Video 1 KTLA Channel 5 News Story June 18, 2010: Lake Forest Medical Marijuana Dispensary Appealing Injunction Order Video 2 KTTV Channel 11 News Story June 4, 2010: Los Angeles Medical Marijuana Dispensary Challenges LA's Ordinance Video 3 Cannabis Law Group's Attorney Damian Nassiri Sues the City of Los Angeles To Block It's Ban on Medical Marijuana as Featured on PBS's So Cal Insider - Part 1

Articles Posted in California Marijuana

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Farmers in San Diego County have worked the fields in the rural/ residential spans of this region for decades – sometimes for generations. They grow tomatoes, avocados and lettuce. They want to continue to farm. But as The San Diego Union Tribune notes, they are looking to expand their yield. field

Specifically, they want to start growing marijuana and hemp. They already have the land. They have the skill. They have most of the tools. They argue the best people to grow and cultivate legal marijuana are the people whose families have been farming the region for the better part of the last century.

Unfortunately, their hopes are counter to what the county’s Board of Supervisors may have in mind. The county is looking to possibly outlaw local marijuana cultivation, or else leave it solely up to licensed medical marijuana dispensaries. Both of these approaches cut independent farmers out of this equation entirely. Continue reading

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There are a lot of reasons to make California a vacation destination. Now, the newest it seems is recreational cannabis. airplane

On the West Coast, we now have California, Washington, Colorado, Oregon and Nevada that allow recreational marijuana. The only other places allow it are Alaska, Washington D.C., Massachusetts and Maine. For people who live in all the states in between, most are limited to recreational marijuana access, if they have it at all. It’s anticipated that legal marijuana is going to be a major driver of tourism to these states in the coming years.

This has resulted in a number of ancillary cannabis businesses, including travel agencies booking “tours” of various dispensaries and must-see sites. Travel research company MMGY Global reports that while overall travel to California didn’t surge much right after the election, it did spike 23 percent when looking at just Millennials. It also increased notably among households that earned $100,000 or more – presumably because they had more discretionary income to spontaneously make that trip. But others could be planning a trip for the coming months or years.  Continue reading

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There is no question that driving impaired or under the influence of any substance is unwise. Unquestionably, marijuana is known to contain compounds that can impede a person’s cognitive abilities and reflexes, which are imperative for driving safely. However, a new study reveals that the approval of medical marijuana is not met with an uptick in traffic fatalities, as many detractors for years insisted. driving

The study, published recently by the American Public Health Association, looked at at U.S. Traffic Fatalities from 1985 to 2014 in various states and compared their relationship to medical marijuana laws. Conducted by researchers at Colombia University, the University of California at Davis and Boston University, what they discovered was that traffic deaths fell in seven states where medical marijuana is legal and that, in general, states that had medical cannabis statutes tended to have reduced traffic fatality rates than states where the drug is strictly outlawed.

What’s more, researchers discovered that states with medical marijuana statutes had the impact of immediately lowering traffic deaths among younger cohorts. Specifically, those between the ages of 15 to 24 and 25 to 44 saw the most marked decreases during that time.Those between the ages of 25 to 44 saw gradual reductions every year thereafter. Continue reading

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Recreational marijuana is now legal in California. But that doesn’t mean it’s Ok for teens to use it for recreation, as there is evidence it can have negative health effects – and of course there is the risk of impaired driving. Although some marijuana advocates downplay these concerns as “Reefer Madness” ridiculousness, the reality is that if the marijuana industry is going to garner legitimacy, there needs to be a concerted effort to keep cannabis away from children who don’t have a medical reason to be taking it. teen

Part of the concern is that teens do not view marijuana as harmful as they once did. Research at the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program indicated that the harmfulness perception of marijuana among eighth-graders fell by 14 percent in Washington state since the drug was legalized. It fell by 16 percent among those in 10th grade. In states where marijuana has not (yet) been legalized, perceptions of the plant’s harmfulness fell at much lower rates, between 5 and 7 percent.

Still, there is competing evidence about whether this translates to more teens actually using the drug for fun. For example, the U.C. Davis study indicated marijuana use by Washington’s eighth-graders spiked 2 percent since legalization, while increasing 4 percent among 10th-graders. In non-legal states, marijuana use fell by about 1 percent. However, a study by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment indicated the percentage of high school students there who used marijuana was actually smaller than the national average – 21.2 percent in the previous 30 days (down a percentage point since before legalization) while the nationwide rate of teen marijuana use was a bit higher at 21.7 percent. The department concluded that “marijuana use (among teens) has not increased since legalization.”  Continue reading

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One of the primary arguments given by federal drug regulators about why it would be unwise to lower the Schedule I classification of marijuana is that the drug has not been well enough studied to know whether it has legitimate medical benefits. Of course, there are many people who use it as medicine who would beg to differ. Beyond that, it’s something of a Catch-22 because the Schedule I listing makes it next to impossible for scientists to get a hold of it, let alone conduct clinical trials. That means researchers must explore other ways of examining the drug’s risks and benefits.hospital hall

Recently, an analysis published in the journal Cancer Medicine revealed that a history of marijuana use among patients admitted to the hospital was correlated with lower rates of heart failure, cardiac disease and cancer deaths. This conclusion was based on analysis conducted by researchers at Colorado State University, the University of Northern Colorado and the University of Alabama, who looked at the health outcomes of nearly 4 million hospitalized patients.

