By John Hoeffel, Los Angeles Times

California — Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana in California, is the most talked-about ballot initiative in the country. If it passes, it would revolutionize the state’s drug laws, provoke a clash with the federal government and fire up the movement to pass similar laws in other states — even other countries. It’s become a staple for national talk shows and comedians.

But the high-profile issue is playing out in a surprisingly low-profile campaign. With the competitive top-of-the-ticket races siphoning away the big bucks, neither side has attracted the money to mount a serious TV ad campaign, the most effective way to reach the state’s 17 million voters.

Political strategists consider ballot measures without much money to be long shots, but supporters have pinned their hopes on a grass-roots campaign that has cranked up in recent weeks, relying on volunteers nationwide to canvass on college campuses and call swing voters using a Web-based phone-bank system.

An influx of donations — more than $650,000 so far this month — will allow the campaign to target young people, who overwhelmingly tell pollsters they want to see pot legalized, and African Americans and Latinos, who will be told the war on drugs incarcerates them at higher rates than whites.

And the endorsement of the Service Employees International Union and the United Food and Commercial Workers, which see legalized marijuana as an industry that could create union jobs, means slate mailers will reach about 900,000 members and hundreds of volunteers will make calls and walk precincts.

Proposition 19 would allow people 21 and older to grow up to 25 square feet of marijuana and possess up to an ounce, and authorizes cities and counties to approve commercial cultivation, retail sales and taxation.

The measure has remained steadily ahead in most polls, with the support of about half of the electorate. If it passes Nov. 2, it might be due to the ardent believers, many in their 20s, who are the ground troops.

Elizabeth Tauro and Matt Wolfrom, senior public policy majors at the University of Southern California, recently waylaid students with shouts of “Yes on 19! Legalize marijuana!” Michael Howard, who hopes to open a delivery service, led eight volunteers ejected from the Brewery ArtWalk in Los Angeles onto sizzling sidewalks, where they cheerfully chanted and passed out literature for hours.

In the Oakland headquarters of Yes on 19, David Meiler, dubbed “Super Dave” by the campaign, said he has called thousands of voters, many of them middle-aged mothers, to “plant a little seed in their heads.” The campaign says it has more than 50 volunteers in Oakland and is making about 6,000 calls a day.

The outreach may be too little, too late. The campaign’s drive to register college students, who can vote in California even if they are from out of state, accelerated last week, but Monday is the deadline.

But some once-skeptical drug-reform advocates now believe the campaign has a shot. Slow to back the proposition — the inspiration of Richard Lee, an Oakland medical marijuana entrepreneur — they are soliciting donations, lending staff and coordinating strategy. The Drug Policy Alliance, which has raised millions for past California initiatives, has reeled in more than $310,000 this month.

“Win or lose, this thing — for not a great investment of money — has generated an extraordinary dialogue and debate,” said Ethan Nadelmann, the alliance’s executive director. “Even if you accept that it’s not going to win, there’s no better time to invest a dollar to move the ball down the field.”

Public Safety First, the main opposition campaign, is backed by state law enforcement groups and the Chamber of Commerce, which sent a letter to a couple hundred of its largest members. But it has much less money and has been outraised by about a 10-to-1 margin this month. “Our big focus right now continues to be trying to get some money in the door,” said Roger Salazar, a spokesman. He declined to reveal the campaign’s strategy, other than to say it plans a series of media events throughout the state.

With election day two weeks away, both sides are relying heavily on forums, news conferences and talk shows and have found the extensive news coverage remarkable. “We probably lead the league in radio, television and print media interviews,” Salazar said. “It’s out of control,” said Dale Sky Jones, a spokeswoman for Yes on 19. “I’ve been on Fox News, like, seven times in eight days.” Voters may yet see mailers, Web videos, radio and cable TV ads and celebrity endorsements.

More than eight out of 10 voters have told pollsters they are aware of the initiative. And a Public Policy Institute of California poll last month caused a stir. It found that likely voters favor legal marijuana more than they favor any of the candidates for governor and senator, leading comedian Stephen Colbert to quip: “If Prop. 19 were a human, it would be the most popular candidate in California.”

Mark Baldassare, who supervised the poll, said he would not discount the possibility that voters will approve Proposition 19. “They’re definitely giving it a look,” he said.

That open-mindedness bucks heavy opposition. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and every major candidate for statewide office oppose it. At least 38 newspapers in California have editorialized against it. The presidents of Mexico and Colombia said it would disrupt the fight against drug traffickers.
U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder has vowed to “vigorously enforce” federal narcotics laws. The drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, has led the Obama administration’s opposition but is wary of triggering a backlash by coming to California. “The last thing people want to see is someone parachuting into their state from inside the Beltway,” he said.

Proponents are putting tremendous stock in the youth vote. Democrats have begun to study whether legalization measures on state ballots in 2012 could boost turnout for the presidential election.

But a visit to the USC campus suggests that might take some groundwork.

Young voters often do not show up for midterm elections. For every skateboarder who skidded to an abrupt stop with a “Ho, yeah!” when asked to support Proposition 19, many others walked, cycled or rolled past without stopping or offered a curt “No, thanks.” The most common response among those who stopped: “Sure, why not?”

Tauro and Wolfrom, in shades and sandals, repeatedly stepped into the stream of students, handing out brochures and stickers. They are two of the three most active members of the fledgling USC chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy. They were relentlessly upbeat. Wolfrom watched as a student rode off with a “Yes We Cannabis” sticker and steered toward a trash can. “He put it on! Good!” he said.

