Bob Egelko:
Feds vs. state pot war down the road?
Now that the Obama administration says it won’t arrest medical marijuana patients and suppliers who are following their own state laws, a Northern California congressman wants the same leeway for those who are already being prosecuted.
Currently, someone who’s charged in federal court with growing or selling marijuana can’t argue that he or she was just doing what’s allowed by the law of California or one of the 13 other states that recognize the medical use of cannabis. A bill introduced Tuesday by Rep. Sam Farr, D-Monterey, would change that.
Farr’s H.R. 3939 wouldn’t legalize medical marijuana under federal law. But it would require a not-guilty verdict if the defendant was complying with state law, even if a future presidential administration repealed the guidelines announced by Attorney General Eric Holder earlier this month.
“This bipartisan bill is about compassion and states’ rights,” said Farr.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, a co-sponsor, said, “The federal government should never have overridden state law on this issue to begin with, and this legislation will prevent them from doing it again.”
It’s yet another attempt to get Congress to soften the federal law that prohibits all possession, cultivation and transfer of marijuana and has been used by successive administrations to go after medical pot suppliers in California.
A group of Democrats and libertarian Republicans has been trying for years to get the feds to lay off marijuana dispensaries and growers in states where they operate legally. They’ve been beaten back by law enforcement interests and presidential drug czars who argue that medical pot is a myth and a smokescreen for legalization.
Whether the Obama administration follows the same course remains to be seen.
In Sacramento, meanwhile, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s bill to legalize marijuana for personal use in California in being heard this morning before the Assembly Public Safety Committee. If the San Francisco Democrat’s AB390 becomes law, or voters approve any of the circulating legalization initiatives next November, get ready for another state-federal drug war.
Bob Egelko covers legal issues for The Chronicle. E-mail him at begelko@sfchronicle.com.
Posted By: Michael Collier (Email) | October 28 2009 at 11:33 AM
compliance brings privilege
Add a comment 03/11/2009
//
MARINA DEL REY, CA — 10/21/09 — Medical Marijuana, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: MJNA) is currently offering Informational Seminars in Mendocino County, CA. These one hour seminars will culminate in an initial series of two day paid seminars beginning November 6 &7, 2009 at the Discovery Inn in Ukiah, California hosted by MMI CEO and King of Pot, Bruce Perlowin, who was featured in CNBC’s most watched television documentary “Marijuana Inc.”Among significant topics to be covered are clarification of State, City and County laws and ordinances governing Medical Marijuana collectives in regard to dispensaries and cultivation. This is tied into Medical Marijuana, Inc.’s transparent patent pending Tax Remittance and Closed Loop Inventory Tracking Systems to ensure total compliance. Also discussed are the cottage industries that will sprout from the core medical marijuana industry beyond cultivation and collectives; cannabis kitchens and bottling companies, testing facilities, distribution and logistics, delivery services, security and more.
REVENUE
The seminar series signals a significant new revenue stream for MMI as schedules will expand to the other 13 states where Medical Marijuana use is legal. In addition to the fees earned initially at the 2 day seminar, MJNA will continue to earn income as these attendees go on to open collectives and use the MJNA tax collection and tracking systems.
