California Marijuana Dispensaries

May 9, 2012

Orange County Medical Marijuana and Migraines

Our Orange County marijuana lawyers know that the benefits of medical marijuana have been widely touted for cancer patients and those struggling with chronic pain.

Medical marijuana is by far a better alternative than the dangerous cocktail of highly-addictive prescription opiates and other drugs that are often prescribed for these ailments.

But one illness we don’t often talk about is migraines, and how medical marijuana can ease the symptoms of these often debilitating headaches. A recent opinion piece, written by Dr. Joseph Michelson and published by The Orange County Register, talked a great deal about how medical marijuana is helping patients get back to living normal lives.

Michelson addresses the issue from a very personal standpoint: His wife suffers migraines. He says that to call such episodes “headaches” is a monumental understatement. A lot of migraine patients, he said, have described the feeling as akin to being “shot in the head with a hot bullet.” It’s also often accompanied by vomiting, nausea, and sometimes even seizures. Additionally, the conditions brings on an intense sensitivity to light, forcing the patient to stay secluded in a dark room for hours on end until the episode passes.

Being a medical doctor, Michelson gets down to the nitty gritty of it, which is basically that the root cause of migraines is a spasm of brain blood vessels. While there are other prescribed medications that can help, medical marijuana works to not only relieve the headache, but also calm the patient, who is often in the throes of agony.

As our Orange County marijuana lawyers know, marijuana is available in pill form, called Marinol. However, many patients report that it doesn’t work as well as when marijuana is consumed in an edible form, like a cookie, soft drink or brownie. Michelson advises against smoking it, as smoking can be a migraine trigger.

Michelson shakes his head at the fact that the greater medical community has not embraced medical marijuana as a useful and legitimate drug. He goes on to say that it’s been used for hundreds of years to ease the pain and symptoms associated with everything from childbirth to arthritis.

He balks at the notion that federal approval of marijuana for medicinal purposes will facilitate the illegal drug trade. He notes that when California’s state laws are followed, as they most often are, a marijuana grower is licensed the same way patients are. He said that because there is a healthy supply of medical marijuana from Orange County dispensaries, and dispensaries throughout California, there would be no need to go to an underground dealer.

He says that the federal government first gave the drug a bad wrap back in the 1930s, by classifying it alongside such drugs as codeine and morphine. But the truth of the matter is, marijuana is not addictive. What’s more, a large number of the pain medicine that is considered legitimate – i.e., Vicodine, Soma, etc. – is very addictive, and often leads to prescription drug abuse.

April 5, 2012

California Medical Marijuana Dispensary Raid Angers Advocates

By Cannabis Law Group

A federal raid of a model California medical marijuana dispensary and trade school has sparked outrage across the state, with activists firing off that the federal crackdown is not only unjust, but is going to cause the local economy to suffer.

Our California medical marijuana attorneys are appalled at the ongoing barrage against law-abiding dispensaries, peacefully conducting business, generating tax dollars and assisting sick patients in their local municipalities.

In this case, the dispensary owner himself – Richard Lee – is wheelchair bound following a severe spinal injury during a work injury and uses medical marijuana for the intense pain. For years, he has served as an advocate for the legalization of marijuana and has become a well-known fixture in his Oakland neighborhood. He was a veritable force behind the 2010 Proposition 19, which would have legalized recreational marijuana.

According to the Los Angeles Times, federal agents served a search warrant not only on Lee’s former Oakland marijuana dispensary and nursery, but also on his home and marijuana trade school, which had served as a teaching tool for caregivers and patients who wanted to organically grow their own medical marijuana.

As some activists were quoted as saying, if the federal government had hoped this would be a quiet operation, they hoped wrong. As revered as Lee is, the agents essentially kicked the hornet’s nest. Patients struggling with chronic pain have said Lee has helped to wean them off powerfully addictive prescription pills and onto the less habit-forming medical marijuana.

