Due to regulations, The Grasshopper will need to see a patients Red Card EVERY VISIT. Also, all sales must be COMPLETED by 7pm.  Sorry, No exceptions can be made.

via Glenwood Springs Post Independent
by Janet Urquhart

Limiting the cultivation of medical marijuana in Pitkin County to a level that essentially fulfills local needs is among the proposed regulations that will get an initial review this week.

Local governments in Colorado have until July 1 to establish their own regulations and licensing procedures for the medical marijuana industry, or to prohibit such facilities altogether; in jurisdictions that take no action, state standards will apply.

In Pitkin County, the drafting of regulations has been a work in progress since last September, when county commissioners advised staffers to take a light-handed approach to governing the industry and to talk with neighborhood caucuses about what they’d like to see. The resulting proposals will go to the county’s Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday and county commissioners on Wednesday.

The proposed rules reflect the outcome of meetings with neighborhood caucuses around the county, notes Lance Clarke, the county’s deputy director of community development.

For example, medical marijuana businesses would be prohibited in the areas overseen by the Fryingpan and Snowmass/Capitol Creek caucuses, and dispensaries would not be allowed on Redstone Boulevard.

Citizens also said they didn’t want the county to be a growing site that serves dispensaries elsewhere, Clarke said, so the proposed regulations don’t allow the total number of licensed “grow sites” to exceed the total number of dispensaries in the county — an area that includes unincorporated Pitkin County and its municipalities.

Currently, Clarke said, there are seven dispensaries in the county (most of them are in Aspen) and six grow sites, so present circumstances meet the proposed limitation.

“The idea is having a balance between the two,” Clarke explained. “We should try to be sustainable for our own needs — the needs of Pitkin County. We should have a balance between dispensaries and grow sites and not become a grow site for Denver and Boulder.”

State law requires dispensaries to grow at least 70 percent of the product they sell.

In unincorporated Pitkin County, dispensaries would be allowed only at the Airport Business Center, although one has been permitted in Holland Hills, taking advantage of a pre-existing medical use in a commercial building. The manufacture of “marijuana-infused” products — cookies and brownies and such — would also be allowed at the ABC, but not in buildings that contain residences.

Grow sites would be limited to the rural areas of the county, including residential areas zoned for a density that’s no greater than a house per 10 acres. Growing facilities wouldn’t be allowed in such subdivisions as Mountain Valley, Red Mountain and Meadowood, Clarke said.

Cultivation facilities would not be allowed in multi-family or multi-tenant buildings or on lots smaller than 2 acres, and must be within an enclosed building, according to the proposals.

Medicinal pot businesses would not be allowed within 500 feet of a church, school, park, playground, child-care facility, community center or drug/alcohol rehabilitation facility, or within 200 feet of a residence on another parcel, except in the county’s B-2 zone, which exists only at the ABC.

The wildcard in the county’s proposed regulations relates to home-occupation businesses and “primary caregivers.”

The manufacture of edibles is allowed in home kitchens, though state law prohibits the use of a kitchen used in the production of marijuana products to also be used for general household cooking.

And, the county’s proposed regs regarding marijuana businesses in general prohibit off-site impacts such as light and odor.

The smell of baking cookies wafting out someone’s window is OK; the smell of pot-laced cookies is not.

“If your cookies smell like marijuana, you’re going to be in violation,” Clarke said.

What the state defines as a primary caregiver would also be allowed to operate out of a residence under the county’s home-occupation standards. A caregiver may have up to six registered patients and no more than five plants per patient. They are not licensed, but the caregiver and his or her patients are registered with the state, Clarke said.

In other words, a primary caregiver who meets certain home-occupation standards could operate pretty much anywhere in the unincorporated county, except in multi-family, multi-tenant and mixed-use buildings.

Except for primary caregivers, the county rules propose a business license for dispensaries, grow operations and infused-product manufacturers, though county doesn’t currently issue any business licenses. The medical marijuana businesses would be charged $2,000 initially and $500 for the annual license renewal.

“I proposed a license because the state is very much anticipating that’s what local governments are going to do,” Clarke said. “The other reason is for the fee, because this is taking a huge amount of staff time.”

via Telluride Daily Planet
by Katie Klingsporn

For decades, Telluride has had a liquor licensing authority to regulate the sales of booze in town. Now, it appears it will create a similar authority for the regulation of medical marijuana.

The Telluride Town Counsil gave preliminary approval this week to an ordinance that would create a licensing authority as well as tweak some of the town’s existing medical marijuana regulations.

Council gave unanimous approval to the ordinance on Tuesday. A final reading and public hearing is scheduled for June 21.

“It sets up a licensing authority and attempts to provide additional clarity and regulation in areas that the state did not regulate,” said Town Attorney Kevin Geiger.

The ordinance sprung from a state mandate that gave individual cities or towns in Colorado until July 1 to implement licensing regulations if they wanted to regulate medical marijuana facilities within their borders. (That deadline was recently extended, but Telluride is still on track to adopt by July 1.)

If Telluride chose not to create regulations, then local facilities would have to abide by state rules. But the town took this track because it wanted to tailor regulations to its size and unique characteristics.

The 41-page ordinance sets up a licensing authority with a hearing officer who would review license applications and renewals and check in with facilities on a yearly basis. Applicants must submit an operational plan, details on how and where products are cultivated, advertised, stored and processed, along with information on hours of operation, the number of employees, record keeping and a security plan.

It also sets out several rules for running medical marijuana facilities in town. Some significant sections of the ordinance include:

• A requirement that facilities have venting systems that ensure the smell of cannabis doesn’t waft into public air.

• A requirement that signs or ads must specify that products sold contain medical marijuana. This pertains to infused products like ice cream, candies and soda and aims to keep products from being misleading to children.

• A requirement that employees must be 21 or older to work at a dispensary. This brings Telluride’s rules in line with the state’s.

• Dispensaries must be at least 500 feet from schools with mandatory attendance. In Telluride, that includes the Telluride Elementary School and Telluride Middle/High School.

At its meeting on Tuesday, town council decided to avoid setting distance requirement from parks or childcare facilities because the town is very small and it doesn’t want to put any existing medical marijuana centers out of business

via Associated Press

Acting in sync with Gov. Jan Brewer’s wishes, Arizona’s top health official refused Wednesday to accept an application from prospective operators of a medical marijuana dispensary, setting the stage for a possible legal challenge to push for full implementation of a voter-approved law.

Department of Health Services Director Will Humble met with members of a group that wants to establish a dispensary in Scottsdale, Ariz., but he politely declined to accept a binder with their application papers. The monthlong application period for dispensaries was to have begun Wednesday under rules previously adopted by the department.

As reporters and camera operators watched in a conference room in the department’s headquarters, Humble presented the group of prospective applicants with a form letter acknowledging their attempt and explaining his refusal.

Humble said that at least for now he won’t accept the application because of uncertainty about the legality of Arizona’s medical marijuana law. He cited a recent letter from the U.S. attorney for Arizona and the state’s lawsuit filed Friday against the U.S. Department of Justice that asks a federal judge to rule on whether the Arizona law can be implemented in the face of federal law under which marijuana remains illegal.

“Ultimately we’re going to have to answer this question at some point, and it’s probably better to answer it up front before folks invest tens to maybe even hundreds of thousands of dollars in dispensaries and cultivation facilities,” Humble said.

Humble told reporters that he made the decision not to accept dispensary applications, citing legal advice from the Attorney General’s Office and consultations with Brewer’s office, but he declined to specify any direction he received from Brewer.

However, he later posted an item on his blog on the department’s web site to “clarify” his earlier response. The blog entry said he and Brewer “reached the decision to suspend the acceptance of dispensary applications in consultation and coordination, as is typical for an issue of this significance.”

In announcing her intention to sue the Justice Department, Brewer said last week she planned to take steps to block full implementation of the program.

The state is thwarting the will of the voters “and the patients are going to suffer because of this,” said Ryan Hurley, an attorney for the would-be applicants. Hurley said they’ll review options that include first pursuing an administrative appeal or bypassing that step and starting a challenge with a lawsuit to compel state action.

While Arizona isn’t implementing the law’s dispensary provisions, the state continues to accept and process applications by patients and caregivers. Most of the roughly 3,700 patient applications processed as May 24 authorize those patients to grow up to 12 plants of marijuana for their own use, and the dozens of registered caregivers also can grow marijuana for their patients.

But that still leaves patients without access to dispensaries to obtain marijuana.

“The voters of Arizona have spoken. The patients are in need. The least we could do is submit our application,” said Dr. Richard Strand, a diagnostic radiologist who is among four men, including two other physicians, who sought to file the application Wednesday.

Arizona’s law allows for only 125 dispensaries statewide, compared with more than 1,000 in California at the peak of that state’s program and more than 800 pot shops in Colorado.

via The Plainwell and Otsego Union Enterprise
by Daniel Pepper

Gun Plain Township officials have decided not to regulate medical marijuana.

Township officials approved a motion at their Thursday, June 2, regular meeting which effectively had the township bow out of the debate.

Township supervisor Mike VanDenBerg said the planning commission had made its recommendation.