The national student organization is spending a $100,000 donation to get college students to vote. And many chapters will host pizza parties to call voters. Kyle Maddy, a junior at Missouri Southern State University, set one up for Tuesday. “That one phone call could be the difference,” he said.

The campaign is also targeting black and Latino voters. The state NAACP and the Latino Voters League back the measure, calling it an issue of civil rights.

Alice Huffman, the formidable head of the state NAACP, steered the group toward an endorsement, angering some black ministers. “I am not advocating for a higher use of drugs. I am advocating for it not to be a crime,” she said. “I just want my young people not to go to jail.”

She printed 500,000 copies of an eight-page newspaper on elections important to minorities and repeatedly touts Proposition 19, calling the war on drugs “a war waged against African American and Latino children.” It will be mailed to 150,000 voters and inserted in black newspapers. She is also setting up a phone bank and sending letters to 25,000 NAACP members. “If they are not ready to go, we’re going to whip them into shape,” she said.

Antonio Gonzalez, who runs the Latino Voters League, plans to target 100,000 young and newly registered Latino voters with mail, e-mail, text messages and calls. Some recent polls have shown Latinos supporting the measure, a reversal from earlier surveys. “I think we’re catching the sails,” he said.

But a recent festival for Latino voters in Los Angeles drew a sparse crowd. Diego Perez, who ran a table for Proposition 19, had time to engage in a long conversation with an elderly man. “He’s probably got grandkids and stuff,” he said. “If we change his mind, oh my goodness.”

The opponents include several homespun organizations such as Citizens Against Legalizing Marijuana, about 15 people who printed 20,000 brochures, sent 250 “facts packs” to the media and speak at every opportunity. “It’s a mission of faith,” said Carla Lowe, who became involved in the issue as a PTA president in the late 1970s. “We’re doing the best we can, and at least we will never be guilty of not having tried.”

Alexandra Datig runs Nip It In The Bud 2010. She is the organization. “I can tell you this campaign is killing me,” she said. She has raised a few thousand dollars, designed a website, e-mailed news releases, debated and appeared on television. “I don’t want to live next door to a pothead and have pothead smoke coming into my house,” said Datig, who said she used to be addicted to marijuana and other drugs. “I really believe passionately with every fiber of my being that this is a bad idea.”

But it’s Public Safety First that could stand between would-be marijuana legalizers and victory. It’s short on money but not on savvy. It’s run by the same strategists who were outspent two years ago and still trounced a measure that would have loosened drug sentences.

The Proposition 19 campaign expects a major assault. “I am anticipating that we are going to get hit and hit hard,” Jones said. “I think we are going to see the usual messengers freaking out soccer moms.”

Author: John Hoeffel, Los Angeles Times
Copyright: 2010 Los Angeles Times
Website: http://www.latimes.com/

“Proposition 19 is not going to pass, even if it passes,” Baca said in a news conference Friday at sheriff’s headquarters in Monterey Park, reports Robert Faturechi in The Los Angeles Times.

The department run by Sheriff Baca polices 75 percent of Los Angeles County. His staunch opposition to marijuana — even if it is legalized — was echoed Friday by an announcement from Attorney General Eric Holder that federal officials would continue to “vigorously enforce” cannabis laws in California, even if state voters pass the measure.

Baca, who is sworn to uphold California state law, claimed Prop 19 was superseded by federal law and if passed, would be found unconstitutional.

Standing onstage with other prominent opponents of marijuana legalization, including Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, Sheriff Baca colorfully assailed marijuana use, users and sales.

Asked if he had ever experimented with pot, Baca left no room for doubt. “Hell, no,” he said.

Baca claimed legalizing cannabis would have far-reaching effects, including increasing the costs of drug rehabilitation (although most people in rehab for marijuana have been forced there by court order), causing traffic accidents (although marijuana is not a significant factor in auto wrecks), prompting labor disputes with employees getting high on the job (although Prop 19 gives employers the right “to address consumption that actually impairs job performance“), and providing a safe cover for drug cartels selling hard drugs.

California’s laws for pot smokers are already lenient enough, Baca claimed.

“If you a need for an ounce or less… then use your marijuana, but use it privately,” Baca said. “If you want to do a joint in your house, do it. Leave the rest of us alone.”

Baca claimed personal users smoking at home were already a non-priority for police agencies, including the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. His department does target pot dealers, he said.

The sheriff came out against Prop 19 early on, joining with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to try to prevent its passage.

Polls have shown California voters are almost evenly split on legalization.

Incredibly, Baca claimed on Friday that local law enforcement agencies — which, again, are sworn to uphold state laws — should abide by federal drug laws prohibiting marijuana, even if Prop 19 passes.

“[Prop] 19 has no effect on what we’re going to do,” Baca said.
Author: Steve Elliot
Copyright: 2010 Independent Media Institute
Website: http://www.alternet.org/
URL: http://www.alternet.org/drugs/148524/

medical Denver — Colorado’s new medical marijuana law hasn’t even gone into effect, and police, attorneys and lawmakers have identified dozens of problems that could hamper regulation and enforcement.

There are questions about zoning laws. Authorities say it’s hard to investigate compliance. Correct dosages are unknown. It’s difficult to locate potentially dangerous growing operations. And the lack of a federal medical marijuana law raises serious questions for banks.

“We are probably going to have to do some tweaking, but we haven’t seen the regulations that state agencies will put on the books,” said Rep. Tom Massey, a Republican from Poncha Springs who sponsored the measure.