In addition to agents with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the raid also involved officials with the U.S. Marshal’s Service and the Internal Revenue Service. Lee has been taken into custody and detained for questioning.

The move by agents is especially puzzling because the Oaksterdam dispensary had essentially served as a model within the medical marijuana community, working with law enforcement and city officials to ensure operations were done legally and to the benefit of patients and taxpayers. In fact, Oakland City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan openly questioned the reasoning behind the raid. She made the point that the city, which has undergone massive budget cuts, has had to cut officers at a time when violent crimes appear to be proliferating. Just this week, a shooting at Oikos University resulted in at least 7 deaths, she said, illustrating that there is serious crime in the city that requires law enforcement focus. Continuing the assault on California’s medical marijuana dispensaries is a waste of time. She said if there is a surplus of federal law enforcement muscle, it would make more sense to expend it attacking the issues of illegal gun dealers and violent crime.

She added that Oakland is among those municipalities with the toughest restrictions on the medical marijuana community, and there had been no issues arising from their legal operation.

“It’s really a success story in terms of how regulation can work,” she said.

Certainly, there are dispensaries – although they are very few – that have been known to regulate without approval or outside the law. So why not go after those operations?

At the end of the day, targeting lawful marijuana dispensaries is going to push the demand for marijuana back onto the black market, where no one benefits.

March 31, 2012

Montana Parents Seek Medical Marijuana in California to Save Child

By Cannabis Law Group

Residents throughout the state of California turn to medical marijuana in Los Angeles and elsewhere to treat a number of debilitating conditions. While the medicinal plant continues to be targeted by feds, it may be the best cure for a 3-year-old Montana boy who was diagnosed with recurring brain tumors before he even turned 2, according to ABC NEWS.

The young child’s parents are sure that medical cannabis is the best route of treatment for their little boy that they defied orders from the doctor and dismissed Montana’s law to help save his life.

“I’ve had law enforcement threatening to kick my door down, but I would have done anything to keep Cashy alive,” said the young boy’s father.

Our Orange County medical marijuana lawyers understand how useful medical marijuana can be to residents suffering from a number of serious diseases and illnesses. Although medical marijuana is legal in the state of California, there are federal law enforcement officials and various authority figures in the state that fail to recognize the benefits.

According to the little boy’s father, police have threatened to arrest the family after the news broke about medical marijuana use. The family believes that news of the benefits of the cannabis oil has helped to keep them out of handcuffs. Not everyone agrees. Local Police Sgt. Travis Welsh says there should be no exceptions.

At one point, the parents decided it was in their child’s best interest to be weaned off of all of the drugs that had been prescribed to him, including morphine, ketamine and methadone. After 30 rounds of radiation with the cannabis oil, there wasn’t a single sign of nausea or need for any additional pain medicine. Cannabis oil did the trick!

Doctors never knew the boy’s parents were providing him with cannabis oil. There’s really no arguing its effectiveness considering that the boy was only handed a 30 percent survival rate of five years, according to doctors. At best, they thought the radiation would help to stop the tumor from spreading. After listening to doctors, the young boy was diagnosed with a second tumor just months later. Since the use of cannabis oil, there has been no spreading or new diagnosis. His parents firmly believe that the cancer stopped progressing because of their twice a day treatments of medical marijuana oil.

The family was so confident in the benefits of medical marijuana that they traveled throughout Montana and California to get access to it for their child. In the state of Montana, no one under the age of 18 can be prescribed medical marijuana, but a parent or legal guardian can agree to act as the minor-patient’s primary caregiver and control use of the drug. The family was never recommended the use of medical marijuana. According to The Medical Board of California, if a physician recommends or approves the use of medical marijuana for a minor, the parents or legal guardians must be fully informed of the risks and benefits of such use and must consent to that use.
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March 29, 2012

Medical Marijuana Industry in California Tracking Crackdown Trends for Other States

By Cannabis Law Group

Medical marijuana dispensaries in Southern California weren’t the only ones hit hard by the recent federal crackdown on the industry.