Patients who tested positive for marijuana were more likely than those who didn’t have a history of using the drug to be admitted for a stroke. However, they had much lower odds of suffering from cardiac disease or heart failure. They had especially good survival rates when it came to various types of cancer, and their survival rates overall were better than non-users. Continue reading

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One of the primary concerns of opponents to marijuana legalization was that it was going to fall into the hands of teenagers, whose brains are still developing and lack the full capacity for risk assessment. teen

Now, a new study analyzes a host of risky teen behavior, including marijuana consumption. Among the findings of the Monitoring the Future survey, conducted by the University of Michigan, younger teens are reporting that marijuana is more scarcely available to them now than it was nearly 25 years ago.

At this point, explanations for this trend are theoretical. What we do know, however, is that legalization of marijuana leads to greater regulation. It undercuts the black market, where there are no rules about who can buy marijuana or how much. With those black market outlets shrinking, it puts most of the supply in the hands of regulated dispensaries, which are overseen by the state. The state has very strict rules about who can purchase the drug, how much they can buy – and how old those buyers have to be.  Continue reading

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California voters in November approved Prop. 64, which effectively legalized marijuana for recreational users and also issued some guidelines for how cultivation and sales should be regulated. But there are a lot of questions floating around in the interim. marijuana buds

Some of the questions being raised include:

  • Where can I buy recreational marijuana?
  • Where can I smoke it?
  • Are there going to be tougher penalties for driving while stoned, especially now that it’s become more common?
  • Can those serving jail or prison time for marijuana-related crimes seek commutation?

Marijuana businesses, cultivation farms, dispensaries, landlords, doctors and collectives would do well to consult with an experienced marijuana lawyer when formulating a business plan. Those who are facing criminal penalties should do the same, as well as those who are serving time and weighing the possibility of an appeal or request to have their sentences commuted.  Continue reading

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In a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine, characterized as an “exit interview,” President Barack Obama shifted his position on marijuana once again. He stated flat-out that use of marijuana for recreational purposes should be treated the same way we treat alcohol or tobacco. He characterized marijuana as a public health issue, and said the current state marijuana laws – a crazy patchwork quilt of varying state and federal statutes is not a tenable situation. whitehouse

It was a very short piece of a much longer interview, conducted the day after the Nov. 8th election, Obama said that while he has been in clear in his believe that it is important to discourage substance abuse. He also said he does not see marijuana as a solution or remedy for all difficulties or diseases. However, he did say that the “much smarter way to deal with it” is to treat marijuana use as a public health issue, the same way we do with products like cigarettes or alcohol.

Of course, he noted these classifications are not typically accomplished by a swift presidential edict. Rather, they are done legislatively or through the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Obama noted that the DEA has the job of enforcing laws, so it’s not surprising that the agency is not going to be on the cutting edge of changing it, even as popular opinion has swung widely in favor of medicinal use and slightly in favor of legalizing the drug for recreational use. Continue reading

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Over the last eight years, the federal government’s approach to marijuana prosecution and civil action evolved. Although it was never within President Obama’s power to legalize the drug nationally himself, he oversaw a Department of Justice that was initially dogged in its pursuit of marijuana entrepreneurs, and later much more relaxed. Still, the drug remains illegal under federal law. A provision of a federal spending measure passed in 2014 sapped the funds of federal prosecutions of medical marijuana operations complying with state law. However, this election raised a host of new questions about the protection that medical marijuana and now recreational marijuana would receive under the new administration.whitehouse

Election night turned out to be a clear success for the support of medical and recreational marijuana legalization. California, Nevada, Massachusetts and Maine legalized recreational use. Florida, Arkansas and North Dakota approved medical marijuana initiatives.

So now the question is, what type of approach will the Trump administration take? It’s a major question because, while Obama took a hands-off approach and we knew Clinton was expected to do the same, there is uncertainty about Trump’s stance.  Continue reading

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Regardless of what the marijuana laws are in individual states, those who cultivate, process, store, package and distribute marijuana remain at risk for criminal penalties and civil forfeiture so long as federal statutes outlaw the drug. police

Case-in-point: In January, officials with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, alongside police officers from the San Diego Police Department, raided Med-West Distribution. This was a legal medical marijuana business that carved its niche refining cannabis oil for use in vaporizer pen devices. Officers decked out in helmets, tactical vests and heavily armed barged in, pointed guns at workers, handcuffed those inside and scoured the property for valuables. They seized a safe with $325,000 in cash. Officers high-fived one another as they left. Subsequent to that, in June, local police served to seizure warrants on the business’s cash as well as on the owner’s own family. The department pilfered nearly $100,000 from the family’s personal savings and checking accounts – funds that are totally unrelated to Med-West. Their two teen daughters lost their entire college savings – about $11,300.

The owner today says he is baffled. He was operating a marijuana business legally in compliance with state laws and local regulations. Neither the owner nor his wife has been charged with any crime. None of his employees, several of whom were arrested, were indicted in connection with that raid. And yet, the police department has refused the family’s repeated requests to return their money. Further, prosecutors have yet – more than 10 months after the fact – to file a civil forfeiture action against their bank accounts.  Continue reading

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