Massey said local communities were given authority to make their own rules regulating dispensaries, but some issues are off-limits, including regulation of caregivers.

Massey said one big issue is finding a way to prevent organized crime from moving in and taking over.

“We’ve heard issues of Russian mafia, the Mexican mafia. We want to make sure this business stays clean and heavily regulated,” Massey said.

Massey said there are no established dosages and it may take years to come up with medical standards. He said patients are allowed to possess two ounces of the drug, but nothing prevents repeat purchases.

The law also keeps the location of marijuana growers secret. Attorney General John Suthers and some news outlets objected to that provision.

Under the new law, backers say muncipalities can pass regulations to keep grow operations out of residential areas.

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates showed lawmakers and civic leaders attending the annual Colorado Municipal League conference on Thursday photographs of dangerous growing facilities powered by dozens of extension cords plugged into the wall that were being fertilized with dangerous chemicals which were dumped into the water supply. He said lawmakers need to review the confidentiality requirements in the new laws.

“I fully expect that a year from now, when you folks reconvene, there will have been at least one tragic fire as a result of this activity,” Oates told lawmakers.

Attorney Corey Hoffman told lawmakers federally chartered banks are refusing to accept deposits from dispensaries over concerns about accepting drug money and a federal medical marijuana law that could fix it has been stymied.

He said many legal questions have been raised that may have to be sorted out by lawmakers and the courts, including zoning laws, public safety issues, licensing fees, confidentiality requirements, regulation of grow houses, control over marijuana food products, advertising limits, search and seizure laws, workplace consumption and property rights.

The new law is one of 50 that go into effect July 1.

Other new laws include reducing late vehicle registration fees, repealing special interest tax refunds and barring slow-moving vehicles from the left lane of I-70 on steep uphill stretches.

Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Author: Steven K. Paulson, Associated Press Writer
Published: June 25, 2010
Copyright: 2010 The Associated Press

But sprayed throughout the state, in little towns where you wouldn’t expect such a thing, are hundreds of cannabis dispensaries that have a special challenge.

In burgs like Galt in the Sacramento Valley, where cowboys and Republicans rule the zeitgeist, and even in the tie-dyed Sonoma County enclave of Sebastopol, dispensary operators have to work extra hard to make the neighbors feel comfortable with their businesses – because in towns that small, everybody knows everyone and attitudes are worn on everyone’s sleeves.

Sometimes, as in Sebastopol, this works well. Sometimes, as in Galt, it’s not so smooth.

Both experiences offer valuable glimpses into what may be in store in November if the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act initiative on the statewide ballot passes and legalizes recreational marijuana use for the first time in the United States.
Confusing territory

Those on the front lines of the small-town dispensary scene say anyone planning to sell pot should be prepared to bend over backward to meet local regulations and otherwise make nice with officials and neighbors. But sellers should also understand that in some places, there will be resistance no matter what.

It’s confusing territory, by definition. The 1996 state law authorizing medicinal marijuana doesn’t specify whether cities and counties can ban or even regulate local use, so it has been left to cities and counties to come up with their own playbooks.

To date, 141 cities and counties in California have banned marijuana dispensaries, and 41 cities and counties have passed laws regulating them, according to Americans for Safe Access, an advocate for medical marijuana providers. The other 354 cities and counties have either not addressed the situation or passed simple moratoriums capping the number of dispensaries at existing levels.

There’s little doubt where the sentiments lie in Sebastopol.
Peaceful pot peddlers

“It’s absolutely essential that local jurisdictions have control over the dispensaries, and that they make sure they are working well with their neighborhoods,” said Sebastopol City Councilman Larry Robinson.

Exhibit A, he said: the Peace in Medicine Healing Center, the only dispensary in his town of 7,700 people. The collective opened in 2007 in a former Ford car dealership building. Before the first bud hit the counter, its managers made sure to knock on the doors of every neighbor in sight.

Executive Director Robert Jacob met with the police chief and other community leaders to make sure the center would be following city laws requiring that dispensaries provide their own security and verify that patients are eligible for medical marijuana.

Today, most people wouldn’t know from the snappy, earth-toned exterior of Peace in Medicine that 3,800 medicinal cannabis users come in for everything from marijuana to pain-controlling acupuncture treatments and massages. From the road, it looks more like a high-end insurance office – with a smiling security guard unobtrusively posted at the door, and others posted less visibly around the complex.
Paying taxes

“They’ve been good citizens in our community, very scrupulous about the guidelines we established,” Robinson said. “They’re respectful of their neighbors and keep a low profile.

“Frankly, I’m happy to have them in the community, not the least for their tax revenue,” the councilman said. The sales taxes paid to Sebastopol – $85,000 a year, the dispensary says – is more than the old car dealership used to pay.

“We want to give a positive healing image,” Jacob said. “It’s so sad when we have such a large segment of society living in shame, feeling they have to hide their use. Being good neighbors and setting a good example is how we counteract that negativity.”

It hasn’t gone as well elsewhere in Sonoma County, where a judge in December tossed out the county’s dispensary permit law for unincorporated areas. The number of pot clubs since then has grown from four to nearly two dozen, and robberies and complaints have skyrocketed with them, authorities say.