Although California felt it the worst, other states are going through similar crackdowns. In Colorado, there were more than 20 medical marijuana dispensaries that were hit hard by feds and were forced to close. Other dispensaries are awaiting their doom and are preparing for their shutdown. The Denver Woostward Blogs is expecting these events, too. The publication even went as far as creating a “Doomsday Map” to help to predict which dispensaries will be targeted next. The map mainly relies on the location of these dispensaries to predict which will be closed next, which has determined the fate of thousands of dispensaries already across the nation.

Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett has taken these shutdown efforts to heart. He sent a letter earlier this month to U.S. Attorney John Walsh in an attempt to persuade the U.S. Attorneys that the regulations on medical marijuana in the state of Colorado are effective and sufficient and additional enforcement from the feds is not necessary. He added that medical marijuana should not be considered a priority of federal law enforcement officers. He suggested that officials keep their focus on “terrorism, serious economic crime, organized crime and serious drug dealing” instead of on the local medical marijuana industry.

Our Los Angeles medical marijuana defense attorneys understand that there is no legitimate basis in any judicial district to focus U.S. resources on medical marijuana dispensaries. This is especially true when these dispensaries and patients are in fact in compliance with local and state regulations. Garnett specifies in his letter to Walsh that the residents of Boulder County don’t need feds stepping in and regulating the locations of dispensaries in addition to other various local land use laws.

So far in the crackdown efforts, Walsh and feds have focused on dispensaries that were located near schools. In the state of California, feds have gone much farther than that and have attacked dispensaries that are near sports fields, parks and other places where children can be found. If Colorado can learn anything from recent crackdown efforts in California, it’s that no dispensary is safe.

If we’re comparing California trends to Colorado, then we can only expect that dispensaries that deal with less than 400 patients will be targeted. Typically, dispensaries in the state of California that dealt with 400 to 600 patients were able to sustain themselves.

In the state of Colorado, there are roughly 80,000 patients. If you do the math, then you can figure that’s not enough patients to support all of the current dispensaries.

Our attorneys understand that states throughout the country that have legalized marijuana are facing some of the same crackdowns as the ones here in the state of California. While law enforcement efforts against us have been much worse, we need to all join forces and fight for what rights we have under our individual state laws.
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March 25, 2012

Employees of Medical Marijuana Dispensaries in Los Angeles Join List of Unionized Workers

By Cannabis Law Group

Medical marijuana may or may not be legal in the city of Los Angeles in the coming years, but in an effort to ward off a potential citywide ban on medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles and to protect their rights, workers are coming together to form a labor union.

The formation of this union shows the true economic power and clout of the industry, despite sanctions and attacks at a local, state and federal level.

According to the Los Angeles Times, employees of medical marijuana dispensaries have now joined forced with pharmacists, healthcare workers and grocery workers at the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 770. During a recent news conference, the head of the union vowed to leverage the “full force” of its near 40,000 members to help keep dispensaries in the city open for business.

Our Orange County medical marijuana lawyers understand that the city of Los Angeles is currently contemplating a ban that would prohibit businesses to sell medical marijuana. Under the current proposals, patients and caregivers would still be permitted to grow it. Back in January, City Attorney Carmen Trutanich asked city council to eliminate Los Angeles’ current ordinance, which allowed dispensaries to operate through a lottery system. Trutanich says that a court’s decision puts restrictions on what cities can do to regulate dispensaries.

“Unionization and collective bargaining bring better training, less turnover, and more stability to the health care industry. This is a positive step towards successfully integrating compassionate care into our system of health care,” said Rick Icaza, president of Local 770.

Right now, the state’s Supreme Court is planning on reviewing the rulings through a lower court and looking into how much local government can do to oversee and regulate such operations. This ruling could potentially take a year or more.