An additional revenue stream that MMI will offer is turnkey solutions to those interested in going on to the next step. Paramount to the turn key solution is the ability to cultivate. To that end, MMI will offer grow solutions in part or whole including hydroponic and airponic indoor systems and peripherals. MMI’s paid seminar attendees are likely to take advantage of in-house expertise and materials.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA, INC.’S TURNKEY COLLECTIVE SOLUTION
Medical Marijuana, Inc.’s Turnkey Collective Solution ensures that collectives operate within the guidelines of all laws and regulations regarding the tracking of the marijuana from grow cycle to final distribution. By employing Medical Marijuana, Inc.’s closed loop tracking system, it can be shown to authorities and collectives alike that the source of their supply was an active member of the collective. Medical Marijuana, Inc.’s Regulatory Module provides officials with a comprehensive reporting tool that allows them to remotely audit the industry in real time to ensure regulations are being properly followed. This audit function can be performed online and remotely from the regulators desktop anywhere in the world, making the process more efficient and cost effective for governments to monitor and regulate the industry. Medical Marijuana, Inc. believes that tools to regulate the industry and collect tax revenue are necessary to gain nationwide acceptance and legalization of medical marijuana. Further, Medical Marijuana’s Tax Remittance Platform could not only cost-effectively implement the necessary infrastructure to collect on every sale made within city limits by licensed collectives and collect those taxes on a daily basis, but eliminate the cash problem by using a tax remittance, credit, debit, or proprietary card. The POS system automatically recognizes the collective’s tax ID number, state and local tax rates and then provides Automated Clearing House settlement of the taxes and routes the amount to the City’s appointed financial institution. Taxes can be collected on a daily basis, providing an economic windfall for the city of Los Angeles and any other municipality recognizing the advantages of this model.
Tax Collection
The Stored Value Platform System will provide verifiable solutions to manage the difficult task of revenue and taxation collection. The customers of the dispensary are issued a plastic debit card or medical revenue card. The ease of access to certifiably secure transactions lessens the risk of loss at each level of the transaction.
Internal Management
All collectives/dispensaries in the U.S. are cash businesses. This presents a number of challenges. Dispensary owners risk employee theft and possible competition for sales with unsupervised employees. Our stored value system also eliminates the legal and practical risks of carrying cash.
Solutions
Medical Marijuana, Inc. is developing a suite of solutions to deliver an efficient and secure infrastructure for the Medical Marijuana Industry that will provide the tools to industry operators to effectively manage their businesses with the confidence that they are in full compliance.
ABOUT MEDICAL MARIJUANA, INC.
Medical Marijuana, Inc. is the first public company to recognize the vast and unequaled opportunities that exist in the rapidly expanding medical marijuana industry. The scientific recognition of marijuana as a powerful medicine, and as an effective, non-narcotic pain reliever, has brought legalized marijuana use to the forefront of mainstream discussion thus opening the door for safe and lucrative investment opportunities.
certified dealer education
Add a comment 31/10/2009
From Obama,
sanity on marijuana policy
Steve ChapmanOctober 22, 2009
In 1973, Robert Randall was going blind from glaucoma when he discovered that smoking marijuana seemed to help his condition. That didn’t matter to police when they found the Washington, D.C., resident growing cannabis and arrested him. Preferring to keep his sight, Randall sued the federal government, arguing that he was entitled to smoke pot as a “medical necessity.”
It was a far-fetched argument — but it worked. In 1976, a court ruled in Randall’s favor. Before long, the federal government found itself in the strange position of supplying marijuana to him and a handful of other patients under a “compassionate use” program.
The compassion didn’t go very far. President George H.W. Bush stopped the acceptance of new patients into the program in 1992 rather than admit all those annoying AIDS victims, insisting that it sent a dangerous message to young people.
The real danger, of course, was the message that government policy on cannabis was ignorant and irrational. But since then, one president and one drug czar after another has furiously resisted efforts to allow therapeutic use of the drug no matter how helpful it may be to the sick and dying.
Until now. This week, the Justice Department kept a promise made by candidate Barack Obama when it announced that henceforth, “it will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana.”
The change is not only historic but humane and intelligent, two adjectives rarely applied to federal drug policy. Science has established that cannabis has useful properties for the treatment of various diseases, countless physicians have endorsed it, and 14 states have allowed sick people access to marijuana. But for three decades, the people in charge of drug policy in the federal government didn’t give a rat’s bottom.
In 1996, after California voters approved a medical marijuana law, President Bill Clinton‘s administration fought it every step of the way — filing lawsuits to close cannabis buyers clubs, threatening to strip the licenses of doctors who recommended marijuana to patients and denouncing the entire program as “a Cheech and Chong show.”
President George W. Bush‘s administration stuck to the same course. It raided California dispensaries and went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in a successful effort to crush the notion — the conservative notion, come to think of it — that states should have the power to set their own policy on pot.