“They’re just popping up all over,” said Dave McCullick, vice president of the 4,000-member Sonoma Patient Group dispensary in Santa Rosa, which had to adhere to city regulations when it opened two years ago. “And with no guidelines now in the unincorporated areas, you can have people selling methamphetamine on the side, or opening near a school with no security. It’s bad for all of us.”
Unwanted, but trying

About 80 miles east, in 24,000-population Galt, is an example of how nasty things can get under the haziness of state law.

There, the Galt Health & Wellness Center opened last month in a strip mall on an industrial stretch of the Sacramento County town – and instantly got in a fight with the city.

The City Council banned dispensaries in 2009, but the Galt center’s managers said the ordinance was invalid under the state medicinal marijuana law. So they sued as soon as Galt officials told them to shut down. As the legalities have been grinding through Sacramento County Superior Court, the dispensary has picked up more than 200 patients.

At least two similar suits are pending in a state appeals court, where they were sent after local judges upheld pot-club bans in Anaheim and Lake Forest, both in Orange County.

“We are the only dispensary between Sacramento and Turlock,” said the Galt dispensary’s office manager, Katrina Mora, “so there is a great need for our services. Because this is a small town, we’re really interested in helping the community, paying taxes, doing community outreach. We just have to get that conversation going.”
Neighbors don’t mind

Neighbors of the dispensary, including a smog-check shop and a cigarette store, said they have no complaints about the dispensary. “I’ve seen a few old people go in and out over there, but heard nothing from the place,” said Smog Tech 3 technician Sonny Ayala. “It’s not like they’re a bunch of stoners.”

That’s not good enough for the City Council, though.

“It’s disturbing that they just blatantly thumbed their nose at us and opened up like that,” Mayor Barbara Payne said. “Every citizen I have talked to, including the historical society that I am a member of, is totally against this sort of business opening in Galt.

“The fact that one of the first things they did was put up bulletproof glass in their office indicates they think there might be a problem, too,” Payne said.
City, county control

November’s ballot measure to legalize recreational weed use would let cities and counties control the taxation and sale of marijuana, but it would also legalize the use of up to an ounce per person. That has Payne concerned.

“If this is how a dispensary behaves now, what can we expect in November if the initiative passes?” she said. “How are you going to enforce anything?”

The answer from Sebastopol’s Jacob and others who have successfully integrated into their communities is to take things slowly and to work closely with the cities and counties before launching operations.

“If that measure passes, adult use of marijuana will go up 10 times or more,” Jacob said. “The best thing to do is for cities and counties to get involved in regulation now, so it doesn’t take anyone by surprise.”
The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010

What it would do: Legalize possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana for personal recreational use by anybody 21 or older, and allow each person to grow weed in a 5-by-5-foot space. It would permit local governments to regulate and tax commercial sale and production.

Who’s for it? The medicinal marijuana industry, pot growers who see the potential for a wider market, some law enforcement officials and doctors, and a few politicians, including Oakland mayoral candidate Don Perata.

Who’s against it? Major law enforcement organizations, including the California Peace Officers Association, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the candidates to replace him, and some pot growers who believe it would drive down pot prices.

E-mail Kevin Fagan at kfagan@sfchronicle.com.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Author: Kevin Fagan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Published: June 22, 2010
Copyright: 2010 San Francisco Chronicle

Michigan — In a small second-story office on Main Street in Ann Arbor, Liberty Clinic is doing brisk business, selling medical marijuana for $360 to $400 an ounce. In just 3 1/2 months, 750 patients have come through its doors.

In Lansing, Danny Trevino has expanded beyond his HydroWorld hydroponics store, adding two medical clinics, grow classes and a dispensary.

And in Ypsilanti, Darrell Stavros and his partners have set up a medical marijuana service center, renting space to a support group, doctors and a bong shop. “This is creating an enormous amount of businesses that never existed,” he said.

Medical marijuana, one of the state’s newest industries, is taking off. Dozens of hydroponics stores, medical clinics and grow schools are popping up. And at support groups, cafés and dispensaries, patients and growers are buying and selling the drug.

As with any industry, there are challenges, such as crop failures and theft. And limits on the size of growers’ crops make it all but impossible for growers to get rich, though they can earn some decent money.

“A few people will make a few bucks. Most people won’t make much,” said Adam Brook, organizer of the annual Ann Arbor Hash Bash.

Entrepreneurs Cashing In On Services Tied To Growing

In Michigan’s burgeoning medical marijuana industry, few rules exist, much of the business occurs in secrecy and the only way for growers to make big bucks is to break the law.

“If you operate within the law, you’re not going to make a lot of money,” said Leili Russo, who grows marijuana for medical purposes and serves as the secretary of the Genesee County Compassion Club in Flint.

Growers, also called caregivers, say that at best, they can make $40,000 a year. And that’s after spending $1,000 or more on equipment and other supplies, and putting in countless hours every day tending to plants.

Under Michigan’s medical marijuana law, caregivers can supply only five patients. Each patient can have 12 plants. But growers who choose to ignore these rules can easily make $100,000, said Brook, an industry consultant, an annual rally to support reforming marijuana laws.

Sometimes, Greed Doesn’t Pay

With these conditions, it’s no surprise that medical marijuana is becoming a big business in Michigan’s depressed economy. Nineteen months after residents voted to legalize medical marijuana, the industry has attracted more than 8,000 caregivers, people who grow and harvest marijuana plants so they can be turned into medicine for patients, according to the Michigan Department of Community Health.

For caregivers who abide by the law, this kind of work is usually a second job. That’s the case with Corey Hathaway, 33, of Eaton Rapids. Hathaway used to run his own commercial construction company, but that business dried up when the economy tanked. So he found a job working at HydroWorld, a hydroponic shop in Lansing. To supplement his income, he also is a caregiver with five patients.