“The planning commission made a motion to uphold the federal law against medical marijuana because federal law basically trumps state law,” VanDenBerg said. “That passed 6-1.”

The township board has passed two moratoriums, keeping any medical marijuana caregivers from setting up in the township until the board had created regulations. The current one will run out at the end of June.

Now, the township will no longer be involved in the process, one way or the other.

“If anyone does it, it’s up to the feds to enforce,” VanDenBerg said.

During debate, he said there was a danger local officials who approve ordinances could be federally prosecuted.

“The feds are saying that if these local medical marijuana ordinances are approved they’re going to go after the local officials,” VanDenBerg said.

News accounts state that two U.S. attorneys in the state of Washington made the threat against state officials, but no actual prosecutions have happened.

Township trustee Scott Corbin moved to follow the planning commission recommendation.

“I make a motion to support the planning commission in upholding federal law against the use of medical marijuana,” Corbin said.

Township officials approved the motion on a vote of 7-0.

The cities of Plainwell and Otsego have both approved ordinances regulating medical marijuana caregivers as a home-based business. This means anyone wishing to set up as a medical marijuana caregiver under the regulations included in the voter referendum passed in 2008, will have to register with the city.

People wishing to set up in the township will have no local regulation.

Township trustee Ron Kopka said the Michigan legislature and courts were failing to do something to give locals guidance.

“I’d also give my regular speech that the state needs to do something,” Kopka said.

via The Colorado Independent
by Scot Kersgaard

In Montana, where the state legislature all but repealed the state’s medical marijuana laws this spring, the court battle has begun–as has the battle for public opinion. The Montana Cannabis Industry Association filed suit to block implementation of the law. Now, the state has responded with court filings of its own.

The state’s attorney general says the new more restrictive law is not unconstitutional, and the AG’s office is prepared to fight tooth and nail for it in court beginning in about two weeks. Meanwhile, that same attorney general’s office is tasked with certifying the language being used in a referendum drive to overturn that very law.

From The Billings Gazette:

The attorney general’s office said the new provisions are intended to be faithful to the original intent of the ballot measure, “while correcting and reining in the unintended and undesirable abuses and problems that have undeniably occurred.”

At issue is Senate Bill 423, a heavily debated bill passed by the 2011 Legislature and allowed to become law without Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s signature. It repealed the 2004 referendum and imposed more restrictions on a medical marijuana industry that a majority of legislators believed has reeled out of control. The law also made it harder for patients claiming “severe chronic pain” to qualify for a medical pot card.

The law will ban major medical marijuana growing operations and replace them with a “grow-your-own” system or let a provider grow for up to three patients, but for no charge.

Montana now has than 30,000 medical marijuana cardholders, up from 4,000 in September 2009. Thirty percent of them fall within the 18-30 age group. More than 80 percent of cardholders got their cards after claiming “chronic pain” or “severe or chronic pain or muscle spasms,” classifications that some legislators considered to be the major loopholes.

The lawsuit filed by the Montana Cannabis Association and others said the new law violates their constitutional rights to equal protection, privacy, dignity, freedom of speech and due process. It also mentioned their right to pursue life’s basic necessities, including personal health, and their right against unreasonable searches and seizures.

In response, the attorney general’s office said the law follows the intent of the 2004 initiative, which carved “a narrow exception from criminal sanctions for the controlled purpose and use for medical purposes.”

The initiative was never intended to create a commercial growing system, but envisioned a “grow-your-own system” to allow people to have their own “personal supply,” the attorney general’s office said, quoting from the 2004 Voter Information Pamphlet.

Under the new rules, fewer people will qualify for medical marijuana cards and dispensaries will be out of business. Each patient will have to designate who their grower is and each grower will be restricted to growing for no more than three patients. Growers will not be allowed to charge patients any money for the marijuana. Patients claiming chronic pain will need two doctors’ recommendations.

via Seattle Weekly’s Daily Weekly
by Keegan Hamilton

Image source

​The top federal prosecutor in Oregon and 33 of the state’s district attorneys announced last week that they are going to put an end to prescription pot sales. The authorities say that although Oregon currently has nearly 40,000 people enrolled in its voter-approved medical marijuana program, law enforcement must take action because the system violates federal law and is, “putting marijuana in the hands of more and more healthy kids.” But is that really true?

The first part, of course, is accurate: Oregon’s medical marijuana system violates federal law. This is the same rationale used by prosecutors in Eastern Washington to raid dispensaries in Spokane in recent weeks. Pot is still a Schedule I controlled substance — along with heroin, cocaine and LSD — and therefore it has no legitimate medical use in the eyes of the federal government. There’s no wiggle room here; a law is a law is a law it is a prosecutor’s duty to uphold that law no matter how misguided or ineffective it may be.

And in Oregon, where voters approved medical marijuana in 1998, selling weed in any way, shape, or form is still technically forbidden by state law. Eligible patients must get their medical grass from “registered grow sites” regulated by the Department of Health. Dispensaries are not permitted, but disabled tokers are allowed to get their daily doses from “designated primary caregivers.”

Nevertheless, dozens of cannabis clubs have sprouted across Oregon (mostly in Portland) over the past decade. These are places with couches, vaporizers, and snacks where card-holding pot smokers can use — and, in rare cases, replenish — their supply. These are the type of businesses that have the state’s top lawmen in a tizzy.

via Boulder Weekly
by Jefferson Dodge

The medical marijuana game is about to get some new rules that will make it a lot harder to play in the state of Colorado.

On July 1, 77 pages of regulations from the state’s Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division (MMED) will go into effect, stipulating in excruciating detail everything from the type of locks to be installed on dispensaries’ doors to the kind of cable used for their video monitoring equipment. The regulations come on top of — and as a result of — a series of bills that have been passed in the state legislature over the past 18 months designed to both crack down on the industry and take advantage of its tax revenue potential.

It’s partly an effort to keep tabs on every ounce of medical marijuana used by Colorado patients, ensuring that none of it leaves the state or streams in over our borders. Every dispensary is now required to produce all of its marijuana in Colorado (30 percent can be obtained from other Colorado dispensaries over the course of a year, but it still must be grown in Colorado).

It’s not just a way to ensure that the state and local governments get to collect the optimum amount of fees and sales tax from the industry. The lockdown may also have something to do with the saber-rattling that federal officials have been doing lately, and it may protect Colorado medical marijuana operations from being targeted by the feds in the same way they have been in other states.

‘SEED TO SALE’

Boulder attorney Jeff Gard, who specializes in medical marijuana law, says state officials’ desire to create a “vertically integrated” system that tracks pot medicine “from seed to sale” stems in part from a landmark 2005 California case, Gonzalez vs. Raich. In that case, which went all the way to the Supreme Court, the feds were successful in prosecuting a medical marijuana patient even though California law permitted medical marijuana. (Marijuana is still a schedule I controlled substance under federal law.) One of the main arguments used by the court to defend the feds’ authority was that the homegrown pot was entwined in the interstate marijuana market, which in turn opened the door for the government to invoke the Commerce Clause as justification for interjecting itself into what would otherwise be a state’s purview.

Hence, Gard says, if Colorado can demonstrate a “closed loop,” in which none of its marijuana crosses state borders, it strengthens the case against federal intervention.

But some attorneys and dispensary owners are calling the legislation and the new MMED regulations too onerous, if not overreaching.

“I’m not aware of any other industry in the world that is vertically integrated,” says prominent Colorado medical marijuana attorney Rob Corry. “King Soopers doesn’t own oceans of apple orchards in which it grows its apples.”

Corry challenges the constitutionality of HB 1284, the 2010 bill that spawned the 77 pages of regulations. Corry sent a letter to Colorado Attorney General John Suthers on May 27 notifying him that he and his clients plan to launch a legal challenge to HB 1284. In the letter, he outlines a host of claims, including the fact that Amendment 20, the constitutional amendment passed by Colorado voters in 2000, calls for definitions, legislation and criminal penalties to be enacted “not later than” April 30, 2001, not nine years later.

Corry also challenges language allowing local governments to prohibit the cultivation of marijuana, the limit on how much marijuana a dispensary can bring in from outside sources, background check and state residency requirements for licensees, and minimum distances between dispensaries and certain other facilities, like day care centers. He says the bill’s language precluding two or more caregivers from banding together violates citizens’ constitutional rights to association. In addition, Corry questions HB 1284’s prohibition against using “advertising material that is misleading, deceptive, or false, or that is designed to appeal to minors,” calling it a violation of the First Amendment.

via Reuters

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Some local wags are calling it the “Wal-Mart of Weed” or “Home DePot.”

Seeking to capitalize on Arizona’s newly enacted medical marijuana law, a California-based company on Wednesday opened a superstore-sized garden center in Phoenix catering to those who want to grow their own cannabis.

“We sell everything but the plant itself,” said Dhar Mann, founder of weGrow, the company that began franchising its big-box stores with outlets in Oakland and Sacramento, California. “We sell the products and the services for people to safely and responsibly cultivate their medicine.”

The 21,000-square-foot store offers some 2,000 products, including soil, grow lights and irrigation trays, specially designed for effective marijuana growing, Mann told Reuters.

