ASA California Roundup: January 6, 2014

Posted by 21pc on January 06, 2014

Contents:

Message from the CA Director

California News

  • Do Citizens Have a Right Under the Constitution to Use Medical Marijuana? (National)
  • Could the Pot Lobby Finally Show Its Strength in CA Politics? (California)
  • Hammock Upholds City’s Medical Marijuana Measure (Los Angeles)
  • Humboldt’s hippie growers lament environmental damage by pot 'miners' (Humboldt County)
  • City Wins the Battle Over Medical Marijuana - But War Continues (Santa Clara)
  • Signature gathering set for marijuana ballot measure (Riverside)
  • Palm Springs council sets marijuana dispensary tax at 10 percent (Pam Springs)
  • Medical Marijuana Regulation To Be Reviewed By San Diego City Council (San Diego)

Events

  • Monday, January 6, 2014 - Medical Cannabis Lecture by Dr. Amanda Reiman (Sacramento)
  • Tuesday, January 7, 2014 – Fresno County Board of Supervisors Meeting (Fresno)
  • Tuesday, January 7, 2014 – Court Support for Deborah and Dennis Little (Vista)
  • Friday, January 10, 2014 – Sentencing Hearing for Jose Gutierrez (Oakland)
  • April 5-7, 2014 - The 2nd Annual National Medical Cannabis Unity Conference (Washington, DC)

Take Action

  • Take the National Survey on Medical Cannabis Policy
  • Join Americans for Safe Access (ASA)

ASA Website Spotlight

  • Resources for Patients
  • Free Online Services

ASA Merchandise

  • ASA Cloud Vaporizer Pen
  • ASA Condition-Specific Booklets for Kindle

ASA Chapter & Affiliate Meetings

  • Tuesday, January 7, 2014 – San Francisco ASA
  • Tuesday, January 7, 2014 - Ventura ASA Action Group
  • Thursday, January 9, 2014 – Imperial Beach ASA
  • Saturday, January 11, 2014 – Truckee ASA
  • Saturday, January 11, 2014 – Yuba County ASA

Message from the CA Director

I hope all of you had a great holiday season and are ready to hit the ground running in 2014. We have unfinished business in the state legislature, where measures to regulate the medical cannabis industry in California will be back on the table this year. We are also talking to lawmakers about options for preventing bans on patients’ collectives, preserving your right to grow medical cannabis, and protecting patients from discrimination. That is a lot to do, and we are going to need a more robust and active grassroots base than ever before. I hope I can count on each of you to be a part of that.

We have more local battles to fight than ever before, too. Cities all over the state are considering regulations for medical cannabis, and others contemplating outright bans on patients’ collectives and cultivation. An unfortunate appellate court decision, Maral v. City of Live Oak, means we will have to fight more cultivation bans at the city, county, and state level. It is important that local lawmakers know there is strong support for medical cannabis and sensible regulations in their hometowns this year. I need your help to mount an effective campaign. Please let me know if a vote or debate is coming up in your community, so that I can help rally the local grassroots base.

Thank you for your commitment to the campaign for safe and dignified access in California in 2014!

California News

Do Citizens Have a Right Under the Constitution to Use Medical Marijuana?
Posted by Johnny Green on the Weed Blog

On January 13, 2014, at 9:00 a.m., the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting in San Francisco, will hear oral argument on whether citizens in the 9 Western states which make up the Ninth Circuit, have a fundamental right to possess, use, and distribute cannabis for medical purposes as allowed by state law. The underlying lawsuits that have led to the case being before the Ninth Circuit accuse the federal government of unconstitutionally intruding on that fundamental right. All of the 9 Western states in the Circuit have legalized or immunized medical cannabis use and possession...
Read the full blog here.

---
Could the Pot Lobby Finally Show Its Strength in CA Politics?
By Chris Roberts in the SF Weekly

A businessman with interests in San Francisco, including a storefront retail location on Mission Street, is lately one of the country's most-talked about politicians. But despite a recent profile in The New York Times, Robert Jacob is virtually unknown in town. This is because Jacob is the mayor of Sebastopol, a small town in Sonoma County, and because he deals in marijuana. Young and affable, intelligent and self-made, Jacob is a perfect pitchman for the modern-day marijuana movement, and is respected and well-known in Sonoma County. But he won't likely be invited to Chamber of Commerce lunches in San Francisco, or rub elbows with Mayor Ed Lee at election parties…
Read the entire story here.

---
Hammock Upholds City’s Medical Marijuana Measure
 By a MetNews Staff Writer in the Metropolitan News-Enterprise
 
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Randolph Hammock has rejected challenges to the medical marijuana measure adopted by City of Los Angeles voters last May. Hammock Monday overruled demurrers by three dispensary operators whom the city is trying to put out of business. He said Proposition D does not violate their rights to due process or equal protection of the laws.  The ordinance, which 63 percent of city voters supported, bars dispensaries from operating if they opened up after the city declared a moratorium on new facilities in 2007; if they are within 600 feet of a park, a school, or a child-care facility; or if they violate other requirements. City Attorney Mike Feuer declared in October that the city would begin bringing legal actions against an estimated 850 illegal dispensaries…
Read the entire story here.