“The people that are greedy don’t succeed because they can’t maintain the patient-caregiver relationship,” he said.

The law is vague about what caregivers can do if they produce more marijuana than their patients need. To make extra money, some sell their overages on the black market or to dispensaries, clinics or other caregivers.

Making Money Without Plants

Growing marijuana is just one part of the rapidly expanding industry. Experts say more lucrative opportunities can be found selling the hydroponic equipment that caregivers need and teaching them how to grow marijuana properly. Another moneymaker: operating clinics that help people get the paperwork they need to qualify as medical marijuana patients.

These kinds of service businesses are springing up all around the state and are the most visible part of the industry. Already, price wars have sprung up among the dozens of hydroponic shops that have opened in southeast Michigan.

The intense competition hasn’t stopped Kriss Pullen-Gideons from believing that her store, Gro Blue in downtown Ann Arbor, has a bright future. She used some of her retirement savings to open the small shop on West Liberty, and her son and daughter are co-owners.

“People are surprised at how many regular people just walk through the door,” she said. “It’s definitely going to be a growing industry. We should embrace it.”

Hydroponic stores aren’t the only ones cashing in. Attorneys, grow consultants, grow-room designers and contractors and grow schools are all finding a market for services.

“There are so many people that are excited about being able to work,” said Michael Komorn, a Southfield medical marijuana attorney and the treasurer of the 17,000-member Michigan Medical Marijuana Association. “They want to get back into the marketplace.”

Entrepreneurs also are flocking to the sales side of the business, operating an estimated 20 dispensaries, cafés and clinics in the state, according to medical marijuana attorneys. At Liberty Clinic in Ann Arbor, above bd’s Mongolian Grill on Main Street, patients pay $12 for an annual membership that allows them to purchase different strains of marijuana, which are displayed in small see-through packets on a counter. Liberty buys its marijuana from caregivers throughout the state.

“We hope to be a model,” said the owner, a former home inspector for Bank of America who would only give his name as James Chainsaw.

Michigan law does not specifically address these kinds of clinics and dispensaries. But industry experts expect that it will only be a matter of time before courts challenge their legality. Already, a number of cities and towns have passed ordinances prohibiting medical marijuana businesses.

Groups Could Change Things

To stay within the law, many patients and caregivers are buying and selling marijuana at facilities operated by a few so-called compassion clubs, which act as support groups for patients.

The Genesee County Compassion Club is the state’s largest, with more than 1,000 members. Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, it holds private meetings for members at its office in a small strip mall in Flint; smoking marijuana is permitted. Membership costs $20 a year and includes a T-shirt.

The Ypsilanti Compassion Club takes a different approach. Its members meet at the 3rd Coast Compassion Center in Ypsilanti, which is open every day except Sunday. Marijuana smoking is allowed in some of the rooms. “We provide them a safe office environment,” said Darrell Stavros, one of the owners of 3rd Coast, which rents space to the club.

Whether these kinds of facilities will become the main avenue for medical marijuana sales in Michigan remains to be seen. But one thing’s for certain. With more than 1,000 medical marijuana patient applications arriving in Lansing each week, the industry is only going to get bigger, with all kinds of business ventures likely to be launched.

“It’s definitely the wild, wild Midwest,” said Matthew Abel, one of the state’s leading medical marijuana attorneys.

Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Author: Katherine Yung, Free Press Business Writer
Published: June 21, 2010
Copyright: 2010 Detroit Free Press
Website: http://www.freep.com/
Contact: letters@freepress.com

After becoming the first U.S. city to impose a special tax on medical marijuana dispensaries, Oakland soon could become the first to sanction and tax commercial pot growing operations. Selling and growing marijuana remain illegal under federal law.

Two City Council members are preparing legislation, expected to be introduced next month, that would allow at least three industrial-scale growing operations.

One of the authors, Councilman Larry Reid, said the proposal is more of an effort to bring in money than an endorsement of legalizing marijuana use _ although the council has unanimously supported that, too.

The city is facing a $42 million budget shortfall. The tax voters approved last summer on the four medical marijuana clubs allowed under Oakland law is expected to contribute $1 million to its coffers in the first year, Reid said. A tax on growers’ sales to the clubs could bring in substantially more, he said.

“Looking at the economic analysis, we will generate a considerable amount of additional revenues, and that will certainly help us weather the hard economic times that all urban areas are having to deal with,” Reid said.

How much money is at stake isn’t clear because the tax rate and the number of facilities the law would allow haven’t been decided. A report prepared for AgraMed Inc., one of the companies planning to seek a grower’s license, said its proposed 100,000-square-foot-project near the Oakland Coliseum would produce more than $2 million in city taxes each year.

Given their likely locations in empty warehouses in industrial neighborhoods, the marijuana nurseries under consideration would have more in common with factories than rural pot farms.

Dhar Mann, the founder of an Oakland hydroponics equipment store called iGrow, and Derek Peterson, a former stock broker who now sells luxury trailers outfitted for growing pot as a co-founder of GrowOp Enterprises, have hired an architect to draft plans for two warehouses where marijuana would be grown and processed year-round.

Their vision includes using lights, trays and other equipment manufactured by iGrow and creating an online system that would allow medical marijuana dispensaries to see what pot strains are in stock, place orders and track deliveries.