But before long, the idea had caught on not just in hippy-dippy California but in less fashionable places like Alaska, Maine, Michigan and Montana. Some 75 percent of Americans think doctors should be permitted to prescribe cannabis. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws reports that in 33 state referendums since 1992, voters have embraced liberalization 30 times.
Most of the time, the two major parties are about as different as Coke and Pepsi. But last year, they presented a stark contrast on this issue. Republicans denounced the use of marijuana as medicine, while Democrats lined up to criticize the prevailing federal policy. Obama took a clear position, declaring it “entirely appropriate” for physicians to prescribe cannabis and pledging, “What I’m not going to be doing is using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue.”
But as opponents of the Iraq war, “don’t ask don’t tell” and Guantanamo know, a promise made by Obama is not exactly money in the bank. This time, though, he deserves full credit for doing what he said he would do, repudiating a bipartisan legacy of pigheaded stupidity.
What’s more, Obama may not stop there. Some reformers expect the administration to agree to let a scientist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst grow cannabis for research on its medical potential — something the Bush administration opposed, lest the research contradict its ideology.
During the campaign, Obama also indicated he favors scrapping a 21-year-old policy that forbids cities from using federal money to finance needle-exchange programs to block the spread of AIDS, and the House voted last summer to lift the ban. The White House drug czar has even solicited advice from critics of the drug war, whom previous drug czars saw as deranged.
Robert Randall, who died in 2001, might have been surprised to hear the federal government admit the possibility that it was wrong about marijuana. He probably wouldn’t have been surprised that it took 33 years.
Steve Chapman is a member of the Tribune’s editorial board and blogs at chicagotribune.com/chapman
schapman@tribune.com
compliance brings privilege
Add a comment 27/10/2009
How Are Some Middle-Class Families Coping with the Recession? Growing Pot
By Susan Kuchinskas, Miller-McCune.com
Posted on October 22, 2009, Printed on October 25, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/143446/
Sarah’s whole street reeks of pot. This is not hyperbole. When you turn the corner onto this lane of 1970s tract houses, you smell the tang: the sour, earthy, green odor that wafts up from lush marijuana plants steaming in the sun.
Sarah estimates that seven of 10 households on her semi-rural street, a couple miles from white-bread-suburban Rohnert Park, Calif., are growing weed. She ran into one neighbor at the hardware store, in the new section devoted to cultivation, with the special dirt, fertilizer and outsized plastic pots the growers use. Her next-door neighbors, two brothers, trade plant-sitting with her and let their pit bulls loose at night to patrol both yards. The women across the street have a small crop in their vegetable garden. And the new couple on the block, noticing the smell, mentioned they’d like to get in on it. In fact, she says, she doesn’t know anyone in Sonoma County who isn’t growing pot.
Sarah (who, like all the marijuana growers quoted in this article, asked that her real name not be used) doesn’t fit the image of a drug dealer. She’s 58, colors her hair strawberry blonde and wears souvenir T-shirts, jeans and Crocs. Her ranch-style, three-bedroom home is filled with furniture from Costco and cat-themed knickknacks. She seems as mainstream as they come — and she is typical of the new breed of marijuana producer in Northern California.
As the economy tanked, layoffs rose, retirement savings shriveled and home-equity credit lines fizzled, Sarah and thousands of middle-class folks like her began raising extra cash by following local ordinances that allow the limited growing of Cannabis sativa for personal or medicinal use — while hoping that President Obama will keep federal law enforcers occupied with other things.
The economics of pot growing are nice. The amount of space needed to grow a tomato plant will support a cannabis plant that, with a bit of TLC and luck, will produce from one-quarter pound to as much as 2 pounds of marijuana. When wholesaled to a dispensary, each pound will bring around $2,000.
Sarah’s printing business had been going downhill since 2005. “Now it’s totally gone,” she says. She’d planned to sell her parents’ home, invest the money and retire, but the house didn’t sell. So, two years ago, she fenced off a plot in her backyard and put in marijuana. She harvested about 3 pounds, clearing $4,000. Last fall, she spent $10,000 to build a 12-square-foot shed in her backyard, fitted with lights, fans and an exhaust system.
