Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich is pushing the City Council to quickly adopt the latest version of his ordinance regulating medical cannabis collectives in the city – maybe as soon as next week. The belated urgency stems from a judge’s decision to issue a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) blocking enforcement of the city’s expired moratorium against a collective that opened after the effective date of the measure. City staff and Councilmembers want to move quickly to prevent a renewed proliferation of collectives, which would almost certainly provoke more bad media and a renewed public outcry.
City Council staff expect the new draft ordinance from the City Attorney to be approved by the Public Safety Committee as soon as Monday, October 26, and the measure could be before the full City Council that same week. Entrenched staff left over from former City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo’s term continue to insist that sales of cannabis and storefronts maintained by legally organized and operated collectives are illegal. As with previous versions, provisions of the draft ordinance are unacceptable to patients and advocates. Specifically, the draft ordinance lacks appropriate protection for patient privacy, prohibits edible and concentrated cannabis, and imposes unreasonable buffer zones for collectives around a laundry list of sensitive land uses.
Patients and advocates should be ready to spend some time at City Hall next week pushing back on this hurry-up measure in the Public Safety Committee and before the full City Council. I recommend joining the Los Angeles Americans for Safe Access (ASA) email announcement list for breaking news.
Posted in Medical Marijuana Information | No Comments »
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
(This is a guest blog by M. Backes, responding to allegations by City Attorney Carmen Trutanich about pesticides on medical cannabis.)
LA City Attorney, Carmen “Nuch” Trutanich, has been all over the media trying to convince Los Angeles that a pesticide used to kill Mexican fire ants is evidence that medical cannabis provided by dispensaries is poisonous and supporting Mexican drug cartels. Having abandoned the flawed interpretation of the California Supreme Court’s decision in People v. Mentch, Mr. Trutanich and LA County District Attorney Steve Cooley have now latched onto toxic reefer as their latest justification for shuttering LA’s pot shops.
According to Trutanich, three samples of medical marijuana from “controlled buys” by undercover LAPD were tested by an FDA laboratory. On these samples, Mr Trutanich said the lab found high concentrations of an insecticide used to kill fire ants in Mexico. Trutanich claims this Mexican fire ant insecticide is evidence that LA medical cannabis is being supplied by the Mexican drug cartels.
Except…
There are no Mexican fire ants. There is the notorious red imported fire ant - solenopsis invicta – but that’s from Brazil, not Mexico. Those fire ants were accidently imported into the US in the 1930′s then spread across the southern United States. Fire ants were never found in Mexico, until they crossed the Texas border into northern Mexico a few years back. But even if expatriate Texan fire ants have decamped to Mexico, what does that prove about the origin of marijuana in Los Angeles dispensaries? If a cannabis dispensary uses chopsticks to pull marijuana buds from jars does that mean that the marijuana is being supplied by Chinese spies?
Pesticide testing is not a trivial exercise. It requires big, expensive, exquisitely sensitive machines that are capable of detecting just a few molecules. More importantly, pesticide testing requires a large plant sample to produce precise results. EMA, the largest testing lab in California requires a minimum 200 gram sample. So, did Los Angeles dispensaries sell Mr. Trutanich’s undercover cops three half-pound bags of weed? That’s an interesting scenario… ”I’ll take a brownie, an eighth of Kush, and… throw in half a pound of that Sour D.” It’s more likely that Mr. Trutanich would have had much smaller samples tested, with a much higher risk of error in the testing.
But what’s this insecticide poisoning cannabis patients in LA? Well, it’s a bit more complex than Mr Trutanich would have you believe. The insecticide that Nuch found in his big bag of herb was bifenthrin. Bifenthrin belongs to a very common class of insecticides called pyrethroids. The most common pyrethroid is pyrethrum, which is made from chrysanthemums. Pyrethrum is considered safe enough for use on organic fruits, herbs and vegetables throughout the world, including cannabis. See, most pyrethroids aren’t all that toxic, except to fish and some insects. However, they’re not that good at stopping fire ants. Nothing is.
