Kharla Vezzetti Buoyed by Obama’s election and the end of the Bush regime, California NORML will be pushing for meaningful changes in marijuana enforcement in the coming year. * END FEDERAL RAIDS AND PROSECUTIONS An immediate, high-priority goal is to realize Obama’s pledge of ending DEA medical marijuana raids in California. Scores of raids have been reported …
California NORML Release – Dec 12, 2008 The California Police Chief Association urged the DEA to close medical marijuana distribution centers, seize their profits and prosecute them in federal court, according to a letter to DEA administrator Karen Tandy. The letter, dated Oct 2, 2006, appears in testimony to the House Judiciary Committee. In the …
Cal NORML Release – Nov. 24, 2008 In a blow to medical marijuana providers, the California Supreme Court ruled that defendants are not entitled to a defense as Prop. 215 caregivers if their primary role is only to supply marijuana to patients. The court unanimously overruled an appellate court decision in the case People v. …
November 14, 2008 – In an unusual development, two Imperial Beach paraphernalia shops were raided by San Diego County Sheriffs on October 22 after a several-months-long undercover investigation. Sheriffs reportedly seized several thousand items of suspected drug paraphernalia, including pipes and bongs, from the shops Up in Smoke and Inner Visions. Two misdemeanor arrests were …
November 4, 2008 – On a successful night for marijuana reform initiatives nationwide, Californians roundly rejected Prop. 5, the Non-violent Offenders Rehabilitation Act, by 40-60%. NORA would have diverted non-violent drug possession offenders to treatment instead of prison and would have lowered small-scale marijuana possession to an infraction from a misdemeanor. Prop 5 lost in …
October 16, 2008 – The California Supreme Court today declined to review a lawsuit filed by San Diego, Merced and San Bernardino counties claiming federal laws supercede California’s medical marijuana law. The counties’ challenge was rejected by the San Diego Superior Court in 2006, and that court’s decision was upheld in July by the 4th …
Voters who want marijuana reform should be mindful of one thing this year: change is needed in Washington, DC. Twelve years after passage of Prop. 215, California has done everything it can to allow legal access to medical cannabis without a change in federal policy. A truly legal distribution system remains politically impossible so long …
Sacramento, September 30, 2008 – Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed Assemblyman Mark Leno’s bill to protect workers’ right to use medical marijuana. The bill, AB 2279, would have made it illegal for employers to discriminate against workers in non-safety-sensitive jobs for using marijuana as medicine. In his veto message, the governor said, “I am concerned with interference …
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATE: 9/19/08 CONTACT: Dale Gieinger, CaNORML 415-563-5858 RECORD JUMP IN MARIJUANA ARRESTS IN CALIFORNIA California posted a record surge in marijuana arrests in 2007, according to data from the state Criminal Justice Statistics Center. Altogether, there were 74,119 arrests for marijuana in 2007, up 13% from the year before. This marks the …
DEA Targets City-Regulated Facitilites: Dep’t of Republican Justice? Cal. NORML Release – Sept 18, 2008 In response to federal threats of forfeiture, Santa Barbara’s medical marijuana coops are closing their doors as of this Friday, September 19th. At an extraordinary meeting on Aug 5-6th, the Department of Justice and DEA warned landlords of Santa Barbara’s …