She just harvested her first indoor crop, 4 pounds that she sold for $12,000. “I have money in my pocket again for the first time since 2000,” she says.
The term of choice is “medicinal marijuana,” or sometimes, just “medicine.” California has a patchwork of local ordinances designed to enable the production of medical marijuana — and a cottage industry that enables almost anyone to qualify.
Sarah got a prescription, which let her apply for a license to grow the medicine. In Sonoma County, she’s entitled to grow 99 plants. But three of her friends also have cards, so if anyone asks, “I have a very large co-op.”
Local governments are doing more than looking away; some are looking to pot to save their financial butts. As California state legislators slashed funding for education and social services, and siphoned an additional $2 billion from local government treasuries, voters in Oakland found a way to put some back. On July 21, the city of 400,000 voted for a 1.8 percent extra sales tax on medical marijuana. The measure could raise nearly $300,000 in 2010 alone. State legislators are actually considering legalization. If the state passes the Marijuana Control, Regulation and Education Act, it could put zing in the state coffers to the tune of $1.38 billion a year.
And California is just one of 13 states that have legalized the possession and cultivating of small amounts of marijuana for medical use.
Marijuana is California’s most lucrative crop — by a mile. Richard Lee, president of Oaksterdam University, an Oakland company that openly teaches people how to successfully grow and sell marijuana, estimates California’s total 2009 haul at $15 billion. While there’s no definitive information on how much of this is grown by mom-and-pops, as opposed to foreign drug operations, Lee believes that most of the smaller producers’ medicine stays in-state.
Although President Obama has made a vague promise not to make mom-and-pop cultivation a priority for enforcement, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency can still keep mom and pop on edge. Its official position is, “Smoked marijuana … is not medicine and it is not safe.” The agency points to Gonzales v. Raich, a Supreme Court decision giving Congress the authority to regulate marijuana within the states, regardless of any state laws authorizing medical marijuana.
Within walking distance of Michael’s stucco two-bedroom in San Francisco’s Sunset District, the DEA, working with the San Francisco Police Department, busted a large-scale indoor farm, arresting four people after the agents found not only pot but also methamphetamine, cocaine and a loaded gun. The 2-year-old investigation was on a roll, having busted two other operations in the same neighborhood that week.
Despite the 75 marijuana plants quietly photosynthesizing in a secret room on the garage level of his rented house, Michael approves of the busts. “You can’t have a bunch of cowboys out there running operations that are dangerous to the neighborhood. It’s going to give the business a bad name,” he says. “The unwritten rule is, ‘If you’re in violation of federal and California law, you’re open to being busted’ — and deservedly so.”
Michael, in his early 50s, used to make $150,000 a year as a commercial construction manager, but when he was laid off in the summer of 2008, he saw the writing on the wall. He had some savings and still does a few handyman jobs, but it’s not enough to pay the bills. “It’s intimidating out there,” Michael says. “We are in a depression, and it’s going to be years before it’s going to come back. I need to diversify.”
He read books, searched the Internet and took a class at Oaksterdam before setting up his indoor greenhouse. He hopes to harvest every 12 weeks but says he has “no frigging idea” how much he’ll make. “In order to justify this and make it worthwhile, I need to grow approximately 1 pound every month. That’s achievable. If I did 2 pounds a month, I’d be incredibly happy.
“It’s just a safety net.”
Luke’s one-room cabin is so small that you can reach everything from the bed. The TV is near its foot, the microwave is on the left and the mini-fridge is on the right. This is good, because this way he can reach his meds and the cream for his coffee without getting up.
Luke, 64, has been on Social Security disability since 1993 when he was diagnosed with AIDS. He just finished radiation therapy for a tumor on the back of his head. “It hurts all the time,” he says. “Pain relief is why I smoke marijuana.”