A doctor also is on site to furnish eligible patients the initial medical approval needed to apply to the state health department for cards authorizing them to legally grow and use marijuana as treatment for a variety of qualifying ailments.

Alluding to some of America’s leading big-box chains, the company’s own press materials describe the weGrow franchise as the “Wal-Mart of Weed,” while various media reports have referred to it as “Home DePot.”

The store’s opening came on the same day that Arizona was to have begun accepting applications from individuals seeking one of 125 permits the state plans to grant for the operation of medical marijuana dispensaries. But that process was put on hold last week.

On Friday, the state went to federal court seeking to clarify whether its citizens were at risk of federal prosecution for participating in activities sanctioned under Arizona’s medical marijuana act, passed by voters in November.

Arizona is the 16th state in the nation, plus the District of Columbia, to decriminalize marijuana for medical purposes.

But Dennis Burke, the U.S. attorney for Arizona, warned in a letter to state health officials last month that the cultivation, sale and distribution of cannabis, classified by the U.S. government as an illegal narcotic, remains a federal crime.

Since April, state officials have been accepting applications from patients and caregivers looking to grow and use marijuana for medical purposes.

Figures show that 3,696 people have obtained cards allowing them to possess and grow marijuana for a range of medical issues, chronic pain chief among them. Males account for more than 75 percent of those approved.

Mann said his Oakland-based company has big expansion plans for Arizona and nationwide as it looks to tap into what some have estimated to be a market worth billions of dollars.

He said the next franchise store will open in the District of Columbia in July, with additional outlets slated for Denver, Detroit and possibly Los Angeles by the end of August.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Associated Press

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin has signed into law a bill authorizing up to four dispensaries where registered patients can obtain medical marijuana.

Shumlin signed the bill Thursday in Montpelier.

Vermont now joins Colorado, Maine, New Mexico, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Arizona, and Delaware on the list of states with laws that explicitly allow dispensaries. Washington, D.C. is also in the process of implementing a program that will allow five such facilities in the nation’s capital.

Vermont law allows patients or their caregivers to grow their own marijuana, but several patients told legislators that they were unable to do so due to the high cost of equipment or because their medical condition made the task too physically demanding.

via Coloradoan
by Kevin Duggan

The Larimer County commissioners on Monday denied an application from Caring Touch Network to establish a medical marijuana grow and delivery service in an area just outside Fort Collins city limits.

The applicant, Dallas Bell, did not appear for the hearing with the commissioners. The county planning commission and staff members recommended denial of the business proposed at 1708 E. Lincoln Ave. citing incompatibility with the neighborhood, including its distance from a church and a child care facility.

The denial marks the end of the county’s review of applications for medical marijuana businesses. The commissioners voted to ban marijuana businesses last year but agreed to review applications of businesses that were already in the planning process when the ban was approved.

Only two businesses were approved. Both are in industrial areas outside Fort Collins city limits.

via Fairbanks Daily News – Miner
by Jeff Richardson

Editor’s note: The final section of this article has been rewritten to clarify Alaska court rulings on personal possession of marijuana.

FAIRBANKS — A growing federal crackdown on medical marijuana has unfolded around the country in recent months, but in Alaska the vibe around the issue remains decidedly mellow.

The Obama administration vowed in 2009 to make medical marijuana oversight a low priority, and raids on pot dispensaries have indeed been down dramatically during the last two years. But federal prosecutors have recently signaled intentions to crack down, issuing memos that indicate they’re tired of perceived abuse of medical marijuana.

It’s caused politicians and law enforcement officials across the country to re-examine their approach to medical pot, which has been legalized in Alaska, 13 other states and Washington, D.C., mostly through voter initiatives.

But the issue creates little buzz in Alaska more than a dozen years after 58 percent of the state’s voters in 1998 made Alaska one of the first states to sanction marijuana for medical use.

Why isn’t Alaska the site of protests and federal crackdowns?

That’s likely because of the way Alaska’s medical marijuana law was written. Unlike other states, where systems have been set up to sell medical pot, there isn’t a mechanism in Alaska for legally acquiring the drug.

Dispensaries, which have been the target of federal raids in other states, don’t exist in Alaska, and the Legislature has shown no interest in creating a system for setting them up.

Anchorage-based U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler said she’s never dealt with a medical marijuana case in Alaska since taking the job two years ago. Since the distribution of pot isn’t part of the law approved by voters, she doesn’t expect that to change.

“Alaska has never legalized the sale of marijuana, so it’s different than other states,” she said.

A low-key issue

The prohibition on pot sales — even for approved uses — keeps Alaska out of the conflict but puts local medical marijuana users in an awkward situation.

State officials won’t explicitly say so, but obtaining marijuana for medical purposes in Alaska almost always needs to start with an illicit transaction. There’s no approved method in Alaska for buying marijuana or its seeds for medical use.

“(The law) doesn’t really address how you’re supposed to get it,” said Phillip Mitchell, who is in charge of the Alaska medical marijuana registry.

The state doesn’t say much at all about its medical marijuana program. The subject barely appears on the state of Alaska website, with little more than a link to an application form on the Bureau of Vital Statistics page.

Marijuana use is limited to a short list of illnesses — cancer, glaucoma, HIV or AIDS — and treatment for a handful of symptoms that include chronic pain, nausea and seizures. But some say it’s too difficult even for those patients to get a doctor’s recommendation for marijuana.

Tracey White, the program director at the Interior AIDS Association, said marijuana helps some people overcome the extreme nausea that can be a side effect of anti-AIDS drugs. A synthetic form of THC, which supplies the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, is available, but patients say its doses aren’t as easy to regulate as the real thing.

She said clients commonly ask her for referrals to doctors who will prescribe medical marijuana. White said she doesn’t know of any.

“I don’t have any clients using the medical marijuana because we don’t have a specialist in the area who will write for medical marijuana,” White said.

via Seattle Times
by Mike Baker
OLYMPIA, Wash. —

A yearlong attempt to clarify Washington’s medical marijuana laws collapsed Tuesday, leaving state dispensaries without legal recognition and more vulnerable to prosecution.

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, had pursued a series of proposals to regulate the dispensaries, managing to usher one plan all the way to the governor’s desk. But Gov. Chris Gregoire struck down key parts of it with a veto last month, and a scramble to pass two other plans before the end of the legislative session failed to get enough support in committee.

“By far, this represents the greatest disappointment of my legislative career,” Kohl-Welles said.

Medical marijuana dispensaries have proliferated across Washington in the past year, advertising heavily in weekly newspapers and online. Supporters argued that a requirement in state law calling for providers to serve only one patient at a time could be interpreted to mean that they could serve patients back-to-back, and that retail-like access points are needed to prevent a black market.

Gregoire’s veto, however, left in a section that requires a provider to wait 15 days between patients – a provision that made such sales untenable. She also left in strict limits on the size of collective gardens – no more than 10 patients or 45 plants.

“The legality of dispensaries is even more questionable than it previously was,” said Shankar Narayan, legislative director for the ACLU of Washington.

Narayan expects that even prosecutors friendly to medical marijuana may have less cover to refrain from pursuing criminal charges. Tacoma officials have delayed taking action on medical marijuana dispensaries while waiting for the Legislature to clarify the law.

King County prosecutor Dan Satterberg said that the governor’s veto and the legislation’s failure represented a big step backward.

via AZ Central
by Dianna Nanez

AZ – Charles Greenbaum is banking on a dream business that could go up in smoke if the state denies him a medical-marijuana dispensary license.

Even before voters approved Proposition 203, the law legalizing medical marijuana and medical-marijuana dispensaries, Greenbaum was researching the industry. As the owner of a small roofing company, Greenbaum knew the ins and outs of opening and operating a small business in Arizona.

But the Chandler resident says he never imagined what he was in for when he decided to invest in opening a medical-marijuana dispensary in Tempe.

Now, with nearly $100,000 invested in Greentree Herbal Therapy Center, Greenbaum says he can’t stomach the idea of losing his life savings.

“I’ll be out on a street corner with a sign,” he said, only half-joking, of what will happen to his finances if the state does not license his business.

Most of the $100,000 has gone to attorney and planning design fees. That doesn’t include the hours he and his business partner, Craig Waldrep, put into trying to find a dispensary site that Tempe would approve.

After months of searching, they found a prime site on McClintock Drive across the street from Tempe Marketplace, close to Arizona State University and major Valley freeways.

Like many entrepreneurs looking to become pioneers in Arizona’s medical-marijuana industry, Greenbaum admits it can be nerve-racking at times investing in a new industry where so many governmental agencies are trying to craft rules.

“Everyone at Tempe has been really great, though,” Waldrep said. “I think they understand that all we’re trying to do is open a legal business.”

Kris Krane, managing partner of 4Front Advisors, a consultant company that helps would-be dispensary owners apply for a state license, said entering the business is not for the weak-hearted. He thinks the reason the dispensary industry has been confusing for some is because Arizona is the first state to try and adopt such a large-scale medical-marijuana law.

