About Medical Marijuana

Palm Springs issues permits

From the Desert Sun tonight -

“The Palm Springs City Council voted tonight to approve an urgency ordinance relaxing regulations for medical marijuana collective operators and awarded permits to two applicants seeking to open dispensaries in the city….”

One of the collectives that received a permit, Desert Organic Solutions Collective, is a consulting client of mine. Read the entire story online.

Tags: colelctives, medical cannabis, palm springs, regulations

Rethink the regulations

Jose Huizar

In an op-ed published in the LA Times today, Los Angeles City Councilmember Jose Huizar told readers that he and his colleagues adopted an ordinance last week that “balances the needs of local communities with those of patients who truly need access to medical marijuana.” That is a rosy interpretation of an ordinance that may regulate all but a few patients’ collectives out of existence.  The ordinance is designed around the faulty premise that medical cannabis collectives are bad for neighborhoods. Even LAPD Chief Charlie Beck concedes that collectives are not magnets for crime; and research by Americans for Safe Access (ASA) indicates that they can help improve a neighborhood.

Read the rest of this entry »

Richard Kearns on “The Alternative”

Poet, medical cannabis advocate, and long time HIV/AIDS survivor Richard Kearns will be on “The Alternative” on LA Talk Radio this Sunday, January 31. “The Alternative” is a weekly LGBT-themed talk show hosted by Dr. Terry LeGrand. Richard will be discussing the upcoming “LA Grassroots Elder HIV/AIDS Advocacy Summit & New Media Training,” which will include discussion about seniors and medical cannabis. You can read ASA’s  ”Aging and Medical Marijuana” online.

Visit Richard’s web site or call him at (310) 488-1328 for more information. Tune in live on Sunday, January 31, at 6:00 PM PST on LA Talk Radio – “the most innovative and entertaining radio programming on the Web.”

Tags: HIV/AIDS, richard kearns, seniors, talk radio, Terry LeGrand, The Alternative

G4 – California’s New Medical Marijuana Ordinances

Stephen DeAngelo, Executive Director of Harborside Health Center in Oakland, discusses the new ordiannce in Los Angeles.

Tags: G4, Harborside, Los Angeles, regulations, Stephen DeAngelo

LA adopts an ordinance

From Americans for Safe Access (ASA):

Los Angeles City Council Adopts First Reading of Medical Marijuana Dispensary Law

Los Angeles, CA — After more than two years of deliberation, the Los Angeles City Council voted 11-3 this afternoon to adopt the first reading of an ordinance regulating the sale of medical marijuana and establishing rules for the operation of dispensing collectives and cooperatives, otherwise known as dispensaries. Patients and advocates worked tirelessly throughout this process to improve several versions of an ordinance they considered to be flawed. While advocates take credit for improvements to the ordinance, they claim that the arbitrary cap on the number of facilities and the proximity restrictions from a laundry list of so-called “sensitive uses” will undermine effective implementation of the law. A second reading and final vote on the ordinance will occur next week…

Read the entire press release on the ASA web site.
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Tags: Los Angeles, regulations, sensitive uses