“We are emulating the wine industry, but instead of ‘from grape to bottle,’ it’s ‘from plant to pipe,’” Mann said.

“Or seed to sack,” offered Peterson.

The pair say they intend to operate the pot-growing business they have dubbed GROPECH _ Grass Roots of Oakland Philanthropic and Economic Coalition for Humanity _ as a not-for-profit. They anticipate gross sales reaching $70 million a year. After paying their expenses, they’d funnel the money to local charities and non-profits through a competitive grant process.

The discussion in Oakland comes amid a statewide campaign to make California the first state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana and to authorize cities to sell and tax sales to adults. Another Oakland pot entrepreneur, Richard Lee, is sponsoring a ballot measure voters will consider in November.

Lee, who owns two of Oakland’s four dispensaries as well as Oaksterdam University, a trade school for the medical marijuana industry, hopes to secure one of the cultivation permits, but he thinks the city should opt for having more, smaller sites instead of a handful of large ones.

“We need to legalize and tax and regulate the production side as well as the retail side,” Lee said. “It’s a natural step.”

Other supporters say licensed growers would create hundreds of well-paying jobs. The local branch of the United Food and Commercial Workers union already has signed up about 100 medical marijuana workers, and the growers are expected to have union shops as well, said Dan Rush, special operations director of UFCW Local 5.

“I think Oakland’s intention is to make Oakland the leader and the trendsetter in how this industry can be effective in all of California,” Rush said.

Allowing medical marijuana to be grown openly also could give patients a better idea of where their pot is coming from. Now, many growers hide their identities to avoid federal prosecution.

Oakland has already developed a reputation as one of the nation’s most pot-friendly cities. Legislation on the city’s books includes a declaration of a public health emergency after federal crackdowns on marijuana clubs and a ballot measure instructing police to make marijuana their lowest enforcement priority.

Self-described “guru of ganja” Ed Rosenthal, a popular writer of pot-growing how-to books, lived in Oakland for 25 years before moving recently to a more affluent borough nearby. He credits the city’s positive attitude toward marijuana to a critical mass of activists who have flocked there since the 1970s.

“The whole population of Oakland is just very progressive,” Rosenthal said. “It’s the radicals who couldn’t afford Berkeley or San Francisco who all moved to Oakland.”

Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Author: Lisa Leff and Marcus Wohlsen, The Associated Press
Published: May 28, 2010
Copyright: 2010 The Associated Press

Union representatives and the business owners believe it is the first time that workers in the nation’s growing medical marijuana industry have joined a union.

“They want the community to understand them as decent, hard-working people,” said Dan Rush, who oversees special operations for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 5.

The numbers are small, Rush concedes — about 100 new members. But he believes the potential for new jobs — and union members — is enormous.

Rush, who lives in Oakland, saw marijuana businesses helping to revive a sketchy area not far from his home. He studied the legalization initiative on the November ballot. And he concluded that his union ought to tap the emerging industry and push to expand it.

He worked to persuade the employees that the union could help advance their cause. The businesses include the firm owned by Richard Lee, who is sponsoring the initiative. Lee runs a handful of operations, including a dispensary and Oaksterdam University, which teaches classes about marijuana.

Lee has staked the success of his initiative on persuading voters that the drug ought to be regulated and taxed like any business, and he thinks the successful union drive bolsters this argument.

“It’s another validation of the idea that the cannabis industry is a legitimate industry that creates taxpaying jobs,” he said.

Lee is also hoping that the local, which has about 26,000 members in the state, can help win the initiative an endorsement from the California Labor Federation. “They have a lot of political muscle,” he said.

That would be a coup, said Jack Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College.

“It would be a huge difference because unions have boots on the ground,” he said. “The question is whether this is actually going to be a major priority for organized labor at a time when the state has over 12% unemployment.”

John Lovell, a lobbyist organizing an opposition campaign, credited Lee for the effort.

“He’s scrambling. He’s trying to do different things. I get that,” Lovell said. “I just don’t think it’s going to be successful.”

Rush and Ron Lind, president of Local 5, said they are working to win a labor federation endorsement and will highlight the measure’s job potential.

The initiative would allow Californians to grow and possess pot, but also let cities and counties legalize the cultivation and sales of marijuana and hemp.

“I’m guessing there would be thousands of workers, if it passes,” Lind said.

The new union members also include workers at the Patient ID Center, which provides medical marijuana identification cards, and AMCD, which hopes to become one of Oakland’s newest dispensaries.

“We’re 100% union,” said Carl Anderson, AMCD’s chairman. “It brings credibility to what we are doing.”

Note: About 100 new members join the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. It is another step in a campaign to bring legitimacy to the emerging industry and boost a marijuana-legalization initiative.

Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Author: John Hoeffel, Los Angeles Times
Published: May 28, 2010
Copyright: 2010 Los Angeles Times
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Website: http://www.latimes.com/

medical Denver — A push to regulate the state’s medical marijuana dispensaries appears to be nearing the finish line.

The Colorado Senate passed the proposed regulations in a 26-9 vote on Thursday, sending them back to the House to review changes made to the bill. The lack of controversial changes makes it likely that lawmakers will be able to pass regulations before they must adjourn next week.

If the House re-approves the bill, it would likely become law because it contains provisions requested by Gov. Bill Ritter, including allowing local bans.

The bill would require dispensaries to get both local and state licenses and allow cities and counties to ban dispensaries within their borders. Areas with bans would still have to allow individual caregivers to provide marijuana to up to five people.