“First, this is a brand new industry, not just for Arizona, but really nationwide,” he said. “And no state has yet attempted to do what Arizona is attempting to do here with certifying medical marijuana and allowing dispensaries at the same time.”

via Westword Latest Word
by Michael Roberts

Medical marijuana advocates have been debating the intent of U.S. Attorney John Walsh’s letter attacking portions of HB 1043, a bill intended to tweak MMJ regs that became law last year. Among the theories: The letter is a warning shot in what will be a full-scale federal effort to undermine the drive to legalize cannabis for adult recreational use in Colorado next year. But if that’s the case, says attorney Brian Vicente, it’s a clumsy attempt that won’t work.

“I don’t know if they’re trying to rev up the opposition,” concedes Vicente, head of the advocacy organization Sensible Colorado. “But the vast majority of voters in our state support medical marijuana, and support for legalizing marijuana for adult use is growing. It’s possible he’s just wildly out of touch with what voters want. But if this is a plan to stem the call for legalization, I don’t think it’s well thought out.”

Mason Tvert.

​At this point, at least two organizations are in the process of readying legalization bids: Legalize2012.com and a group that includes Vicente and SAFER’s Mason Tvert. In a recent interview, Tvert shrugged off the suggestion that numerous community bans of medical marijuana indicated that support for broader legalization was thin, adding, “We’ve been working for months on the language” of a ballot proposal “with dozens of attorneys both in Colorado and around the country who specialize in this type of thing. We hope to have the best initiative possible, and we’re going to do whatever it takes to do that before moving forward. But we’re going to move forward.”

In the meantime, Vicente feels Walsh’s complaints about HB 1043 — including language that would have allowed infused product manufacturers to operate grow facilities of up to 500 plants, with the potential for more based on need — represent the dream of law enforcement to erase what he sees as progress in this area.

“You can’t put the genie back in the bottle,” he stresses. “Colorado has a well-regulated and taxed medical cannabis industry that’s serving the needs of patients and also providing jobs and much-needed tax revenue for the state, and federal authorities need to respect that.

“I think the U.S. Attorney’s Office really needs to focus on the issues that really matter in our state, whether it’s economic crime or violent crime. Those seem to be more important priorities for the office.”

At the same time, he doesn’t dismiss as empty posturing either Walsh’s letter or similar ones written by other U.S. Attorneys around the country of late.

“Legitimate medical marijuana producers should take pause,” he advises. “This to some extent reaffirms what the federal law has always been, and now that we have John Walsh actively looking to cut off the supply of medicine to patients, those suppliers should be concerned. The federal government certainly could come after and prosecute and jail a dying AIDS patient for having a joint in Colorado. But it’s our hope that they would choose to focus on the more important priorities and stop targeting patients and their providers, who are doing a service for the state.”

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Several states have started reassessing their medical marijuana laws after stern warnings from the federal government that everyone from licensed growers to regulators could be subjected to prosecution.

The ominous-sounding letters from U.S. attorneys in recent weeks have directly injected the federal government back into a debate that has for years been progressing at the state level. Warnings in Washington state led Gov. Chris Gregoire to veto a proposal that would have created licensed marijuana dispensaries.

Gregoire, the chair of the National Governors Association, now says she wants to work with other states to push for changes to federal marijuana laws to resolve the legal disputes caused by what she described as prosecutors reinterpreting their own policies.

“The landscape is changing out there. They are suggesting they are not going to stand down,” Gregoire said.

The Department of Justice said two years ago that it would be an inefficient use of funds to target people who are in clear compliance with state law. But U.S. attorneys have said in their recent memos that they would consider civil or criminal penalties for those who run large-scale operations — even if they are acceptable under state law.

In a letter to Gregoire, Washington state’s two U.S. attorneys warned that even state employees could be subject to prosecution for their role in marijuana regulation. The letter does not specify how that would happen, but the implication is that state workers who are involved in approving and regulating the sale of an illegal drug are committing a crime.

No state workers have been charged federally for regulating medical marijuana laws, and legal experts say such a move would be extraordinary — if not unprecedented in recent history. Gregoire said she didn’t want to take the chance, arguing that it would be irresponsible for her to leave her workers vulnerable.

Letters with various cautions have also gone to officials in California, Colorado, Montana and Rhode Island. Federal authorities recently conducted a series of raids at grow operations in Montana, helping push lawmakers to put stricter limits on the industry. Federal raids also targeted at least two dispensaries in Spokane on Thursday, a day before Gregoire decided to veto the proposed law.

More than a dozen states have approved the medical use of marijuana, which is not legal under federal law. About half of those states regulate medical marijuana dispensaries.

The impact of the U.S. attorneys’ letters is growing. New Jersey is in the process of preparing to implement its new medical marijuana law, but Gov. Chris Christie’s administration doesn’t want to get operations fully up and running until it can get some clarity about the legal warnings issued in other states and how they might affect New Jersey workers and marijuana operators.

“Those letters raised serious questions about legal jeopardy,” said Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak. The state’s attorney general has officially asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for guidance.

Gregoire said she is interested in working with other governors to push for a change in federal law to reclassify medical marijuana as a Schedule 2 substance, putting it on par with addictive but accepted drugs such as morphine or oxycodone.

Justice Department officials said in 2009 that, as a general rule, prosecutors should not focus federal resources “on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.” A memo on the subject did leave open the possibility of federal prosecution even when people comply with state law, but Holder indicated that would not be policy.

“The policy is to go after those people who violate both federal and state law,” Holder told reporters at the time.

The latest memos carry a more direct warning: “We maintain the authority to enforce (federal law) vigorously against individuals and organizations that participate in unlawful manufacturing and distribution activity involving marijuana, even if such activities are permitted under state law.”

Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said in a statement that prosecutors aren’t going to look the other way while significant drug-trafficking organizations try and shield their illegal efforts through the pretense that they are medical dispensaries.

“We will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal,” she said.

The federal comments have angered supporters of medical marijuana, who had believed that the Obama administration was honoring state laws. Ezra Eickmeyer, political director for the Washington Cannabis Association, said it appears prosecutors are operating under a more aggressive policy.

“Coming in and trying to strong-arm legislatures is way over the top,” Eickmeyer said. “We would have expected this sort of thing form the Bush administration, but not Obama.”

Could Colorado State employees who work in the regulatory end of the medical marijuana business be prosecuted for their role in what the federal government increasingly seems to view as an illegal enterprise?

According to Department of Justice attorneys in Washington State, it is not outside the realm of possibility.

As the Washington Legislature debated legislation to broaden that state’s medical marijuana operations, Governor Christine Gregoire wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder asking for guidance.

Holder, of course, did not write back. Instead Gregoire got a letter from U.S. Attorneys Jenny A. Durkan and Michael C. Ormsby of the U.S. Department of Justice Eastern District of Washington.

In this letter, dated April 14, the attorneys write that after consultation with Holder, the feds are prepared to enforce the Controlled Substances Act “vigorously against individuals and organizations that participate in unlawful manufacturing and distribution activity involving marijuana, even if such activities are permitted under state law. The Department’s investigative and prosecutorial resources will continue to be directed toward these objectives.”

The letter makes it clear it is not just people involved directly in the medical marijuana trade who might be prosecuted. The letter specifically states that landlords and financiers could be prosecuted.

Then, the zinger: “In addition, state employees who conducted activities mandated by the Washington legislative proposals would not be immune from liability under the CSA.”

See the letter here (PDF).

That legislation passed this week, and the governor has vowed to veto at least part of it, out of fear, she says, that state employees could be prosecuted.

She issued this statement Thursday:

“I realize the value that medical marijuana has for patients and support the voter-approved initiative. I also agree with the intent of the Legislature to clarify ambiguity surrounding search and arrest as well as concerns around dispensaries and access. We need to create a system that works.

“I asked the Legislature to work with me on a bill that does not subject state workers to risk of criminal liability. I am disappointed that the bill as passed does not address those concerns while also meeting the needs of medical marijuana patients.

“I will review the bill to determine any parts that can assist patients in need without putting state employees at risk. No state employee should have to break federal law in order to do their job.”

Not wanting to be left out of the debate, the New Jersey attorney general has written a letter to Holder asking whether people participating in that state’s medical marijuana program are in danger of prosecution.

Mike Saccone, communications director for the Colorado Attorney General’s office said the AG’s office was aware of the Washington letter. He said it is clear that the Department of Justice is not giving states with legalized medical marijuana a free pass based on the Ogden memo (below). He said the letter does raise questions about Colorado’s own medical marijuana industry that may need to be addressed at some point. At this time, he said Colorado had not received any similar letters.

via Denver Post
by John Ingold

via The Los Angeles Times
By John Hoeffel

(CA)-The next round of the costly, drawn-out legal brawl over how to control medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles has begun with two new lawsuits challenging the city’s latest ordinance.

The lawsuits, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, follow scores of other suits that stymied the city’s fitful attempts to crack down on an unknown number of renegade dispensaries. The new ones could launch another series of judicial hearings and thwart the city’s bid to enforce its ordinance.

Some of the oldest medical marijuana collectives in Los Angeles sued on April 13 to overturn the ordinance, which will choose the dispensaries to be allowed in a lottery, a process the lawsuit mocks as “a euphemism for a municipal game of ‘Russian Roulette.’”