---
Humboldt’s hippie growers lament environmental damage by pot 'miners'
By Bill Donahue in Aljazeera America

When marijuana grower Robert Sutherland moved to this rural spot back in 1973, he thought the place was like Eden. As he remembered it, he and his fellow growers were just a bunch of earnest hippies living amid Humboldt’s cool redwood forests. They were committed to a healthy lifestyle and saw themselves as being in tune with the nature surrounding them in the state’s lightly populated north. “We held communal dinners each week, and if someone had a chainsaw, they’d share it with their neighbors,” he recalled. “We gardened organically.” When a small contingent of Humboldt farmers traveled to Afghanistan in 1979 to buy 5 pounds of choice indica, a species of marijuana, they were not out for profit. No, Sutherland said, “they just wanted to share.” But that was then. This is now…
Read the entire story here.

---
City Wins the Battle Over Medical Marijuana - But War Continues
By Robert Haugh in the Santa Clara Weekly

After years of a back-and-forth tug-of-war over zoning issues and the City’s right to ban medical marijuana dispensaries, the City’s quarrel with Angel’s Care Collective has culminated for the time being. After years of debate and legal actions, the Santa Clara County Superior Court issued a Court order granting a preliminary injunction to close the medical marijuana dispensary on Oct. 24, with a denial for a motion to stay by Angel’s Care’s Counsel coming on Nov. 20. According to Assistant City Attorney Julia Hill, Angel’s Care owes $20,400 in back fines, and the City is working with opposing Counsel to resolve them, and on how the case will proceed in both the Superior Court and Appellate Court in the next several weeks…
Read the full story here.

---
Signature gathering set for marijuana ballot measure
By Alicia Robinson in the Press Enterprise

Medical-marijuana supporters trying to qualify a ballot measure allowing a limited number of dispensaries in Riverside have about 180 days to collect signatures. About 12,000 voters must sign their petitions to put it on the ballot in June 2015 – the city’s next regular election – or about 18,000 voters to get a special election called sooner. Proponents are training volunteers and may begin circulating petitions as soon as this weekend, said Jason Thompson, an attorney representing Riverside Safe Access, the group backing the measure. The “Riverside medical marijuana restriction and limitation act” would create a process to allow about 10 or fewer dispensaries to open in commercial and industrial zones and would set out rules for how they would operate…
Read the entire story here.

---
Palm Springs council sets marijuana dispensary tax at 10 percent
By Xochitl Pena on MyDesert.com

The three legal medical marijuana dispensaries will now be required to pay the city 10 percent of their proceeds starting Jan. 1 while the illegal operations will be required to pay 15 percent. The Palm Springs City Council on Wednesday approved 4-1 the pot tax rates and a series of other changes including the issuance of a fourth dispensary license. Palm Springs voters on Nov. 5 overwhelmingly approved Measure B — a tax of up to 15 percent on the proceeds of medical marijuana dispensaries…
Read the entire story here.

---
Medical Marijuana Regulation To Be Reviewed By San Diego City Council
By City News Service for KPBS

A draft ordinance to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries in San Diego is slated to go before the City Council in February, according to Interim Mayor Todd Gloria. Public vetting of the proposed restrictions was recently completed, according to Gloria. "Essentially, what I think it is is a reasonable balance between the communities and the need for safe access," Gloria said Thursday at his weekly media briefing. "This will result in a handful of collectives in the community that are operating under very strict guidelines that they don't currently necessarily have to follow." Medical marijuana has been argued for years in San Diego, but operating dispensaries within city limits remains illegal 17 years after Californians passed the Compassionate Use Act…
Read the entire story here.

Events

 

Monday, January 6, 2014 - Medical Cannabis Lecture by Dr. Amanda Reiman (Sacramento)
Dr. Reiman will be talking about the psych ological implications of illness and how to treat patients with kindness.  This is a fundraiser for Safe Access Sacramento.  The cost is $10 per person.  It will be hosted by A Therapeutic Alternative, 3015 H Street, Sacramento, CA 95816.  The lecture starts at 9:00 AM. Please arrive early.  If you arrive late, you can call 916-822-4717 and someone will let you in.  Parking is located directly behind the building or on the street. Please do not park in their neighbors parking lot.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014 – Fresno County Board of Supervisors Meeting (Fresno)
The Fresno County Board of Supervisors will vote on an ordinance banning storefront patient collectives and cooperatives (dispensaries) and all medical cannabis cultivation in the unincorporated areas of the county. ASA strongly opposes this ordinance and urges members and allies to speak out against it. There will be a public hearing at 2:00 PM in Room 301 of the Hall of Records Building located at 2281 Tulare Street, Fresno, CA 93721. Arrive early to sign up to speak in opposition to agenda item 33.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014 – Court Support for Deborah and Dennis Little (Vista)
Join the San Diego Chapter of ASA is supporting medical cannabis defendants Deborah and Dennis Little on the first day of their trial. Arrive by 8:40 AM on Tuesday. The trial is in Dept. 5 of the Vista Courthouse, 325 S. Melrose Dr. Vista, CA 92081. Visit the San Diego ASA website for more information.