Dispensaries would have to undergo criminal background checks, and the state revenue department would check that their funding has no criminal ties, similar to conditions in the gaming industry. Dispensaries would also have to grow 70 percent of their marijuana, a provision aimed at keeping tabs on where the drug is being sold.

Regulators expect only about half of the existing 1,100 dispensaries in the state to continue operating if the regulations are passed.

The overwhelming vote in the Senate belied mixed feelings about the bill, which was sponsored by Sens. Chris Romer, D-Denver, and Nancy Spence, R-Centennial.

Some lawmakers want to bring the industry under control but disapprove of selling marijuana from storefronts. Others are worried that the bill favors consolidation and larger dispensaries, which could limit access and drive up costs for patients who rely on the drug.

Democratic Sen. Pat Steadman said he thinks his Denver district has the most dispensaries of any district in the state and that he’s been besieged with requests from voters to do something about them.

He said he believed the bill was too heavily influenced by the needs of dispensaries without enough thought to patients. But he said not passing regulations could lead local and federal law enforcement agencies to start raiding dispensaries, a move that would also shut off access for patients.

“I do think the failure of this bill would send a signal to them that this is open season on this new and budding industry that has taken off to serve this market,” he said.

Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, said the local ban violated the constitutional right to medical marijuana passed by voters in 2000 and would be challenged in court.

The changes made in the state Senate include a sales tax exemption for marijuana sold to low-income people and keeping the location of marijuana grows secret. The Senate bill originally would have kept all information about grows off-limits to the public, but senators later agreed to redact the location after the Colorado Press Association objected.

The revenue department said it will need 27 enforcement agents, auditors and administrators to enforce the regulations. Those positions would be paid for with $2 million in fees paid by dispensary owners, growers and makers of marijuana products.

Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Author: Colleen Slevin, The Associated Press
Published: May 6, 2010
Copyright: 2010 The Associated Press

cannabis Detroit — Days after Michigan’s no-smoking law went into effect, a Detroit resident filed a petition to make it legal for Detroiters to spark up a joint. On Wednesday, registered medical marijuana user Tim Beck filed a petition with Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey seeking to legalize possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana for personal use.

“Some things should no longer be considered a crime, like minor marijuana possession,” said Beck, 58. “We have to start addressing the massive state budget crisis, the lack of resources in Detroit and prison overcrowding.

“The money spent prosecuting those (minor marijuana possession) cases could have been used to fight more serious crimes.”

According to Beck, the use of marijuana is less dangerous than the use of alcohol.

“No one ever died of overdosing on marijuana,” Beck said. “But they can die from overdosing on alcohol.”

But Beck admits that legalizing marijuana would only be a token change.

“State law takes precedence over local ordinances,” said Beck, owner of an insurance and brokerage company.

“If Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox wanted to send the Michigan State Police or National Guard into Detroit to marijuana users, he would have that right,” Beck said. “If Detroit Police Chief Warren Evans wanted to pursue low-level marijuana users, he wouldn’t be able to charge them under city law, only under state law. Any fines that would ensue would go into state coffers.”

The city clerk’s office has 10 days to ensure that the signatures on Beck’s petition are legitimate. Then the Detroit City Council has up to 90 days to either vote for the initiative or pass it onto Detroit voters to decide in the November election.

Beck said he believes it was a toss up whether Detroit ministers would come out against the legalization of marijuana in their community.

“I lead the medical marijuana imitative in Detroit in 2004, and that time, every political expert in the world said the ministers in Detroit would come out against the use of medical marijuana,” Beck said. “But ultimately, they didn’t take a stand. I believe it’s because they couldn’t agree amongst themselves. They might take a pass on this one too because we’re not talking about a serious crime here.”

Beck said the legalization of a small amount of marijuana for personal use would have no effect on laws aimed at much more dangerous drugs such as heroin, crack or crystal meth.

Beck said there are similar laws already into effect in both Denver and Seattle.

If the law is passed in Detroit, it might someday be passed throughout the entire state, Beck said.

“It could happen eventually,” he said. “Especially with the budget freight train approaching this state. I think Detroit will be a catalyst for a rethinking of the criminal justice system.”

For more information on the imitative, go to Beck’s web page at: http://www.saferdetroit.net/

Source: Detroit News (MI)
Copyright: 2010 The Detroit News
Contact: letters@detnews.com
Website: http://www.detnews.com/

By Paul Schwartzman & Annys Shin, Staff Writers

Washington, D.C. — Just after 11 one morning last week, two men and two women, all in their early 20s, sat on a basketball court behind Dunbar High School in Northwest Washington and filled an empty cigar with marijuana — their first hit of the day.

Also that day, at a picnic table by the Oxon Run stream, east of the Anacostia River, five men played dominoes and passed a joint.

And at an Adams Morgan park, as dog walkers and bicyclists wandered by, a 23-year-old man in a Pittsburgh Pirates cap rolled a thick joint using cherry-flavored paper. “This is hitting nice,” he said moments later, forecasting that he would smoke five or six more before day’s end.

The D.C. Council is set to vote Tuesday on legalizing medical marijuana, thereby allowing the chronically ill — including those with HIV, glaucoma or cancer — to buy pot from dispensaries in Washington.

Yet marijuana is already ubiquitous in many parts of the city, as demonstrated by federal surveys showing that Washingtonians’ fondness for weed is among the strongest in the country — and growing.

The popular image of the nation’s capital leans toward the straight and narrow, a town of over-achieving, button-down bureaucrats, lawyers and lobbyists. But meander through any neighborhood from Congress Heights to Friendship Heights, and Washingtonians across race and class lines can be found lighting up.