The 21 dispensaries suing the city are among those the City Council let operate when it adopted a moratorium on new stores in 2007. The city’s first ordinance would have allowed them to stay open if they complied with restrictions on locations. But a judge ruled that key aspects of the law were unconstitutional, and the City Council passed a second ordinance that relies on a random drawing to select 100 dispensaries.

“We’ve done everything, everything that the city told us to do, and we’re still sitting here looking at a lottery,” said Yamileth Bolanos, the operator of PureLife Alternative Wellness Center, a dispensary on South La Cienega Boulevard. “We’re fighting back. We have to fight back.”

via Westword Latest Word
by Michael Roberts

Mason Tvert.

​This week, Grand Junction and Castle Rock banned retail sales of medical marijuana, joining Loveland and many other Colorado municipalities that have enacted similar prohibitions.Do these votes suggest that a proposed 2012 ballot measure to legalize pot for adult recreational use is doomed to failure? Hardly, says SAFER‘s Mason Tvert, who’s expected to be at the center of the campaign.

“It doesn’t make me fear that at all,” Tvert says. He chalks up the failures of Grand Junction and Castle Rock voters to support medical marijuana businesses to the votes taking place in April, when turnout is traditionally lower than for November elections in even-numbered years, with the majority of those taking part skewing older and more conservative.

​ As such, he believes that “those communities represent a minority of Coloradans when it comes to their opinions about marijuana.” Most of the survey he’s seen of late show support for marijuana legalization in the 50 percent range, “and the rate is increasing dramatically with each poll, as it has for the past five years. And that’s been fueled by people seeing the medical marijuana industry emerge and the lack of problems it presents.”Moreover, the passage of a 2012 ballot measure doesn’t necessarily mean pot shops will pop up on every corner. “The initiative hasn’t been finalized yet,” he says. “But overall, the idea is about removing penalties at the state level. So it would be no different than is the case with medical marijuana currently. Even though Castle Rock has banned retail sales, there’s no penalty for a patient there to possess up to a certain amount of marijuana and use it privately. And the same would be the case if a 2012 legalization initiative passes. Adults will not face criminal penalties for possession, but it will ultimately be up to the locality to decide if they want to allow retail sales or not.

via Longmont Times Call
by John Fryar

LONGMONT — Boulder County’s communities have either adopted or are still considering what’s likely to be a patchwork of approaches to regulating medical marijuana centers.

“It kind of makes it a real mixed bag for us,” Boulder County Drug Task Force Cmdr. Tom Sloan told Twin Peaks Rotary Club members on Thursday.

Sloan added, however, that state and local governments’ inspection staffs eventually will bear most of the burden of enforcing state and local rules for businesses that dispense or grow medical marijuana in Boulder County.

The Boulder County Drug Task Force will focus its efforts on complaints alleging criminal wrongdoing by the owners or employees of medical marijuana centers, Sloan said.

Despite the rapid growth of medical marijuana businesses in Boulder County over the past three years, “we’ve not had any issues with any of our dispensaries on a criminal level,” Sloan told his Rotary Club audience.

There have been some problems with marijuana growing operations that exceed the limits and restrictions set by state and local laws, Sloan said.

He noted last August’s discovery of growing sites that covered 6 acres and included about 7,500 plants near Miller Rock, southeast of Colo. Highway 7 and Colo. Highway 72.

via NBC Montana
by Christian Hauser

MISSOULA, Mont. — Fallout from the Senate bill that would sharply curtail Montana’s medical marijuana industry is felt around the state. NBC Montana told you Wednesday night about a House committee vote that would slash the number of medical marijuana users by more than 90% from 28,000 to about 2,000.

Senate Bill 423 would take the money out of medical marijuana. A repeal bill sits on Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s desk. Either bill would put people who own medical marijuana stores out of business.

When most medical marijuana dispensary owners started their business they couldn’t get traditional loans. Many dipped into savings or asked friends and family for help. Now they’re worried about what’s going on in Helena.

Seth McGhee won’t talk specifics when it comes to the amount of money he put into owning his own dispensary, but says he would lose tens of thousands of dollars if either medical marijuana bill passes.

McGhee says, “We’ll have no choice but to lose an investment in this. I’ve put a lot of time and a lot of effort and a good chunk of money to have to a store on Higgins.”He is not the only one who’d be out of work.

He would have to lay off seven employees. He estimates his business puts about $15,000 into the local economy. Advocate groups estimate there are about 200 dispensaries just like McGhee’s across the state.

Tayln Lang, head of the Missoula chapter of the Montana Medical Growers Association, says, “Thousands would lose their jobs. I believe the unemployment rate would increase significantly. We’re a state of only a million people so when thousands or tens of thousands of people lose their job it affects the state in a much more dramatic way.”

McGhee knows he’ll find little sympathy from Republican lawmakers in Helena, who say dispensary owners knew they were getting into a business still considered illegal by the feds

via The Examiner
by Ken Green

Seeking to further refine the state’s laws regarding medical marijuana cultivation and sales, the Colorado House will continue hearings on a bill that would, among other things, limit medical marijuana license that medical marijuana growers own the property on which the plant is grown and allow for a reduced cost or donation to indigent patients.

The bill (HB11-1043) was crafted primarily to clarify a number of the provisions in the Colorado Medical Marijuana Code, according to the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Tom Massey (District 60) and Sen. Pat Steadman (District 31).

Currently, anyone applying for a medical marijuana license must meet residency requirements as defined by the code. The new bill would narrow the residency requirement to owners only, as defined by the State Department of Revenue.

In addition, the new bill makes it possible for medical marijuana distribution centers to treat indigent patients by selling the product at a reduced cost or even donating the product to low-income or indigent patients. Currently, medical marijuana centers are prohibited from selling their product below cost on the basis of unfair businesses practices.

Massey and Steadman’s bill would also permit those with a felony conviction of any kind that occurred more than five years ago to receive a medical marijuana license. The current law denies a MMJ license to those with felony convictions within the past five years and to anyone with a drug-related felony condition at any point.

via Westword Latest Word
by William Breathes

​This will be a weekend to remember, though I doubt I’ll remember much of it.The High Times Medical Cannabis Cup is at the Exdo Event Center this weekend. If you have trouble finding it, look for the rising cloud of deliciously fragrant smoke northeast of downtown.

The High Times Cannabis Cup is a celebration of the plant itself, unlike KushCon II held last December, which featured all things ganja-related except the ganja. This is the second time the long-running pot mag, which is known for its annual Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam, has held a cannabis contest in the States. The first was in San Francisco last June and was a huge success, judging from what High Times editor Dan Skye told Michael Roberts two weeks ago.

Doors open at noon each day, with seminars going nonstop on topics ranging from medical issues (featuring local activist and frequent Westword commenter Robert Chase) on Saturday to a legal panel with attorneys Rob Correy and Warren Edson, activist Mason Tvert and Dan Hartman, director of the Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division for Colorado. Stoney rapper Kid Cudi is closing out the night.

​ But again, this event is all about the ganja. There are entries from 79 shops and medical marijuana-infused product manufacturers. In total, there are 46 mellowing indicas, 36 speedy sativas, 50 hybrids, 26 types of hash and 25 edibles competing for the win. Vendor booths will be set up inside and out back (wink, wink) where dispensaries will be showing off their entries.So far the judging methods have been kept pretty hush hush. The only info High Times has given out is that “The HIGH TIMES Medical Cannabis Cups will be awarded by a panel of independent experts based on extensive sampling in a blind tasting”. Winners will be announced Sunday night at 7 p.m.

via The Weed Blog
by Sahil Kapur

Speaking alongside industry advocates, U.S. Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) called Wednesday for Congress to end the prohibition on marijuana, stressing the need to reduce drug violence while hailing the medical cannabis market’s capacity for growing the economy.

“Ending the failed policy of prohibition with regard to marijuana will strike a major blow against the criminal cartels that are terrorizing Americans and Mexicans on both sides of the border,” Polis said at the National Press Club, in response to a question from Raw Story.

“It’s been estimated that the drug cartels drive about half of their revenue from marijuana, so I think it would reduce the violence by half, and reduce the money that fuels the criminal enterprises by half.”

Organized by the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA), a lobbying and trade group for the industry, the event featured anti-prohibition advocates and owners of medical marijuana businesses speaking out against the burdensome federal regulations they face.

A common gripe was an IRS regulation, Section 280E, which prevents medical marijuana suppliers from deducting legitimate business expenses. The advocates argued that the provision was intended to apply to organization engaging in illegal behavior, rather than licensed cannabis dispensaries.

NCIA executive director Aaron Smith unveiled a report conducted by See Change Strategy, an independent financial analysis firm, which projected the size of the medical cannabis industry to be $1.7 billion in 2011. NCIA estimated that the figure will reach $8.9 billion in five years.

via Loveland Connection
by Maria Servold

via Flathead Beacon
by Molly Priddy

Montana Cannabis Company, a medical marijuana dispensary in Evergreen, was oddly empty last Wednesday. The glass cases that usually display owner Matthew Wymer’s products stood void, housing only tie-dyed shelf liners and a piece of paper listing marijuana strains.

Wymer, who said he has been a caregiver for a couple years and opened his storefront last month, said he usually sees 10 to 15 patients a day.

“Yesterday and today I’ve seen zero,” he said.

