Medical Marijuana in San Diego

Escondido OKs 45-day moratorium on medical pot dispensaries

Michael Purdy — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:05:30 +0000

ESCONDIDO – The Escondido City Council on Wednesday approved a 45-day moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries.

The vote was 4-0, with Councilwoman Marie Waldron absent. The action gave city officials time to research whether Escondido should ban medical marijuana establishments or regulate them.

One of the city’s options is to change its zoning to outlaw medical marijuana establishments, an assistant city attorney told the council. |More|

Change to the North…

Michael Purdy — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:12:10 +0000

LOS ANGELES — Daniel Halbert moved here from Phoenix this year to invest his life savings in what he hoped was a golden opportunity: the medical-marijuana business.

But on Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council told him to shut down his dispensary, part of a broad crackdown against a growing and unregulated marijuana industry. More than 600 dispensaries have taken advantage of a loophole in city regulations to open shop here in the past two years.

The unchecked growth has alarmed some city leaders. |More|

Need Some Weed? Just Check Twitter

Michael Purdy — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:06:57 +0000

Some California pot sellers are living the high life this summer — because high-tech social-networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter are allowing them to legally swap street corners for the Internet. |More|

REGION: County to draft medical marijuana dispensary ordinance ID program OK’d

Michael Purdy — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:25:39 +0000

Will start taking applicants July 6

SAN DIEGO —- After approving a medical marijuana ID program for the county, the Board of Supervisors said Tuesday that they will tackle an even thornier issue: deciding under what circumstances it is legal to sell pot for medicinal purposes.

At their meeting, supervisors Dianne Jacob and Bill Horn proposed asking the county’s attorney, John Sansone, to draft an ordinance making for-profit, medical marijuana dispensaries illegal in the unincorporated areas of the county.

But after some debate, the supervisors agreed to direct the attorney to look at how the county can comply with the state’s medical marijuana law, which allows marijuana use for medicinal purposes, without running afoul of federal law, which forbids its use altogether. |More|

County to issue medical marijuana ID cards, but add land-use limit

Michael Purdy — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:54:48 +0000

San Diego County will issue identification cards for medical marijuana patients, but also directed its top attorney on Tuesday to write a law banning dispensaries in unincorporated areas.

“Our concerns here have to do with not wanting to increase criminal activities in the unincorporated areas,” Supervisor Pam Slater-Price said.

Supervisor Bill Horn agreed, saying, “This is an important step toward protecting our community from illegal drugs. We need to put a stop to this and give law enforcement a way to investigate this.”

Supervisor Ron Roberts voted against banning medical marijuana dispensaries. |More|

Doctor penalized for cannabis-prescribing methods

Michael Purdy — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:57:05 +0000

SAN DIEGO — A Middletown doctor who fervently advocates the medical benefits of marijuana has been put on probation for seven years and suspended from practice for 15 days for failing to follow established medical standards when prescribing cannabis.

The Medical Board of California also is requiring Robert Sterner to enroll in a number of medical refresher courses, including classes on ethics, prescribing drugs and keeping medical records.

|More|

Councilwoman Frye wants medical pot task force back

Michael Purdy — Sat, 30 May 2009 15:54:31 +0000

SAN DIEGO — Pot collectives keep opening across San Diego, and Councilwoman Donna Frye keeps getting asked how constituents can acquire medical marijuana without being arrested.

So Frye thinks there’s no better time to re-establish the city’s medical marijuana task force, a long-dormant committee that earlier this decade developed guidelines to help patients follow state medical pot laws.

“People have a right to be provided with the information that will allow them to comply with the law that voters approved,” Frye said. “It may be a matter of common sense, but it’s also an issue of compassion for people who are legitimate patients who should not have to live under a cloud of fear.”

On May 11, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a lawsuit San Diego County filed against California. The suit contended that the state cannot require counties to issue IDs to medical marijuana patients because the drug remains illegal under federal law. |More|

Medical-marijuana patients await county’s rollout of ID cards

Michael Purdy — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:06:02 +0000

With the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal last week to consider San Diego County’s lawsuit against state medical-marijuana laws, local officials appear poised to begin offering identification cards to qualified patients.

The government-issued ID will help protect patients, activists say, but without a law enforcement-approved way to distribute medical marijuana, sick and dying people still face the threat of arrest and prosecution. |More|

Medical-pot moratorium will go before council. Measure would go into effect immediately

Michael Purdy — Sun, 10 May 2009 15:03:35 +0000

OCEANSIDE — The City Council on Wednesday will consider an interim urgency ordinance placing a moratorium on medicinal-marijuana dispensaries in Oceanside.

An urgency ordinance requires a four-fifths vote of the five-member council and would go into effect immediately, without the usual 30-day waiting period for a new law.

However, Councilman Jack Feller said Friday that there is no marijuana purveyor waiting in the wings to cause emergency action.

“There is nothing out there,” Feller said.

California voters made the sale and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes legal in 1996.

|More|

Time Magazine: Why Legalizing Marijuana Makes Sense

Michael Purdy — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:48:35 +0000

For the past several years, I’ve been harboring a fantasy, a last political crusade for the baby-boom generation. We, who started on the path of righteousness, marching for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam, need to find an appropriately high-minded approach to life’s exit ramp. In this case, I mean the high-minded part literally. And so, a deal: give us drugs, after a certain age — say, 80 — all drugs, any drugs we want. In return, we will give you our driver’s licenses. (I mean, can you imagine how terrifying a nation of decrepit, solipsistic 90-year-old boomers behind the wheel would be?) We’ll let you proceed with your lives — much of which will be spent paying for our retirement, in any case — without having to hear us complain about our every ache and reflux. We’ll be too busy exploring altered states of consciousness. I even have a slogan for the campaign: “Tune in, turn on, drop dead.” |More |