As we recently reported, Council member Jose Huizar is one of the top fighters for this kind of ban. In his district is Eagle Rock, a community where there have been many complaints filed by the areas’ activists regarding a lot of dispensaries operating in the area.

The president of Local 770 says that the union is planning on challenging city officials to find an ordinance that would not completely prohibit dispensaries. The president adds that a union within this industry is the next step to take in stabilizing and professionalizing this specific industry of healthcare.

A complete ban on these dispensaries would affect more than patients. Valuable jobs would be also be taken from the community.

The state’s director of Americans for Safe Access, Don Duncan, says that he hopes that the creation of this union will help an industry that is commonly misunderstood.

Unions bring medical marijuana into the field as a legitimate industry. Various branches of the United Food and Commercial Workers already have unionized workers in other parts of California and in Colorado.
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March 20, 2012

Medical Marijuana in Los Angeles Facing Scrutiny from City Council Member

By Cannabis Law Group

Marijuana should be legal, says a recent Gallup poll.

As a matter of fact, about half of U.S. residents say they want marijuana to be legalized. Still, not everyone is in on the smoke sesh, according to the Arizona Wildcat.

Right now, there are hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles. These dispensaries outnumber the number of Starbucks in many of our neighborhoods. That makes sense when you consider the 400,000 residents who use medical marijuana on a daily basis to treat a number of diseases and illnesses. José Huizar, Los Angeles City Council member, recently labeled the treatment and the uses of medical marijuana as “de facto legalization.” Now, council is considering once again a full prohibition on this much-needed treatment.

Our Los Angeles medical marijuana attorneys understand that the call for prohibition from Council member José Huizar comes conveniently after the recent federal crackdown. Dispensaries continue to be raided by both local and federal law enforcement officials. They’re being raided for following state law, which makes medical marijuana legal in California. Right now, crackdowns from the feds are unfounded and are causing panic among this industry nationwide. It needs to end and lawmakers and officials need to remember that medical marijuana is legal under California law.

Right now, Virginia is working to legalize the industry as it’s been placed on the upcoming November ballot. Both Washington D.C. and Colorado have already jumped on board by legalizing medical marijuana, but they too are facing some of the unfair persecution of dispensaries in their states. These states are among those pushing the feds to legalize marijuana.

There are more than 15 million Americans who used marijuana just a month before the National Survey on Drug Use and Health of 2009. This illustrates the demand for this product and the lasting effects that it’s able to produce for those suffering from debilitating health conditions.

Some wonder why this drug is still legal. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 says that this drug has no medical value and is more dangerous than cocaine. That’s all a little ironic considering that alcohol and nicotine are allowed under law and both substances take the lives of hundreds of thousands of people every year. Right now, the record suggests marijuana is at least as safe, if not safer.

Remember when the Nixon administration was in office, it concluded that medical marijuana was a minimal-risk drug. Back in 1972, there were a number of studies that concluded that users were able to ingest nearly 50 pounds of the product and would be alright. Still, feds strike fear into Americans creating a cloud of negativity around this beneficial treatment.

According to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, users who smoked marijuana for 20 years straight suffered from no lung damage or cancers associated with the drug. As a matter of fact, small exposures to this drug were also found beneficial in strengthening one’s lungs.

With all of this data, it’s clear that medical marijuana is of great use to those suffering from a number of diseases and illnesses in the country. Still, feds refuse to recognize it as a useful treatment.
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March 5, 2012

Medical Marijuana in Mendocino County Overruled by Feds

By Cannabis Law Group

Medical marijuana in California and 15 other states and the District of Columbia has been legalized. In more than half of these areas, government officials have been launching new medical laws that could lands these people involved in the industry with criminal charges and stiff fines.