The medical marijuana community in the Flathead is spooked, he said, after federal agents executed 26 search warrants on several medical marijuana facilities throughout the state on March 14.

“It’s sketchy right now; there’s a whole lot of people running around like chickens with their heads cut off,” Wymer said.

Several warrants were issued for the Flathead, including on businesses in Kalispell, Olney, Whitefish and Columbia Falls.

Michael Cotter, U.S. attorney for the District of Montana, said in a prepared statement that the raids were the culmination of a specific, 18-month investigation into drug trafficking and criminal enterprises operating in the Big Sky state.

The warrants were served where “there is probable cause that the premises were involved in illegal and large-scale trafficking of marijuana,” Cotter said.

Cotter added that individuals with illnesses who are in “clear and unambiguous compliance with state law” were not the focus of the investigation.

Still, for some members of the medical marijuana community in the Flathead, the raids caused confusion and raised fears about running a state-sanctioned but federally illegal business.

“I think there’s some definite unrest,” said Brad McMillan of Four Seasons Gardening near Columbia Falls. “People are afraid of becoming criminals doing what they were told they could do.”

via Providence Journal
by W. Zachary Malinowski

(RI)-Bruce Vanicek, owner and operator of Rhode Island Nurseries, runs a highly successful business that grows wholesale shrubbery for suppliers along the Eastern seaboard and as far away as Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit. The nursery, which has been around since the 19th century, covers about 500 acres on the outskirts of Newport.

Now, Vanicek is set to embark on a historic new adventure in Rhode Island: cultivating large quantities of marijuana for Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center, in Portsmouth, one of three dispensary organizations selected by the state Department of Health last week to sell medicinal marijuana.

“Sometimes, you have to pinch yourself,” he said. “You go home at night and think, ‘Wow! What am I doing?’ ”

Vanicek is not alone. He sets out on his new mission with growers, or horticulturists, at The Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center organization in Providence and Summit Medical Compassion Center group in Warwick. The three organizations are rushing to build-out or renovate their dispensary and cultivation sites as they get ready to sell marijuana to as many as 3,200 licensed patients in the state.

The marijuana will be grown inside expansive warehouse-type buildings and the first crop should be harvested sometime this summer.

The new venture raises questions about how the marijuana will be farmed in the state.

Vanicek and his wife, Kelly, have been licensed caregivers in the medical-marijuana program for about 1½ years. They grow a couple of dozen marijuana plants for seven patients. The Vaniceks contacted the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition about the program after they became interested in alternative forms of medicine.

Vanicek, who earned his bachelor’s degree in nursery management from Cornell University, gave some thought to applying to the Health Department for a dispensary license.

via The Colorado Independent
by Scot Kersgaard

When federal agents led a raid on medical marijuana businesses in Montana last week, questions were raised as to whether these businesses were raided because they were suspected of selling out of the proverbial back door to people without medical marijuana permits–or whether they were raided simply for being medical marijuana businesses.

While answers are not readily forthcoming, facts suggest it was a little of both.

When asked that question point blank, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office said she could provide no information that was not in the official press release, which is below.

The Colorado Independent, though, has copies of one of the search warrants and also one of the applications for a search warrant, which is signed by the DEA agent applying for the warrant, and Magistrate Judge Jeremiah C. Lynch.

While this is only one of 26 search warrants issued, it is significant for a couple of reasons.

It alleges both back door dealings and normal business operations as among the reasons for the raid.

Among the crimes alleged are that a DEA agent purchased marijuana and a “sniper rifle” from the owner of a medical marijuana business. The purchase was made at the seller’s home where the seller also had possession of a handgun for his personal protection during the transaction. No mention is made of whether the undercover DEA agent presented a medical marijuana license when making the purchase.

The application, though, also cites as reasons for the search numerous activities that are either legal under Montana’s medical marijuana law–such as growing marijuana–or ambiguous under that law.

Specifically the application alleges that the business conducted trade with other medical marijuana businesses–that businesses buy marijuana product from each other, and sell marijuana product to each other.

People involved in the medical marijuana community in Montana say it is that contention that is most troubling in these raids.

via Westword Latest Word
by Michael Roberts

Greg Goldfogel.

The Cannabis Therapy Institute sent out an “action alert” to its members regarding today’s planned second reading of HB 1260, a bill to set THC driving limits. But after a similar alert last week regarding HB 1250, which originally sought to ban all MMJ edibles, infused-products manufacturer Greg Goldfogel e-mailed a note of his own, asking advocates not to disrupt the legislative process. Which didn’t go over too well with some of them.

Here’s a key passage of the CTI alert related to the edibles legislation:

Many of the Reps. read their e-mail during these hearings. If you hear something you disagree with when you listen live online, you can send the committee members an e-mail, and there is a good chance they will see it. It is very important is people to e-mail the Reps. with links and research refuting any law enforcement misinformation. Since this hearing is will not allow public comment, real-time e-mails will be even more important.

And here’s the response from Goldfogel, who owns Sweet n Savory, a medical marijuana edibles company, and is a member of both the Department of Revenue’s MMJ advisory committee and the Medical Marijuana Industry Group, a powerful trade association that lobbies the legislature on related issues.

Dear industry friends,I have information for GOOD AND RELIABLE sources that the amendment being promulgated and voted on tomorrow is NOT going to ban edibles, but merely (as proposed) give the DOR the ability to increase packaging standards to keep edibles and other infused products out of the hands of children. In other words, the bill as amended is BENIGN.

I STRONGLY urge our community to not do anything to disturb or distract the process.

Respectfully,

Greg Goldfogel

Several advocates who’ve spoken to Westword were offended by this request, feeling that Goldfogel was asking them to give up their free speech rights in order to advance the goals of MMIG. But Goldfogel, whose background includes the acclaimed eatery Ristorante Amore and Alto Denver, a jazz club and restaurant, says that was not his intention.

HB 1250 sponsor Representative Cindy Acree.

“There are two ways to effect change, and both can be equally effective,” he maintains. “One is banging at the gates from the outside, screaming at people. And the other is sitting at the table as a respected member of the community, negotiating. And I personally believe the approach of sitting down at the table is going to achieve better results. Not to deny the confrontational approach. It has its place. But I don’t think this was the time for that.”

via Westword Latest Word
by Michael Roberts

Ever hear of a food bank turning down food? It happened yesterday — because donations intended for Denver’s Metro CareRing were part of a pot-for-food drive organized by Urban Cannabis, a South Downing Street medical marijuana dispensary. Urban Cannabis sales director Amy DiIullo is still trying to wrap her head around this surprising turn of events.

“We all recognize there are needs,” DiIullo says. “We live in Denver, and we see homeless people on corners or people who need food or assistance. So we know food pantries need food, and if we didn’t have cannabis in our name — if we were just Urban Center, not Urban Cannabis — I’m sure it would be okay.” She adds, “I don’t think cannabis is a dirty word, but apparently some people still do.”

Urban Cannabis business manager Dave Crook and sales director Amy DiIullo with some of the donations.

The story began when the folks at Urban Cannabis created a food drive dubbed “Cans for Cones.” The concept: From March 1 until April 20 (a date not chosen by coincidence), MMJ patients who donated four cans of food would receive a pre-rolled joint for their largesse. The goal? Collecting 2,000 pounds of canned food — meaning between 2,000 and 4,000 cans — by 4/20.

Urban Cannabis arranged with Metro CareRing and A Community Taking a Stand, better known as ACTS, to accept the donations, then sent out a press release noting that the dispensary was “partnering” with the two pantries. This same term was used in a March 19 Denver Post article about the drive.

And that’s when the trouble started.

“Metro CareRing called me around 4 p.m. yesterday,” DiIullo recalls. “My contact was one of their directors, and they apparently had received copious amounts of calls from faith groups and other conservative groups that donate to their organization voicing strong complaints that they were listed in the paper with a dispensary.”

The word “partnering” was the flash point. Indeed, DiIullo shares a statement sent via e-mail by Metro CareRing stressing that “by definition, [it] is erroneous to state that a ‘partnership’ has been entered into or created between Urban Cannabis, a marijuana dispensary, and Metro CareRing.” But DiIullo feels the problems ran deeper.

via AZ Central
by Michael Clancy

The first five medical marijuana dispensaries approved in Phoenix are confined to office and industrial parks, an early indication that Phoenix’s new zoning rules for the dispensaries are so restrictive that few, if any, outlets will be located anywhere near the people who need them.

Because of distance requirements from homes, churches, schools and parks, some real-estate attorneys believe there is virtually no retail site throughout the city that would meet the requirements.

Indeed, the first item on a zoning adjustment hearing agenda last week was withdrawn because the site was too close, by a matter of a few feet, to a day-care center.

The potential operators of medical marijuana dispensaries must go through a zoning adjustment hearing to get a use permit, as required by the city’s zoning ordinance. Besides the spacing requirements, the ordinance lists numerous other restrictions, from limiting the size of the buildings to setting hours.

But the spacing requirements pose the most serious problem for those wishing to get into the business.

