Weed Philanthropists Set Up Shop in CA
July 9th, 2009 by Russ
This week, ABC news reported on the newest innovation in the battle for California’s medical marijuana market share. Apparently a group calling itself the Artists Collective has been employing Twitter to coordinate weed drop offs for MMJ patients who prefer to do business in spurts of 140-characters or less. While the twits of the world are certainly proud of the entrepreneurship they’ve spawned, they don’t represent the most unique facet of the Artists Collective business plan.
You see, Artists Collective is a registered 501(c)3 (non profit). Moreover, its entire purpose is to raise enough money to give out grants to local artists. Move over Pew Charitable Trust. There is a new game in town. While the model is still brand new, and the scale relatively small, this sort of thinking could make waves in the greater philanthropy world.
In the current system, most philanthropy dollars flow from family trusts through private foundations. The programs selected for funding tend to do very conservative study or social work. Rarely would an esteemed organization (with some former Robber Baron’s name on the building) want to risk funding anything that would be considered countercultural or controversial.
Starting a foundation from the (weed harvested) ground up opens the door for a plethora of new alternative off-centered artists to finally receive some well-deserved patronage. For instance, it’s about time someone put some serious greenbacks behind the efforts of the Billboard Liberation Front.
With that in mind, here’s to hoping that the Artists Collective is the new JD Rockefellers of the Digital Herb Racket.
San Diego Issues Medical Marijuana ID Cards
July 8th, 2009 by Rick
After dragging ass for years, by way of the U.S. Supreme Court, secret stings and raids on medical marijuana dispensaries, San Diego has finally complied to California’s medical marijuana law and began issuing medical marijuana ID cards to the medical marijuana patients.
Jordan Jarvis, a medical marijuana patient and operator of Top Quality Collective, said:
This kind of medicine has given me the ability to get up and do things and be part of a society again. [...] We can now get ID cards that are and should be respected among law enforcement without harassment. [...] It’s groundbreaking.
San Diego breaking down and issuing medical marijuana ID cards is a big step in California’s medical marijuana movement, yet after so many attempts to circumvent prop 215, something tells me it’s not the end of their fight politically.
Oklahoma Attempts to Extradite Medical Grower
July 7th, 2009 by Russ
Oklahoma officials are set to extradite a California prisoner who has already served his allotted sentence for growing marijuana plants over a decade ago. Will Foster, arrested in 1998 for growing marijuana in his home, was originally sentenced to an unfathomable 93-year sentence in an Oklahoma State Court.
After the Oklahoma Supreme Court found that the unfathomable sentence was also unconstitutional (it represented cruel and highly unusual punishment), it reduced his sentence to 20 years which Foster served. Upon earning his parole, Foster was allowed to relocate to California.
And so Will Foster met with his parole officer, and demonstrated that he was living the life of the law-abiding, and even started a new family with girlfriend Susie Mueller and her three daughters. But Oklahoma apparently was not satisfied with his California-approved parole term, and attempted to extradite him.
Even after having the new warrant dismissed by filing a writ of habeus corpus, Oklahoma persisted and successfully lobbied the Governator to sign an extradition order to send Foster back to Oklahoma.
And so Oklahoma officials are spending millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars because it feels that a man with a garden in his home needs to be punished more severely than he already has.
If ever the American populace decides to adopt a measure of compassion and rationality and put an end to the political and legal morass known as the War on Drugs, the entire state of Oklahoma may just spontaneously combust. It’s difficult to envision a role for Oklahoma that isn’t the one of mustache-twirling villain, ruining lives and displacing families with its draconian legal code and archaic notions of justice.
Will Foster still has some time before the extradition order is carried out. For information on how to participate in the campaign for his release, you can find useful contact info on Ed Rosenthal’s blog.
SF’s “Green Cross” is Cream of the Crop
July 3rd, 2009 by Russ
As California’s Great Weed Experiment of Ought Nine continues, some truly innovative dispensaries have begun to make a name for themselves. One such outfit, is the San Fransisco based “Green Cross,” earned a recent feature in the San Jose Mercury News.
Run Fight Club-style out of a single Victorian house on Howard Street, 19 space monkeys work around the clock baking edibles, and preparing the 55 delicious strains of green that the dispensary stocks its shelves with. A messenger delivery service runs from noon until 7pm. Even folks who are outside the delivery area meet the bikers halfway.
The Green Cross has its own newsletter, touting the relative benefits of indica and sativa strains, and recommending vaporizers and edibles for those bothered by smoke.