Back in 1996, California was the first state in the country to make marijuana legal for various medical uses. It has recently come under some serious scrutiny from federal officials. Our laws remain the most liberal, to some, in the country, allowing doctors to hand out medical marijuana recommendations for a variety of conditions. One that same hand, officials have been granted broad discretion and little ways to implement it. Mendocino County thought they had found an effective way, until the feds stepped in.

Our Southern California medical marijuana attorneys understand the fight against unreasonable medical marijuana regulations is far from over. The state law conflicts with federal law. The federal government rules that marijuana is still an illegal substance with absolutely no health benefits. Still, state law allows dispensaries.

After years, residents in Mendocino County thought that they had come to peace with absurd medical marijuana regulations and enforcements. Two years ago, the sheriff made an agreement to stop raiding those who produce medical marijuana as long as they paid to have their collections inspected.

This payment was a $1,500 fee and was used to keep growers in compliance with rules regarding distance from neighbors, odor control, water usage and the limitations stating that growers could only grow 99 plants on five acres of land, according to the Huff Post.

This program, requiring growers to pay the fee, earned the sheriff’s department more than $663,000. Other jurisdictions quickly inquired about creating their own similar program after seeing its success.

The program’s under scrutiny now. After crackdown efforts from the state’s federal prosecutors, the board of supervisors put an end to Mendocino County’s experiment. The program was halted after the U.S. attorney for Northern California threatened take the county to court for helping residents to produce a drug that was illegal under federal law, but still legal under state law.

“We thought we had something that was working and was making our life easier so we could turn our attention to other pressing matters,” Supervisor John McCowen said.

McCowen thought that the city really was on to something. That is, until the feds stepped in.

Melinda Haag, Northern California’s U.S. attorney, said that the County’s licensing system doesn’t meet federal standards. She says her and the other federal officials are just trying to push the federal laws banning this substance.

In recent crackdowns in Southern California, nearly 100 dispensaries have been shut down. Many of these dispensaries received threats from feds saying that they better close up shop or they could face criminal charges and fines.
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March 2, 2012

California Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Claim Victory in Appellate Court Decision

By Cannabis Law Group

Today marks a major victory for patients’ rights advocates and those invested in the battle for safe and legal medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles.

State appellate court judiciaries in City of Lake Forest v. Evergreen Holistic Collective have ruled in favor of medical marijuana dispensaries and rejected the argument that cities could ban these establishments by using local nuisance ordinances, thereby circumventing the voters’ clear choice several years ago to legalize the use and sale of marijuana for medical purposes.

Our California medical marijuana attorneyshave work exhaustively on behalf of medical marijuana collectives in Lake Forest and the surrounding areas. And we know that this ruling goes against an earlier preliminary injunction that was passed down by an Orange County judge almost two years ago. That decision would have shuttered Lake Forest’s Evergreen Holistic Collective, but a stay was issued until a higher could make a decision.

February 29, 2012

Bakersfield Medical Marijuana Again Put to a Vote

By Cannabis Law Group

As supporters of medical marijuana in Bakersfield have battled with county leaders about allowing medical marijuana cooperatives to operate, they have now decided to let voters decide, Bakersfieldnow.com is reporting.

Cities and counties throughout California have struggled with these issues. Even though voters approved medical marijuana in 1996, some leaders believe more votes are necessary. Our Marijuana Lawyer Blog recently reported that supporters are seeking a ballot initiative that would create state regulation in the hopes that it would keep federal authorities away.

Los Angeles medical marijuana attorneys understand that this is a time of conflict for this industry. Government leaders are attempting to figure out how best to deal with the pressure coming from the feds, while businesses are just trying to stay open. Meanwhile, patients who need this medicine to dull the pain of their ailments just want to find a place where they can buy this medicine.

Medical marijuana in Los Angeles has come under fire from several angles and many are hopeful that as the dust settles, people can get back to business as usual, following state law.

In Kern County, leaders are putting a question on the ballot in June that may give some clarity to how the county will handle medical marijuana dispensaries and cooperatives. Advocates are hoping they can get the county to reconsider. The move could limit where marijuana cooperatives could be located throughout the county.