“It’s absolutely pervasive and accepted,” said a 44-year-old sales manager who lives with his wife and three children in the city’s Chevy Chase section. He estimates he spends $3,000 a year on pot. After a recent pickup hockey game, he found himself sharing a joint with a beer distributor and the vice president of a technology company.

“Everywhere you go, you meet someone who gets high or, if they don’t, knows someone who does,” he said.

Federal surveys put the District among the nation’s leaders in pot consumption. More than 11 percent of Washingtonians older than 26 reported smoking marijuana in the past year — the highest percentage of any state in the nation, according to a 2007 survey by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Vermont and Rhode Island were second and third, each with more than 10 percent of respondents reporting marijuana use.

“Washington is among the areas in the country where marijuana use is most,” said Jon Gettman, a criminal justice professor at Shenandoah University and a former leader of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. “The number of colleges in the city is one factor. Another factor, and a subtle one, is the degree that people feel open enough to answer.”

But because pot is illegal, many users are reticent to discuss their habit at work, in social settings or with newspaper reporters. All of the nearly two dozen pot smokers interviewed for this article spoke on the condition that their names not be revealed.

High Rate of Arrests

A 50-year-old scientist who lives with his wife in Adams Morgan said that if marijuana is ever legalized, he hopes to open a pot cafe called Wakey Bakey. For now, though, he’s discreet, preferring to step away from the crowd at a party to smoke from a pipe shaped like a cigarette. “I don’t want people to think of me as a stoner,” he said. “It is, technically, illegal.”

In the District, penalties for possession and distribution are strong enough to encourage discretion but too weak to be much of a deterrent. Those caught with small quantities face up to a year in jail and up to $1,000 in fines. Dealers risk a year in prison and up to $10,000 in fines — penalties that can double if sales take place within 1,000 feet of a school, playground, library or public housing.

The District’s arrest rate for marijuana possession, 677 per 100,000 residents in 2007, is among the nation’s highest. Police say pot accounts for so many arrests not only because it is so commonly used but also because it’s often easier to detect than crack cocaine or heroin, with a distinctive odor that has a way of wafting out car windows during traffic stops.

“You can drop a rock and run,” said D.C. Assistant Police Cchief Peter Newsham. “If you drop a Ziploc bag of marijuana, you’re going to leave a big patch of green.”

D.C. police seized about 840 pounds of pot last year, Newsham said. “People don’t feel marijuana is dangerous, but it is, because of the way it is sold,” he said. “We frequently recover weapons when serving search warrants associated with the sale of marijuana.”

Doing a ‘Service’

Finding a marijuana dealer can be easy or hard, depending on how much risk a buyer can tolerate. A 26-year-old man, unemployed and just coming off probation for selling crack, said it took him all of about 15 minutes to find someone selling pot as he walked along Georgia Avenue NW on a recent afternoon.

But a businessman in his mid-40s who is married with children and lives in Northwest is too cautious to buy on the street. At parties, he tries to figure out who smokes and who might help him buy pot. If someone mentions, say, the pot-happy film “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” his ears perk up. “You listen for the cultural references,” he said.

Dealers don’t exactly take out advertisements. A man in his late 40s who has been selling pot full time from his Northwest home for more than two decades said he has 30 to 50 regular clients, many of them lobbyists, journalists, Capitol Hill staffers, artists and musicians.

“I’m in waste management” is among the answers he said he gives at parties when asked how he makes a living. He makes about $50,000 a year selling pot, he said, maintains regular business hours of 10 to 12 hours a week and takes time off, sometimes to the annoyance of his clientele.

“They’ll say, ‘You don’t need to go on vacation,’ like I don’t have a job,” he said during an interview at a restaurant near Dupont Circle. “I do have a job. In fact, I have a career. I’m doing people a service. I make them happy. People come to see me, and they leave happier than when they came.”

The dealer said that the legalization of medical marijuana would lift some of the stigma attached to the drug and could be a step toward making all pot legal. But he also said Congress’s authority over the District could make full legalization unlikely. “We’ll be the last place it happens,” he said.

A Stepping Stone

The bill before the D.C. Council would allow physicians to recommend — but not prescribe — up to two ounces of pot in a 30-day period for patients with chronic, debilitating conditions. Fourteen states have legalized medical marijuana.

Many pot smokers support the bill as a stepping stone toward broader legalization, as a way to keep the drug away from minors and as official recognition that their drug of choice has some beneficial effects.

“It calms you down,” said Tyrone, a 26-year-old New Orleans transplant, as he shared a joint with three friends on an empty basketball court in Northeast. A resident of a homeless shelter, he scrapes together an income helping to carry out evictions and said he spends $10 a day on pot.

Sitting next to him, a woman who identified herself as Recee, 23, a graduate of Ballou Senior High School, said, “I wake up the next day looking for another ‘J’ because it’s just that good.”

Teenagers in parts of the city said they can buy pot more easily than beer or cigarettes.

At Cardozo Senior High in Columbia Heights, teachers and students said that a group of students has turned a secluded stairwell into a smoking den. Sometimes the smell is so overwhelming that one teacher keeps her classroom door closed. “There are a lot of jokes about contact highs,” the teacher said.

School administrators or security guards chase the tokers off, but they always return.

Source: Washington Post (DC)
Published: Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Copyright: 2010 Washington Post
Contact: letters@washpost.com
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/