Friday, January 10, 2014 – Sentencing Hearing for Jose Gutierrez
Jose is a journalist and activist who was assaulted and arrested at the protest of the federal raid on Oaksterdam University. The hearing is at 10:00 AM in Judge William Shubb courtroom, Oakland Federal Building, 1301 Clay Street, Oakland, CA 94612. Read more about the case here.

April 5-7, 2014- The 2nd Annual National Medical Cannabis Unity Conference (Washington, DC)
We are pleased to announce the 2nd Annual National Medical Cannabis Unity Conference, Navigating Medical Cannabis in the Mainstream, taking place April 5 – 7th at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C. Americans for Safe Access and our allies will fight even harder for safe access in 2014. This is our chance to show the Obama Administration and Congress our strength in unity – and to make our voice heard like never before in the nation’s capitol! The conference is your chance to network with other activists from around the country, attend panels and workshops to improve your skills and increase your knowledge, and to engage in direct citizen-lobbying efforts in the halls of Congress. Last year we had over 300 patients, providers, activist, medical and legal professional march on Washington on our lobby day. This was the largest march on Washington for safe access. Dont miss your chance to be apart of history.
Read more, register for the conference, and book your room at the Mayflower Inn today.

Do you have a medical cannabis event to share? Send items for the California Weekly Roundup to [email protected] before 12:00 PM on Friday to be included in Monday's distribution.

Take Action

Take the National Survey on Medical Cannabis Policy

We know that the best outcomes for our constituents come when they have a seat at the table when laws affecting their welfare are debated. Help ASA better represent your voice in the local, state, and federal conversation about medical cannabis regulations. Take this short survey to help us better understand your priorities when it comes to medical cannabis guidelines.

---
Join Americans for Safe Access (ASA)

ASA is the nation’s leading medical cannabis patients’ advocacy organization. The patients, medical professionals, scientists, concerned citizens, and other who comprise ASA are committed to promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research. ASA works in partnership with state, local and national legislators to overcome barriers and create policies that improve access to cannabis for patients and researchers. ASA provides legal training for and medical information to patients, attorneys, health and medical professionals and policymakers throughout the United States. We also organize media support for court cases, rapid response to law enforcement raids, and capacity-building for advocates. Your support makes it all possible. Join ASA or renew your membership today.

ASA Website Spotlight

Resources for Patients

Have a look at the “Resources for Patients” section of ASA’s website for important information; including how to talk with your doctor about medical cannabis use, how to become a legal patient, clinical data, legal tips for patients, help navigating the criminal justice system, and much more. This may be the most comprehensive resource for patients anywhere! ASA provides this service free of charge to help protect, educate, and empower our constituents. Support from our members makes it possible.

---
Free Online Services

  • Legal Support - Legal information for patients, lawyers, and other about medical cannabis laws the legal system.
  • Publications - Education literature and training for patients, activists, and others.
  • Raid Center - Be prepared for a law enforcement encounter, let ASA help you in case of a federal raid, and get text alerts regarding local law enforcement activity.
  • Medical Cannabis Advocate's Training Center - Learn how to be a more effective advocate for medical cannabis and how to build the movement in your community.

ASA Merchandise

ASA Cloud Vaporizer Pen

Medicate and advocate! The ASA Cloud Vaporizer Pen is perfect for patients who want to show their support for the medical cannabis movement. The pen has an ASA logo, comes in our signature color, and has a lifetime guarantee. 30% of every sale goes to support ASA.

ASA Condition-Specific Booklets for Kindle
 
ASA’s condition-specific booklets are the go-to reference for doctors and researchers when it comes to medical cannabis and cancer, HIV/AIDS, chronic pain, and other common conditions. These science-based booklets are also a great tool for patients who want to talk to their health care provider, family members, or others about medical cannabis. Download your now.

ASA Chapter & Affiliate Meetings

Tuesday, January 7, 2014 – San Francisco ASA
The meeting is at 7:30 PM at 847 Howard St, San Francisco, CA 94103. Email [email protected] for more information.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014 – Venture ASA Action Group
The meeting starts at 6:30 PM in the Renfrow Room in the E.P. Foster Library at 651 East Main Street, Ventura, CA 93001. Email [email protected] for more information.

Thursday, January 9, 2014 – Imperial Beach ASA
The meeting is at 6:00 PM at 1233 Palm Ave, Imperial Beach, CA 91932. Email [email protected] or visit http://www.safeaccesssd.com/ for more information.

Saturday, January 11, 2014 – Truckee ASA
The meeting is at 12:00 PM at 8924 Donner Pass Rd., Truckee, CA 96161. Email [email protected] or visit http://asa-nc.com/ for more information.

Saturday, January 11, 2014 – Yuba County ASA
Email [email protected] for meeting information.

Have something to share?

The “California Weekly Roundup” is a once-a-week email for ASA Members and Friends that focuses on relevant news and important updates, action alerts, meetings and special events. Send items for the California Weekly Roundup to [email protected] before 12:00 PM on Friday to be included in Monday's distribution.