Financial relief is why he began growing it two years ago. He lives on $1,000 a month from Social Security. Kaiser keeps him alive with a cocktail of drugs. But his rent and utilities are $700 a month — even though he doesn’t have an indoor bathroom. And he needs about an ounce of pot a month.
“I could buy it at the dispensary for $50 for an eighth of an ounce, or I could buy 10 marijuana seeds, grow 10 plants and have 10 ounces,” he says. For a small investment in seeds, fertilizer and electricity, he grew enough to last a year. He found it remarkably easy to sell the surplus to other medical marijuana users.
“I didn’t know anything about dispensaries and buyers’ clubs; I just knew there were people around who would buy it every two weeks or every month,” he says. This year, Luke went further, growing 120 plants, starting them in a greenhouse that was already on the property in the hills between Santa Rosa and Bodega Bay.
He bought four 1,000-watt lights and filled nearly every square foot with plants in plastic pots. He isn’t getting rich; he’s already spent everything he’s made so far.
Luke is cautious, but not overly concerned about getting busted. His understanding is that with his medical marijuana card, he’s allowed to have up to 3 pounds in his possession. And he’s heard that the feds have backed off arresting people in California, while the Sonoma County Sheriff has stated that marijuana-growing is his lowest priority.
Besides, he adds, “Knowing I could catch swine flu on Friday and die on Monday is another reason not to worry.”
If Luke is just maintaining, Sarah and Michael believe that pot will become legal — and their recession-spawned businesses could really take off.
Michael has been careful to establish himself as a serious businessman within the nascent California industry, and attending classes and meetings, openly paying for seeds and plants with checks.
“When the line starts forming for licenses to become a legitimate producer, the people that have established their reputations will be given the first consideration,” he believes. “If I have an ongoing relationship with a reputable dispensary, of course I’m going to be considered.”
He also knows that dispensaries have become more like gourmet markets than seedy drug clubs. “The quality has got to be just top-notch. It’s not just potency,” he says. “Smokability, taste, smell, sensation — all these elements are terribly important and have to be addressed.”
Sarah, too, sees herself as part of the vanguard of what she thinks could be as big in Sonoma County as the wine industry. She’s studying the medicinal qualities of different varietals and experimenting to see the effects of exotic pot types like Lavastan, Very Berry and Agent 99. These are among the many hybrids of Cannabis indica and Cannabis sativa that are showing up in dispensaries, without much documentation as to their origins or effects.
Maryanne, who’s come by on a golden August evening to pick up a bag, is an example of the discerning buyer Sarah wants to serve. “Before we met Sarah, we didn’t know where our pot came from,” Maryanne says. “We didn’t know whether it had been sprayed with pesticides. Hers, we know it’s organic. And I like the spongier bud; it works better in the vaporizer.”
While legalization might open the market to industrialized farms, Sarah expects to charge a premium for small-batch, organically grown product. “I’ll be like a boutique winery,” she says. “You’ll come to my farm to get your primo flavors.” She might even start a bed-and-breakfast. People who came from Michigan or Arizona would go back, she says, and tell their friends, “We went to wineries and stayed on a pot farm.”
In the meantime, Sarah is just happy she had the money to get the window on her car fixed. The bed-and-breakfast can wait.
Susan Kuchinskas writes about technology, business and health from Berkeley, Calif. She’s been a staff writer for AdWeek, Business 2.0, M-Business and InternetNews.com; her work has appeared in a wide variety of publications, from Art & Antiques to Wired. New Harbinger will publish her second book, The Chemistry of Connection, in April. She’s also an organic gardener and beekeeper.
certified dealer education
Add a comment 27/10/2009
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/medical-marijuana-longer-federally-prosecuted-states-legal-obama/story?id=8912772
—————————–
certified dealer education
STEPHANOPOULOS: Another trigger, that’s exactly right. But before we go,
another decision I think did not get as much play as maybe it should have
this week, the Attorney General Eric Holder announcing that the federal
government would no longer prosecute marijuana cases in states that have
approved medical marijuana laws.
ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL: We will not use our limited resources in the
fight against the marijuana trade against those people who are using it
consistent with state law and to fight serious illnesses, such as cancer or
other diseases.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Right now, 14 states have medical marijuana laws. A lot of
others considering it. So this is a significant announcement.
WILL: What he’s saying is we will not pre-empt state laws with federal
poweras we could. What that means is where medical marijuana laws are enforced,
doctors will advertise, as they’re doing in California, that they will give
a prescription for medical use.
Now medical use can be marijuana to cure anxiety, to cure insomnia, all the
rest. And you will have what you now have in California, where marijuana is
essentially legalized. We have legalized gambling in this country over two
generations. It used to be considered a sin and a crime. With no national
debate, and no decision moment, we just did it. We legalized prostitution as
anyone who opens a telephone book and looks under “escort” can tell
you. And we may be doing, probably in the process now of legalizing marijuana.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Good idea?
PODESTA: Well, I think that overstates the case. I think that what Eric
Holder did was to say look, we have scarce resources. We’re not going to go
after people with glaucoma or cancer or whatever on medical marijuana.
They’re still going with a vengeance really against the Mexican drug
cartels. So I think there’s — this is kind of a mixed bag. I think we
won’tsee a full legalization of marijuana until somebody figures out that if you
tax it, maybe you can pay for health care.
STEPHANOPOULOS: That might be what drives it.
WILL: Eighty percent of the revenue of the Mexican cartels is marijuana. If
you really want to go after the Mexican cartels and I’m not saying that is
the only criterion for public policy, you’d legalize marijuana.
STEPHANOPOULOS: We are seeing gradually the public more open to the idea of
legalization. It was in the 20 percent throughout the 1990s, hit 30 percent
around 2000. Now it’s well above 40.
INGRAHAM: Yes, I think all of us have either gone through cancer or family
members and it’s a terribly painful disease. I think you have a lot of
sympathy. There’s a lot of public sympathy for medical marijuana use.
I think George hit on it, though. It’s being prescribed for a whole
range of issues. Like if you have pain from Botox injection, you can get medical
marijuana. That means a lot of people in California must be toking up, OK?
No, I’m just teasing. Look, I just have one question, does this mean
brownies are going to be for sale at the CVS and Walgreens? Because that’s
always been a product that’s been missing.
STEPHANOPOULOS: In Los Angeles, I think it may be, that’s right.
HUNT: Well now that I no longer have a teenager, I have a little bit
different view, a bit more permissive. I don’t think it’s a great
utilization of scarce federal resources to be prosecuting pot. I am not sure
if it’s going to lead to what George suggests. I’m not sure that would
be a bad idea. But I was at the University of Mississippi a couple of years ago
and it’s interesting, they grow marijuana on the campus. So, times are
A-changing.
STEPHANOPOULOS: The times are changing. I was just thinking back, could you
imagine Janet Reno in 1995, announcing that I’m not going to prosecute
this,there would have been a massive uproar.
INGRAHAM: We had jobs.
WILL: There was one problem and that is we talked to the federal drug czar
which I have done, marijuana is getting much better. They’re growing and
making it better in the sense that the active ingredient is much stronger
than it used to be.
TUCKER: Well, I wished that I believed that this was going to lead to some
broader federal look at the whole futile war on drugs. But as John just
mentioned, Eric Holder followed that announcement with massive raids on drug
cartels, which isn’t a bad idea. I just don’t think that this is a
relook at the futility on the war on drugs. I really think instead of just acting in a
small way to say, marijuana isn’t such a bad thing. Let’s relook at
all ofour drug laws, the way we fight the so-called war on drugs, because it
isn’t working.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I think John may be right. What’s going to drive that in
the long run are budget issues. That’s all we have time for today. You guys
continue this in the green room. You all can catch it on ABCNews.com and get
political updates all week long from our daily newsletter which is also on
ABCNews.com.
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003230573
********************
Sincerely,
Degé Coutee
Education & Advocacy Director
Patient Advocacy Network
www.CannabisSavesLives.com
Add a comment 26/10/2009
