Oakland activist to turn over marijuana businesses after raid
Apr 8, 2012 Online Issue
Richard Lee, whose bid to legalize marijuana in California brought him international attention, plans to give up ownership of his Oakland-based marijuana businesses 
after a federal raid this week seized many of their assets, including plants, bank accounts, records and computers.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time. Over 20 years…. I kind of feel like I’ve done my time,” Lee said Thursday. “It’s time for others to take over.”
Lee said he would remain an outspoken marijuana advocate. “I believe that cannabis prohibition is unjust and counterproductive,” he said. “What I’ve done is ethical, and I tried to use the resources that I had to do everything I could to change the laws.”
In some of his most extensive comments since the raid, Lee acknowledged that he was worried he could face major federal drug charges. It’s a risk he has lived with for many years, first as an underground pot grower and then as the leader of a serious legalization effort, which drew vigorous opposition from the federal government.
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Tags: Gary Lee, legalize marijuana, marijuana activist, marijuana dispensary
Del. lawmakers submit medical marijuana bill again
Feb 14, 2011 Online Issue
DOVER, Del. (AP) — Medical marijuana proponents have filed another bill in the Delaware legislature to legalize medical use of the drug.
This is the third straight year Senate Majority Whip Margaret Rose Henry has introduced medical marijuana legislation and Henry says she is optimistic.
Rep. Helene Keeley, the House co-sponsor, says unlike California and 13 other states, the bill would not permit people to grow their own marijuana.
Senate Minority Leader Gary Simpson, R-Milford, says he is undecided, and concerned that marijuana is a gateway drug that leads to the use of more dangerous drugs.
The bill would allow possession of up to six ounces and Delaware’s health department would issue identification cards for patients and providers.
Source : NECN
Tags: legalize marijuana, marijuana laws, marijuana legalization
Teen arrested for marijuana cookies at school
Jan 30, 2011 Online Issue
PLANTATION, Fla. — A South Florida teen has been arrested for allegedly bringing marijuana-laced cookies to school.
The student was arrested Friday and charged with delivery of a controlled substance near a school and possession of marijuana.
Police say the boy brought two chocolate chip cookies to school, sharing one with two other students. But the school caught on to the cookies’ contents when one of the students went to the office, saying they felt sick.
All three students face 10-day suspensions.
Tags: legalize marijuana, marijuana laws
18 groups apply to grow, sell marijuana
Jan 18, 2011 Vaporizers
PROVIDENCE — Former state Democratic Party chairman and congressional candidate William J. Lynch and Pawtucket’s recently retired 
police chief are among a group of public figures who want to open the state’s first compassion center to sell medical marijuana with a plan to grow cannabis in an ornate downtown Pawtucket building that formerly housed an exclusive old-time men’s club.
Theirs is one of 18 groups that have applied to the state for licenses. Among the other applicants is a pastor from West Warwick who is facing marijuana charges after the police raided his Providence Street church in September and found 183 marijuana plants.
The Pawtucket contingent submitted a proposal under the business name Rhode Island Center for Compassion and Wellness, which would operate its storefront dispensary at 26 Main St., in the city’s downtown.
Lynch lost in the September primary to then-Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline in the campaign for the Democratic nomination in the race to succeed Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy. Cicilline won the seat in November.
Licenses to sell NJ medical marijuana cost $20K
Jan 15, 2011 Online Issue
Theories on the effectiveness of New Jersey’s medical marijuana program remain in question as the state health department and Legislature continue to battle over its rules.
The health department has just released a revised set of rules for New Jersey’s medical marijuana program. New Jersey’s medical marijuana law was first enacted in January 2010.
The state Department of Health and Human Services also released a how-to guide for entrepreneurs who want to bid on the licensing rights to run the six alternative treatment centers selling marijuana. Licenses cost $20,000, but $18,000 would be refunded if the bidder loses.
The new rules reflect an agreement Gov. Chris Christie reached with the law’s Assembly sponsor, Reed Gusciora (D-Mercer), that allow for six dispensaries to operate, instead of the four the administration initially sought.
Time For Marijuana Legalization?
Jan 2, 2011 Online Issue
(CBS) Attorney Andrew Cohen analyzes legal issues for CBS News and CBSNews.com.
Apparently, it was nothing personal after all. Apparently, it was strictly business all along.
After generations of defending capital punishment and marijuana possession laws on moral, ethical and religious grounds, after years of declaring that the death penalty acted as a deterrent against violent crime and that pot smokers were more dangerous to society than, say, alcohol consumers, all of a sudden thanks to our economic crisis more and more mainstream powerbrokers are considering dramatic changes to our criminal justice system.
The New York Times today has a late-arriving piece by Ian Urbina which posits that lawmakers in several states are considering abandoning the death penalty because it’s just too expensive and cuts into other law enforcement priorities. State officials are beginning to acknowledge that they can more productively spend their budget funds on cracking unsolved cases or ensuring better police protection than on keeping pot smokers in prison or fighting for decades with capital defendants. This, Urbina writes, is forcing a sea-change around the nation:
Tags: legalize marijuana, marijuana, marijuana laws, marijuana legalization
Another Vengeful Pot Bust of Medical Users in California
Jan 1, 2011 Online Issue
It’s apt that the nickname of this community is ‘SLO’- it underscores the mentality of law enforcement in this semi rural county.
Salem-News.com
(SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif.) – San Luis Obispo, California Sheriff Pat Hedges is up to his old tricks; making a mockery of California’s laws that protect sick people who use medical marijuana. This week his intensive ‘anti-drug’ efforts involved his tracking down “mobile marijuana dispensaries” that deliver medicine to those who have an otherwise difficult time accessing this legal herb. Remember, in California dispensaries can legally sell marijuana, unlike Oregon.
Fifteen people were arrested in Hedges’ big ‘drug bust’. The youngest was 33, the oldest was 60. One of those arrested; a resident of Paso Robles, told Salem
-News.com:
“Sheriff Hedges is making one last gasp against Medical Marijuana before his term is up next month. A girlfriend of a detective got a legal MM recommendation from a local doctor. She then used the print out of Dispensaries and Delivery services and asked for deliveries from all or most of the services listed on the print out. Anybody who made a delivery to Amy Dobson was raided by the Sheriff’s Drug Taskforce on or around Dec. 28.”
Tags: legalize marijuana, marijuana, marijuana bust, Marijuana Growers, marijuana laws, pot news