What’s with this whole Mexican angle? Mr Trutanich claims that bifenthrim is not used in California and by implication that its use is restricted to less enlightened places, such as Mexico. But Mr. Trutanich is dead wrong. According to pesticideinfo.org, California farmers used 107,000 pounds of bifenthrim on their crops in 2007. They used it on corn, almonds, strawberries, even wine grapes. Fifty tons of it.
What messages should we take away from Trutanich’s Cassandra call? That the City Attorney and the County DA will say anything in their attempt to close LA’s medical cannabis collectives and that you might wish to keep medical cannabis away from your aquarium. Remember that in June 2009, state drug warriors had their budgets slashed 20% in Sacramento. Medical marijuana remains the lowest hanging fruit for prosecutors and narcs to make cases and boost their stats. Certainly easier than busting those Mexican drug cartels.
Trutanich stated to FOX NEWS “it’s not enough to say conclusively that this dope is coming from here (Mexico), okay. but? but, you know, if it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, you know, chances are that if you look a little closer, you may be dealing with a duck.”
Well… if it thinks like a duck, it might be the LA City Attorney.
California cannabis patients should be protected from contaminants in their medicine. That protection comes from intelligent regulations, something that the City Attorney’s office has been stalling for two years. Perhaps it’s time we stopped wasting tax money busting legitimate medical marijuana facilities and started researching how cannabis can be used more effectively as a medicine.
Posted in Medical Marijuana Information | 2 Comments »
Friday, October 9th, 2009
More than one hundred people showed up to protest a training luncheon hosted by the California Narcotics Officers Association (CNOA) at the Montebello Country Club on Wednesday morning. The training is one of a series designed to teach local police and prosecutors how to close medical cannabis collectives. Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley told reporters afterwards that “about 100%” of collectives are illegal and vowed to close them down.
Read more about the significance of Cooley’s comments on the Americans for Safe Access (ASA Blog) – “Speaking Up to Rattling Sabers.”
Sometimes it is hard to tell if you are making a difference at a protest. Wednesday was not one of those days. We scheduled the protest to reach its peak attendance just as officers were arriving for lunch. There was a massive traffic jam entering the Montebello Country Club, so attendees had to creep slowly past our signs before turning right. I have never seen so many scowling faces behind the tinted glass of government-issued sedans.
At one point, a senior staff member from City Attorney Trutanich’s staff got out of his car and approached Yami Bolanos from Purelife Alternative. He recognized Yami from a meeting she attended at his office with ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford and me in August. He tried to tell Yami that the City Attorney was working to help patients by only targeting the bad collectives. “That’s not what your flyer says,” Yami replied and presented a copy of the invitation reading “Eradicating Medical Cannabis Dispensaries in the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County.”
Media coverage for the protest was uncharacteristically good. KTLA, FOX, the LA Times, the NY Times, and others covered the protest before cornering District Attorney Cooley outside the restaurant. I was even interviewed by a film crew from National Geographic! We can never know when there may be a chance to use the media to frame the debate about medical cannabis. Every protester should be dressed in a professional manner (or at least be presentable!) and ready with talking points. You could be the one in the paper or on TV telling the patients’ side of the story.
The medical cannabis community has come a long way since 2005, when only a dozen dissidents turned out to protest Drug Enforcement Administration raids in Los Angeles. On Wednesday, more than one hundred came – bringing signs, bullhorns, and drinking water to share. Nicely done!
Protesters gather in Montebello
GLACA members at the protest
Posted in Medical Marijuana Information | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
City Attorney Carmen Trutanich
Los Angeles City Councilmember Dennis Zine told a standing room only crowd at Tuesday’s Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee hearing that an ordinance that does not recognize sales of medical cannabis would not work for Los Angeles, but he is worried about creating a policy that violates state law. The Councilmember’s ambivalence is part of the confusion that dominated yesterday’s marathon committee meeting. The PLUM committee voted to continue the debate on the regulations, Zine’s motion for more study into relevant case law, and a progress report from the planning department for another week to allow committee members more time to review the material.