Last year, county leaders passed an ordinance banning medical marijuana dispensaries and the sale of medical marijuana edibles. But advocates of the medical marijuana industry blocked the ban by collecting enough signatures to overturn the ban.

Recently, county leaders rescinded the ordinance and decided instead to create a new ordinance. This one would limit where dispensaries could be located. It would move them only to industrial zones and would have to be at least one mile from churches, schools, parks, day cares and other dispensaries.

The new ordinance will also be put on the ballot so voters can decide if this is a good idea. If voters reject the new ordinance, county leaders say cooperatives would be completely banned from the county. Advocates believe they can defeat this ordinance as well.

No other industry has similar conditions. Pharmacies are on every block and they dole out far more dangerous and addictive drugs. Yet, they are allowed to operate how they please. But medical marijuana shops are now sent to operate in warehouse districts. Something isn’t fair about that situation.

Yet many cities and counties have taken such drastic measures. Los Angeles city leaders are expected soon to vote on a complete ban of dispensaries. So, even though state law allows it, city leaders are going around the law time and time again. This is why these businesses require sound legal advice from an experienced Los Angeles medical marijuana attorney. These issues could have a long-standing impact on how this industry operates and they must be properly litigated.
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February 29, 2012

Confusing Regulations Holding Back Medical Marijuana in Los Angeles

By Cannabis Law Group

Back in 2003, the state’s Legislature passed Senate Bill 420. Under this bill, regulations and limitations were placed on the medical marijuana industry in California. Just a year after, Oakland decided to pass an ordinance that required dispensaries to have licenses and only allowed 4 licenses in the city. Today, there are four booming dispensaries. Oakland City is now looking into doubling the limit, according to the LA Weekly.

“The Oakland ordinance has never been challenged because Oakland was on the ball — they were ahead of it,” says David Berger, a vocal critic of L.A.’s crackdown.

Our medical marijuana lawyers understand that there are more than 50 cities across the state, in addition to other localities,that have created regulations which have yet to be challenged in court. Los Angeles is a different story. Back in 2005, there were and few dispensaries in the city and people were hesitant to invest their money into a business that DEA officials could raid.

For more than 15 years now, City Hall in Los Angeles has not been able to create a working ordinance to regulate the medical marijuana industry. Instead, it has sat back and watched West Hollywood, San Francisco, Oakland and elsewhere enact regulations, and then proceed to stall, fumble, dither, misplay, mismanage and eventually overact.

What most people were concerned about was investing their money into companies that weren’t legal under city law. At least with a law in place protecting their ventures in the area, they could have had some defense against the feds.

With not enough regulations in place, activists and dispensary owners begged the City Attorney, Rocky Delgadillo, for some fort of ordinance to help them out. They wanted to be sure that LAPD was not going to come after them and they wanted regulations to help keep new dispensaries out of the area.

At one point, Delgadillo told owners there would never be regulations in LA because the industry was illegal under federal law.

Later in 2007, the City Council made a change. They made an interim ordinance that allowed new dispensaries and existing ones to register with the City Clerk. More than 180 dispensaries did just that.

That plan didn’t really work though. Some say that the ordinance drew in a surge of new business owners into the city because of a loophole in the language. In 2009, the LA area officially had more dispensaries than Starbucks.

Carmen Trutanich, L.A. City Attorney points out that what’s important about SB 420 is that dispensaries cannot sell the product. In that case, you would need to be a primary health provider or a group of users who are growing the product together and share the costs. The problem with it now, says Trutanich, is that people are growing, selling and getting rich, causing a headache of faulty regulations.

Either way, it has been apparent that City officials have botched the medical marijuana issue at every step of the way and dispensaries continue to sit in limbo with varying regulations throughout the state — throughout a state that legalized the medicine.
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