The withdrawn item was for a dispensary at 3217 E. Shea Blvd., in a northeast Phoenix strip mall east of Uncle Sam’s restaurant. It is isolated from homes – the nearest are on the other side of the Arizona 51 freeway, beyond a second strip shopping center. The nearest school property is Shadow Mountain High School, just outside the quarter-mile limit. The nearest church, Christ the King Lutheran on 32nd Street, is outside the 500-foot limit. The closest parks are a mile away.

It all looked good until city officials determined Little Treasures Learning Center, 10220 N. 32nd St., was barely inside the quarter-mile limit.

An adult probation office and at least a dozen liquor licensees are closer to the day-care center.

“When the maps were developed, planners did not realize how restrictive they would be,” said Andrew Myers, executive director of the Arizona Medical Marijuana Association. “Almost all in-line retail space (strip malls) violates the spacing requirements.”

Phoenix City Councilman Bill Gates represents the district where the withdrawn location is situated. He said it was never the council’s intent to be so restrictive. If it had been, he said, it would have used its zoning categories, not spacing requirements.

Larry Tom, a city planner who has been focused on medical marijuana zoning, doubts the rules are so restrictive. If they are, he said, the council asked for a review after a year, and they could be adjusted.

Only 10 medical marijuana permit requests have been scheduled for hearings. Seven of the first nine sailed through the approval process, with two that were withdrawn.

The 10th is scheduled to be heard Thursday morning.

At least three of the sites approved a week ago are within a single community health analysis area – areas set up by the Arizona Department of Health Services that are restricted to a single medical marijuana use.

Such siting rules could limit the number of medical marijuana providers overall. In addition, some of the urban community health areas may not have any sites that work.

Myers said he is not surprised about the location problems. Because medical marijuana is a new phenomenon, such rules were expected.

“These restrictions may not be permanent,” he said. “Once medical marijuana has become an established business, it could become better.”

via Westword Latest Word
by Michael Roberts

At 6 a.m., the Department of Revenue published the final version of the Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division’s rules. The document is 77 pages long, and attorney Warren Edson hasn’t had time to study them at length. However, a number of elements jump out at him — particularly the elimination of a previously discussed edict that MMJ centers video-record every patient transaction in ways that reminded many industry pros of George Orwell’s 1984.

“The video requirements are dramatically minimized,” says Edson. “Before, they talked about a twelve-by-twelve box, where the patient’s ID and their red card would be placed and photographed. But now, there appears to be no tracking video-wise of sales or transactions at all.

“Don’t get me wrong — there are cameras at the front door, cameras all over the place. But the twelve-by-twelve box is clearly gone.”

Warren Edson.

Edson and other industry professionals were tipped about this development at a meeting last night of the Medical Marijuana Business Association. Among the attendees was Dan Hartman, division director of the enforcement division, also known as MMED.

Hartman referenced a previous public-comments hearing at which patients and MMJ center representatives “complained about a violation of privacy,” Edson recalls. “They said, ‘We don’t want this stuff on the Internet and randomly available to law enforcement. And there are no standards as to who can get this info, why and how.’”

Cut to last night, when Hartman told business association members, “We listened to you” — and Edson agrees that in this case, they did.

Not that every section of the document — it’s 77 pages long, down from 99 in the last draft — is to Edson’s liking. For instance, “the inventory definition is still very broad, and it includes things like shake: i.e., what many people consider waste material that weighs more than you get bang for it. Now, one ounce of cola buds is the equivalent of one ounce of shake, even though the monetary and medicinal value of these two items is dramatically different.”

He’s also not thrilled that clones will be included in the overall plant count.

Other items that caught Edson’s eye: “lots of rules about timing and weighing and transportation, including a rule saying that a product’s got to be transported to the medical marijuana center within 48 hours after being packaged and tagged;” “a very tight definition of the 70-30 rule,” which requires MMCs to grow 70 percent of their own medicine, with up to 30 percent drawn from other sources; and this passage from a section entitled “Declaratory Orders Concerning the Colorado Medical Marijuana Code:”

Any person, municipality, county, or city and county, may petition the MMED for a statement of position concerning the applicability to the petitioner of any provision of the Code, or any regulation of the State Licensing Authority. The Division shall respond with a written statement of position within thirty (30) days of receiving such petition.

His interpretation? MMED has created a procedure for questions about or challenges to the code, which includes language compelling the state to explain its reasons for various decisions — a good thing, he believes.

via Opposing Views
by Asa

HELENA, Mont. — More than a dozen local and federal law enforcement agencies conducted aggressive criminal raids yesterday on 26 medical marijuana dispensaries and grow sites in 13 Montana cities, according to a press release issued today by U.S. Attorney Michael W. Cotter. Federal agencies involved in the raid included the Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Internal Revenue Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. No arrests were made, but the U.S. Attorney has alleged probable cause for several federal criminal violations.

“Not only are these raids very harmful and unnecessary, they are aimed at undermining the democratic process by preventing the people and legislators of Montana from addressing their own public health concerns,” said Steph Sherer, Executive Director of Americans for Safe Access, the country’s largest medical marijuana advocacy group. “There is no doubt these raids were timed to take advantage of a vulnerable political time for Montana patients.” Sherer testified Friday at the Senate hearing on HB 161, a bill to repeal the state’s voter-approved medical marijuana initiate, which died in committee Monday.

Many patients are in shock from yesterday’s events, but the patient community has quickly responded by planning coordinated vigils at various city halls across the state at 5pm on Wednesday. Tomorrow’s vigils are being organized by Americans for Safe Access and sponsored by Patients and Families United and Montana Medical Growers Association, which are both statewide medical marijuana groups.

The Montana cities raided yesterday, which included Belgrade, Big Sky, Billings, Bozeman, Columbia Falls, Dillon, Great Falls, Helena, Kalispell, Miles City, Missoula, Olney and Whitefish, are part of an ongoing federal campaign to undermine state medical marijuana laws, despite a Justice Department memorandum issued in October 2009 allegedly signaling an enforcement policy change. Since the memo was issued a year and a half ago, the federal government has conducted more than 75 raids in California, Colorado, Michigan, Montana and Nevada, resulting in at least two-dozen indictments.

“The public has been hoodwinked into believing the feds have changed their policy with respect to medical marijuana,” continued Sherer, “but the evidence points to the same aggressive tactics under President Obama that we saw for years under the Bush Administration.” President Bush was responsible for more than 200 raids and dozens of medical marijuana prosecutions during his two terms in office. Advocates argue that raids such as these are never the right approach for a public health issue such as medical marijuana.

via Coloradan
by Maria Servold

The three medical marijuana dispensaries in Loveland fighting the city and state in court won’t find out until next week whether they will be able to reopen and continue selling marijuana. A judge in the 8th Judicial District Court will hear closing arguments from attorneys on both sides of the medical marijuana debate Tuesday and plans to make a ruling on the case brought forward by attorney Rob Corry the same day.

Corry, a Denver attorney well-known for his work defending medical marijuana patients and dispensaries, is fighting for a temporary restraining order and permanent injunction that would allow the three medical marijuana dispensaries to reopen. They closed March 1 after Loveland voters in November approved a ban on the dispensaries.

Corry is representing Rocky Mountain Kind, Magic’s Emporium and Colorado Canna Care. Additionally, John and Jane Doe are named as plaintiff medical marijuana patients.

The defense is arguing that after a state law was passed in June 2010, the decision about whether to allow dispensaries to operate was up to local authorities – such as a City Council. Rather than simply outlaw the dispensaries, the council voted last summer to put the issue to a vote. Voters rejected by a fairly wide margin the idea of letting the dispensaries continue to operate.

Medical marijuana user Candace Schuelke said that since the shops closed, she has had to buy her marijuana illegally. She said she is afraid to drive in traffic and wouldn’t want to venture far away from her home to a different dispensary.

Autumn Todd, owner of Rocky Mountain Kind and Magic’s Emporium, said he is still in the red and has not taken a salary since he bought the businesses in November 2009 and August 2010, respectively.

via The Republic

HELENA, Mont. — Federal agents with guns drawn raided at least 10 medical marijuana operations across Montana on Monday, the same a day that a bill to repeal the state’s medical marijuana law stalled in the Legislature.

Agents near Helena burst into Montana Cannabis’ greenhouse, where the company grows more than 1,600 plants for its four stores across the state. The greenhouse runs about half the length of a football field and is packed with marijuana plants that can be seen from U.S. Highway 12.

About 15 workers were inside the warehouse during the morning raid. Montana Cannabis employee Brett Thompson, 30, said he stepped outside to smoke a cigarette and saw agents running up the driveway.

“They came in, guns drawn, got us down on the ground and in cuffs as fast as they could,” Thompson said.

Federal agents detained Thompson and his co-workers in handcuffs outside the greenhouse, where sheriff’s deputies and Helena police officers stood guard. Inside, agents in DEA and FBI jackets wearing respirator masks and blue gloves yanked waist-high plants from their pots and hauled them out of sight wrapped in blue tarps.

It was not immediately clear why the raids took place.

A spokeswoman in the U.S. attorney’s office in Montana said the federal agents executed search warrants that are under seal. She declined to comment further.