The whole operation has the flavor of a Baskin & Robbins, or Ben & Jerry’s origin story. It’s easy to picture a future in which a whitewashed marijuana conglomerate happily provides the best processed ganja to satisfied customers all over the world. The innovation and professionalism of groups like the GC make one wonder whether we’re just now on the ground floor of something big.
LA Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Being Phased Out
July 2nd, 2009 by Rick
On Monday, a City Council committee of Los Angeles advised to deny the moratorium exemptions to 28 medical marijuana dispensaries within the city. Lawyers for the dispensaries complained:
- Notices for the committee meeting came over the weekend or some didn’t even receive a notice.
- Speakers had merely minutes to plead their case.
- Council members seemed to have their minds already made up, in agreement with shutting the dispensaries down.
Graham Berry, a lawyer representing ten dispensaries, said:
I thought the hearings were a farce and a sham.
Planning Committee chairman, Ed Reyes commented:
What you see here today is the conclusion of a long process. [...] The assertion that this is a sham is false.
Councilmen Ed Reyes and Jose Huizar explained the process, pointing out that:
- It was a hearing, not a debate.
- Under state law 72 hours’ notice is needed to place topics on a schedule.
- Hardship exemptions were “carefully reviewed”.
According to Reyes he had to constantly ask speakers to keep within their given time.
New Hampshire Ready for Medical Marijuana?
June 25th, 2009 by Rick
New Hampshire is trying to become the 14th medical marijuana state as their state legislature passed a bill on Wednesday that would allow chronically ill patients to seek treatment using medical marijuana. The bill is now on it’s way to the Governor.
Governor John Lynch isn’t like those other drones that blindly follow the drumbeat of the neo-cons and drug warriors. He actually wants to study the bill before he signs it into a law.
One of the smart things that the legislature had done was ensure that patients nor caregivers could grow the marijuana, instead “compassion centers” or non-profit medical marijuana dispensaries will be organized.
Will New Hampshire learn from California’s mistakes? They already seemingly have, by limiting those that can “game the system.”
California Medical Marijuana Dispensary Crackdown
June 23rd, 2009 by Rick
When the medical marijuana law was adopted 13 years ago in California, it was jumping into a brave new world where nobody quite knew how to regulate it, tax it, or even really control it. As a result medical marijuana dispensaries popped up out of the woodwork and set up shop by providing medical marijuana to the registered patients.
Now, with much of the complaints coming from law enforcement, insinuating that dispensaries are being run by some people that may have some connections to the black market and/or may be selling medical marijuana to minors or anyone that may not be a registered medical marijuana patient.
Los Angeles tried to appease the LAPD by creating a moratorium in 2007 that aimed to shut down some medical marijuana dispensaires that were making profit off medical marijuana sales but because of a loophole, some dispensaries were able to file for a “hardship exemption” and remain open. However as a result other dispensaries were able to sneak in under the radar which led to 600+ dispensaries currently in operation in California.
On Friday all the dispansaries were scampering to stay open… only 186 met the requirements. The remainder of the medical marijuana dispensaries that remain open illegally will face a $2500 day fine on top of the owners being threatened with six months of jail time. Other dispensaries are being targeted to shut down by forcing those that are 1,000 feet from each other, from schools, libraries, parks and other places children would likely be.
Marijuana to Carry Cancer Warning in CA
June 23rd, 2009 by Russ
Last Friday, California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment declared that marijuana smoke is to be put on a list of substances classified as known carcinogens. Due to the ruling, all medical marijuana sold in the state will have to contain a warning label. According to Proposition 65, no business can intentionally expose people to cancer-causing substances without providing a clearly posted warning.
The OEHHA made the ruling after a presentation (warning: PDF) that peripherally linked several components in pot smoke to cancer studies.
In the opinion of the OEHHA’s Deputy Director, Dr. George Alexeeff:
There’s not one single piece of evidence that was a slam dunk… But the pieces together form a very compelling argument.
While the report itself can only point to a handful of studies that connect marijuana and cancer in a statistically significant way, the panel claimed that marijuana smokers may be less likely to report accurately on their conditions and may even outright lie to researchers and interviewers about their habits. It seems odd that a scientific study should rely so heavily on biased assumptions about the truthfulness of pot smokers.
In the meantime, you can always follow the advice of latter-day prophet, Bill Hicks:
This says that smoking can cause low birth weight and premature birth. Screw it. Found my brand. Just don’t buy the ones that say lung cancer… Yep, gimme a pack of them low-birthweights.
Consumers of edible marijuana products (brownies, lollies, etc.) will be happy to know that the warnings do not apply to their favorite confections. Also, many advocates of smoking point out that vaporized weed contains none of the particulate matter that are being called carcinogens.
