promise my friend that I would be there for her while she was inside and I would drive her home, just as I had driven her to the jail.
Keeping my promise to bring her home involved detailed negotiations with the prison and three pages of instructions. But in the end, the warden himself signed off on the paperwork.
Read the rest of this entry »
Last Friday, a day after Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and District Attorney Steve Cooley attended a law enforcement training hosted by the California Narcotic Officers Association (CNOA) on the “eradication” of medical marijuana dispensaries, both officials declared a war on safe, affordable access to this therapeutic substance. In multiple newspapers, Trutanich and Cooley flagrantly stated their opinion that almost all dispensaries in Los Angeles are operating illegally, in violation of state law. Not only did these local prosecutors fail to provide any evidence of such violations, making unfounded accusations instead, but they have also ignored (or, more appropriately, rebuffed) the California Attorney General guidelines on this matter. Read the rest of this entry »
From the Ukiah Daily Journal:
Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman has been ordered to give back 32 marijuana hash patties to two Redwood Valley defendants … Henderson and Sutherland will receive 32 patties because the legal amount for a marijuana patient to have at the time of the seizure was eight ounces, according to the order, and four doctors’ recommendations were admitted as evidence in the case.
Protesters gather at CNOA luncheon
More than one hundred medical cannabis supporters raised their voices, and more than a few eyebrows, at a lively and visible protest in front of the Montebello County Club on Wednesday morning. Americans for Safe Access (ASA) called for the demonstration after we learned that Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich were headlining a luncheon training entitled “Eradicating Medical Cannabis Dispensaries in the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County.”
Protesters were right to be alarmed. Standing next to City Attorney Trutanich, District Attorney Cooley told reporters after the training that “the vast, vast, vast majority, about 100%,” of collectives in the county are illegal, and he vowed to close all of them down. This is the most aggressive language yet from Los Angeles County law enforcement, and it comes at a time when the City of Los Angeles is debating the minutia of a regulatory ordinance that may finally bestow a degree of legal recognition to some of the hundreds of patients’ associations already operating in the city. Read the rest of this entry »
From the Globe Gazette (Mason City, Iowa):
IOWA CITY — Peggy Whitworth will be listening Wednesday for “real information” about the pros and cons of the medical use of marijuana.
One of two public members on the Iowa Board of Pharmacy, Whitworth will be listening to testimony from medical professionals, law enforcement officials, substance abuse counselors and others at the board’s third public hearing from noon to 7 p.m. in the third floor auditorium of the Bowen Science Building, 51 Newton Road, Iowa City.
You might think the job of law enforcement is enforcing the law, but that’s not the way some California officers and organizations see it when it comes to the state’s medical cannabis statute. The latest disturbing evidence of this is an upcoming “training luncheon” on “The Eradication of Medical Marijuana Dispensaries in the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County,” hosted by the California Narcotic Officers Association (CNOA).
What’s shocking is not that the CNOA would resist state law – the organization is one of the oldest and most virulent opponents of medical cannabis in the state – but who will be joining them in the effort. Headlining the training on how to close down medical cannabis collectives are Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley and Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, and police officers from Los Angeles, Pasadena, and Alhambra. Read the rest of this entry »