Part of what the committee is reviewing is a new draft ordinance from City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, which his office provided to the PLUM committee and the public less than one hour before the meeting was scheduled to begin. Like two previous versions prepared by his predecessor, Rocky Delgadillo, the new version does not recognize legitimate sales of cannabis within the membership of a legally organized and operated medical cannabis collective. Instead, the ordinance seeks to regulate collective patient gardens – a regulatory strategy rejected by the committee earlier this year.
The City Attorney arranged for a parade of officials to reinforce his position that sales of cannabis are illegal in all circumstances. Representatives from the Long Beach District Attorney and City Attorney’s offices inexplicably joined the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and Los Angeles Police Department to reinforce Trutanich’s message. Medical cannabis advocates can take a lesson from the discipline with which the City Attorney’s team kept to his talking points. In comments without time limits, every official speaker insisted that “over the counter sales” are illegal.
Dozens of advocates responded to a call by Americans for Safe Access (ASA) to speak to the committee about the new regulations. Strictly limited to one minute each, patients and advocates asked the PLUM Committee to protect the privacy of patient cultivators and make a myriad of other improvements to what advocates call “the Reyes version,” an alternative ordinance prepared by city staff in advance of today’s meeting at the request of PLUM Committee Chairman Ed Reyes. Speakers also took issue with the City Attorney’s intransigence on sales of medicine and timing in releasing his version of the ordinance.
In written comments to PLUM Committee members in advance of the meeting, I explained that state law allows for sales of cannabis inside a member-supplied collective association, and that state courts have consistently upheld these associations and transactions as legal. This is a message ASA and allies have repeated in a private meeting with senior staff at Trutanich’s office and in a White Paper published last month.
Delay at the PLUM Committee is another impediment progress on permanent regulations for the city. That is unfortunate, because sensible regulations are exactly what the city needs to quell community concern over the unchecked proliferation of storefront collectives and recent violence associated with medical cannabis. It’s also too bad for patients. The longer these issues go unresolved, the more likely the City Council is to react to public pressure with onerous regulations.
Posted in Medical Marijuana Information | 7 Comments »
Friday, September 18th, 2009
Medical cannabis collectives in Los Angeles may have to tell the police department who grows their medicine if the City Council adopts a draft ordinance that will be heard before the Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee on Tuesday. The city’s Chief Legislative Analyst and city staff prepared the latest draft of the ordinance after the PLUM Committee rejected a version prepared by former City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo that would have banned storefront collectives earlier this year.
The ordinance requires that “The names of all registered members of the Cooperative/Collective who will be contributing Medical Marijuana to the Cooperative/Collective must be disclosed in writing and in advance to the Los Angeles Police Department.” That provision would give patient-cultivators pause in the most tolerant jurisdictions, but it is a poison pill in a city where local law enforcement considers all medical cannabis activity suspect and routinely cooperates with the Drug Enforcement Administration to close collectives under federal law.
In three pages (updated 9/18/09) of suggested improvements to be delivered tomorrow, I caution PLUM Committee members that, “Requiring the patients’ association to disclose the names and addresses of members who supply medicine is unnecessary and places the patient-cultivator at undue legal risk from inappropriate law enforcement activity, rogue police officers, and federal interference. This provision is unacceptable and should be deleted in its entirety.”
Tuesday’s committee meeting will also be the first chance for Angelenos to hear what newly-elected City Attorney Carmen Trutanich has to say about the propose regulations. I was discouraged to hear his Senior Adviser, Jane Usher, tell a neighborhood group in August that her boss could not find any rationale for sales of cannabis under state law – even within the membership a legally organized and operated patients’ association. That may be a bad sign that Trutanich intends to follow in his predecessor’s anti-collective footsteps. That would make it harder to persuade the PLUM Committee and full City Council to adopt regulations that respect the legal status of patients’ associations that maintain storefronts and provide medicine in exchange for financial remuneration in accordance with state law.
The PLUM Committee meets at 2:00 PM on Tuesday, September 22, in Room 350 at City Hall. Come early to complete a speaker’s card if you want to talk to committee members about the draft ordinance.
Posted in Medical Marijuana Information | 5 Comments »