Agencies involved included the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Medical marijuana has become a hotly debated issue in Montana, and the Legislature has been debating whether to eliminate the law. The industry has exploded in the last year and reached the point where one out of every 19 households in Montana now has a medical marijuana card.

via Westword Latest Word
by Michael Roberts

An event last night illustrates the growing power of the medical marijuana biz not just in Colorado, but nationwide. The stars of the show were Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, a new, Washington, D.C.-based lobbying organization, and Congressman Jared Polis, joined by politicos aplenty, as you’ll see in our accompanying photo gallery. But Smith says the night was about more than simply rubbing elbows.

The NCIA “just rolled out in December,” says Smith, speaking in advance of the shindig, staged at a home in Denver’s Highland neighborhood. “Our board of directors is comprised of dispensary owners, test facilities, publications that deal with cannabis, manufacturers of cannabis-related accessories and others. It’s a diverse group of business leaders. Our goal is to advocate for the interests of the legal cannabis industry in Washington, as well as to provide services for members and create industry-wide standards — best practices ranging from quality control to packaging to financial record-keeping.”

Among the issues atop NCIA’s agenda is “the tax code,” Smith notes. “We’re working to ensure that medical marijuana businesses can deduct their expenses just like any other legal business. Right now, unfortunately, the IRS is doing some major audits at a lot of facilities, and we’re working to equalize the tax codes for medical marijuana, as well as to ensure there’s equal access to banking for dispensaries and other businesses. There have been ongoing problems with dispensaries not able to take out loans or even make deposits because of the perception that what they’re doing is a violation of federal laws, and banks don’t have the confidence to do business with dispensaries. So we’re working with Congressman Polis to find either an administrative or legislative fix to that problem.”

Photo by Kim Sidwell

The crowd around Jared Polis includes Sensible Colorado’s Brian Vicente.

Smith identifies Polis as among the legislators most attuned to the issues of the medical marijuana community, along with the likes of California congressmen Dana Rohrabacher and Pete Stark. Their support is important for the future of the industry, Smith feels.

“The administration has essentially taken a position that if a business is in compliance with state law, the Department of Justice won’t take enforcement action,” he points out. “So we want to extend that policy into other areas of the federal code, like the tax code and issues involving the Department of Treasury that address the banking situation. Ultimately, we need to ensure that this is the law of the land, not just the policy of this particular president. The federal government needs to back off and not tell states what to do in setting their own medical marijuana policies.”

Beyond medical marijuana, the NCIA seeks “overall legalization for sales and possession of cannabis for adults,” Smith confirms. “We want to expand this industry and put the black market out of business, so that we can see sale to adults over 21 just as we do with alcohol, which is a far more dangerous drug than cannabis.”

In this context, the NCIA sees Colorado as a nationwide key — which is one reason why Smith journeyed to our fair state to attend the event.

“Colorado is at the forefront of this emerging industry,” he maintains. “We’re seeing medical cannabis businesses flourishing throughout the state, under state licensing, and that’s translating into tax dollars and good sustainable jobs. It’s definitely taken root here, and I’m hopeful that the state could soon make full adult sales legal, and regulate them throughout the state. And I certainly think what we’re doing at the federal level is very relevant to business owners here in Colorado and the public at large.”

REUTERS
Richard Lee, founder of Oaksterdam University, looks over medical marijuana plants in a grow room in Oakland, California June 30, 2010.

via Sky Hi Daily News
by Reid Armstrong

DENVER — A medical marijuana bill making its way through the Colorado State Legislature would extend the state’s moratorium on new medical marijuana facilities through July 1, 2012.

Fraser Town Manager Jeff Durbin said his staff and the town board are proceeding with plans to develop local ordinances to regulate and zone medical marijuana operations within town limits to be ready for whatever comes down the pike from the state.

The Grand County commissioners are also proceeding with a review of proposed local regulations.

House Bill 1043, sponsored by Rep. Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs, and Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver, cleared its first hurdle in February by passing the House Judiciary Committee on a unanimous vote.

The language of the introduced version of the bill was stricken and replaced with language negotiated with the sponsor and various other parties with direct interest in the bill.

While billed primarily as “cleanup legislation” to correct problems in the Colorado Medical Marijuana Code passed last year, there will be some significant changes should the bill pass as is.

One key change will be that no one may apply for a new license until July 1, 2012, a one-year extension of the statewide moratorium on new licenses.

via Aurora Sentinel
by Sara Castellanos

AURORA | Eliminating medical marijuana infused products targeted at youth with names such as “Pot Tarts” and “Captain Chronic” is the aim of a revised bill sponsored by Rep. Cindy Acree, R-Aurora.

Acree backed away from the original version which banned all medical marijuana ingestible products, but the amended version targeting the advertising and marketing of medical marijuana edibles unleashed four-hour long testimony.

About 50 people signed up to testify on House Bill 1250 which was laid over by the House Judiciary Committee to a date still to be determined.

Under Acree’s revised bill, the Department of Revenue would be allowed to formulate rules that prohibit advertising medical marijuana-infused products in a way that’s attractive to minors.

It would also require medical marijuana edibles to be inside tamper-proof packaging and would prohibit clear, see-through packaging.

The amendments were proposed by Acree in an effort to reduce confusion of medical marijuana products with other marijuana-free treats like cookies, brownies and lollipops, among children and teens.

“There is a striking similarity to products that could create an opportunity for confusion and for ingestion by children and others that might purely be by accident,” Acree said.

The medical marijuana bill that was passed last year allows medical marijuana dispensaries to carry marijuana-infused edibles, but Acree says there is a fine line between those foods and sweets that kids might find attractive.

“The constitution allows patients access to marijuana for medicinal purposes but it doesn’t necessarily create the ability to sell infused food and beverage products that are confusingly similar to cereals, pop tarts, sodas, cookies, candies that other people, such as kids or even other adults, might pick up and not realize that it’s medicine,” Acree said.

But some medicinal marijuana patients and advocates testified that they had only heard of products like “Pot Tarts” in California.

via Denver Post

An employee of one of three Loveland medical-marijuana dispensaries that have sued to block a city ordinance that shut them down Tuesday has been cited for selling pot that day.

Code enforcement and police officers visited 14 known dispensaries in Loveland on Tuesday to make sure they had closed as required by a city ordinance passed in November. One, Colorado Canna Care, at 129 S. Cleveland Ave., was open for business.

Loveland police say Crystal McDaniel, an employee of Colorado Canna, was issued a municipal summons for violating the ordinance that prohibits the cultivation and sale of medical marijuana in the city.

Attorney Robert Corry Jr. filed a complaint in Larimer County District Court late Monday, seeking a temporary restraining order that would allow the dispensaries to remain open.

Corry said he hopes to have a hearing on the temporary injunction sometime next week.

via Salem News
by Dr. Phil Leveque

(MOLALLA, Ore.) – I was not surprised to hear about the Oregon Legislature hearings about Medical Marijuana and the shrill, ignorant posings of Legislators and others trying to restrict legitimate Medical Marijuana patients from a medicine which really works better and safer than almost all of the FDA approved medicines, many of which kill about 30,000 patients per year while Cannabis/Marijuana has NEVER killed anybody in 5000 years of medical use.

Bonnie King of Salem-News.com has exposed the malignant foolishness of the Legislators and some lobbyists by printing abstracts of these foolish bills in the article: (Pro-Cannabis Supporters Rally for Medical Marijuana Rights in Oregon).

I will try to respond in a cogent fashion to all of them.

SB327 will bar growing Marijuana on public lands. This is probably going on now, and the Federal and State cops are going crazy with frustration that they can’t keep up with the Mexican Mafia who are the main growers in our forests.

SB645 allows employers to ban employees from having a permit or use (their medicine). There are many drugs far more dangerous than Marijuana, and they are legal. Even Marinol, a synthetic form of Delta-9-THC, which is the chemical found in smoked marijuana, is a legally prescribed drug. Other examples are ANY of the morphine-like drugs, the anti-depressants and anti-histamines. Alcoholics and prescription drug addicts are far more common and far more dangerous on the job. “Drug free workplace” should focus on the real problems!

SB646 is almost a repeat of 645. Many use Marijuana to reduce pain and aid sleep. Its effects, good & “bad” if any, would be gone by morning.

SB708 directs Law Enforcement to find out who grows and where. There are probably about 30,000 legal grow sites in Oregon. Legal growers are already registered with the state of Oregon, so this information is on file without a new law. How many cops would be required to monitor all these gardens? Not only would this be a costly waste of time, this is a physical impossibility!

HB2962 requires criminal background checks of Medical Marijuana card holders. There are about 50,000 legal permit holders. How many cops are required for a city of 50,000? Besides that, about 95% of permit holders were using BEFORE it became legal so many were likely caught up in some police activity, however minor. They are not the criminals that put our communities at risk, but it sure would be a great way to needlessly throw away taxpayers money.

HB2994 bars grow sites within 2500 feet of school or church. This would bar everybody from growing except the real criminals in National Forests. Why don’t they make the same limitation for alcohol and tobacco – two very dangerous and lethal drugs? (Together they killed 520,000 people in the US in 2009, while marijuana killed none.)

HB3046 was devised by a legal card holder who formed herself a “cooperative” and grows Marijuana in the back bedroom of her home, while systematically making rules about what “other” patients should be allowed to do.