CalNORML Vigilant for Our Rights Again in 2013CalNORML’s year-end newsletter is in the mail to our members. Read about our 2013 accomplishments and activities and join us to support our efforts in 2014.
December 12, 2013 – The Alameda County Board of Supervisors will be considering an ordinance regarding restrictions to electronic smoking devices (vaporizers) in unincorporated Alameda County at its meeting on Tuesday, December 17. The Los Angeles City Council will also be voting on a bill to ban e-cigs and vaporizers in non-smoking areas next Wednesday Dec. 18th at 10 am.
Tuesday, Nov. 5 – San Diego Board of Supes 9AM – Beverly Hills City Council 7 PM
Prohibitionists are on the warpath to deny consumers access to smokeless e-cigarettes. E-cigarettes are broadly defined to include devices that can vaporize nicotine or any other substance, including medical marijuana.
October 10 – It has come to our attention that many are purchasing butane-based lighter fluids to make backyard cannabis concentrates, and manufacturing indoors with volatile solvents, causing explosions and fires.
Protestor/Journalist Gutierrez Found Guilty of Assaulting US Marshall at Oaksterdam ProtestOctober 4 – A jury in federal court has found KPFA citizen journalist Jose Gutierrez guilty of assaulting a US marshall during a protest of the raid on Oaksterdam University on April 2, 2012.
Sept. 17 – After two hours of testimony and discussion, preceded by three years of back-and-forth, San Leandro city council voted last night 5-2 to direct staff to come up with zoning code amendments allowing two dispensaries in the city.
California Senate Approves Industrial Hemp BillSept. 12 – The State Senate unanimously passed Sen. Mark Leno’s industrial hemp bill, SB 566.
Sept. 9 – The California legislature is about to vote on urgently needed legislation that would clarify the legality of medical marijuana sales, production, transportation, processing and testing through a state-regulated licensing system.
Cal NORML letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein re: Sept 10th Judiciary Committee Hearings on MarijuanaSept. 4 – Some questions for Attorney General Holder which CalNORML hopes Senator Feinstein will ask at the upcoming Judiciary Committee hearings on federal policy with regards to state marijuana laws.
August 29 – In a long-awaited announcement of federal marijuana enforcement policy, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Department of Justice won’t “make it a priority” to block marijuana legalization in Colorado or Washington. In a three page policy memo by Assistant AG James Cole, the DOJ stated that “strong and effective” state enforcement systems are needed to address major federal concerns.
August 14 – The California legislature delivered good and bad news for marijuana advocates after activists walked the State Capitol for a medical marijuana lobbying day this Monday.
AG Holder Calls for Rethinking Mandatory Minimum Drug-Crime Sentences at SF ABA MeetingAugust 12 – “As the so-called ‘war on drugs’ enters its fifth decade, we need to ask whether it, and the approaches that comprise it, have been truly effective,” Attorney General Eric Holder said today at the ABA convention in San Francisco.
August 10 – One hundred years ago, on August 10, 1913, an obscure law banning the possession of “Indian hemp” took effect in California.
CA Bill Against E-Cigarettes Harmful to Consumer Health: SB 648 Would Restrict Use of Medical Marijuana Vaporizers by Prop 215July 16 – The California legislature is considering a bill that would ban the use of e-cigarettes and similar smokeless vaporizers in areas where tobacco smoking is banned.
July 26, 2013 – There were 13,434 felony arrests and 7,768 misdemeanor arrests for marijuana in California in 2012.
US/Mexico Summit Looks At LegalizationSan Cristobal, Mexico, Jul 18-20. This past weekend former Mexican President Vicente Fox hosted a symposium at Centro Fox, where delegates from the US, Mexico and Europe discussed legalizing and regulating marijuana as an alternative to Mexico’s bloody drug war. CalNORML was there!
July 16 – California NORML has joined as a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed today on behalf of 19 different groups by the Electronic Frontier Foundation against NSA’s phone surveillance program.
July 8 – At a meeting with drug reform advocates in San Francisco, former Mexican President Vicente Fox expressed support for California’s efforts to legally regulate marijuana, medical and otherwise.
June 13 – In spite of growing public support for medical marijuana, concern about overreach by the U.S. Department of Justice and other federal agencies, and cutbacks in federal spending, the U.S. government’s war on medical marijuana is raging unabated according to a survey of court records by Cal NORML.
May 30 – Just in time for Hemp History Week, the California Senate approved Mark Leno’s industrial hemp bill, SB 566, on a 39-0 vote.
May 30 – The Assembly Appropriations Committee approved Rep. Tom Ammiano’s medical marijuana regulation bill AB 473 with amendments on labeling and local zoning. However, the bill stalled on the Assembly floor. Rep. Ammiano has vowed to continue the fight.
May 22 – Medical marijuana dispensaries will remain open in Los Angeles after voters approved Measure D allowing 175 dispensing collectives to remain open in the city. In an election with slim turn out, Measure D earned 193,969 votes (63%). Measure F, which would have allowed any dispensary that met city standards, won only 41% of the vote.
May 20 – The California Senate approved a bill to clarify the state’s law protecting medical marijuana collectives. The bill, SB 439 by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (Sacramento), protects collectives and cooperatives that operate in compliance with the Attorney General’s guidelines, and makes it clear that their workers can receive compensation for their labor and expenses.
May 11 – Cal NORML and ASA protesters sent a message to A.G. Holder as he addressed UC Berkeley Haste Law School graduates at the Hearst Greek Theater on Saturday. “Holder: End RX Cannabis War #Peace4Patients,” read an airplane banner that circled the stadium for two hours.
May 10 – Join us in protesting Attorney General Eric Holder’s visit to Berkeley this Saturday, May 11th, 8:45-11am. Holder has been invited to address the commencement of Berkeley Law School at the Hearst Greek Theater.
May 8 – Medical cannabis advocates and public officials rallied today to protest the Obama administration’s latest assault on medical marijuana: the U.S. Dept of Justice has filed a property forfeiture lawsuit against the landlord of the East Bay’s oldest operating medical cannabis dispensary, the Berkeley Patient’s Group.
May 6 – The California Supreme Court has issued its long-anticipated ruling in the City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center case. “Some counties and cities might consider themselves well suited to accommodating medical marijuana dispensaries, conditions in other communities might lead to the reasonable decision that such facilities within their borders…would present unacceptable local risks and burdens.”
May 2 – It is with sadness that CalNORML reports the death of Mike Gray: screenwriter, author of the seminal book Drug Crazy, and chair of CommonSense for Drug Policy.
April 30 – US Attorney Melinda Haag has issued a spate of new landlord letters targeting medical cannabis dispensaries in Northern California. Cal NORML has so far heard reports from dispensaries in San Jose, San Francisco and Ukiah. The letters warn landlords that the facilities are operating too close to a school or park.
April 30 – The State Senate Public Safety Committee approved Sen. Steinberg’s bill to regulate medical marijuana, SB 439, and refused to pass Sen. Correa’s “zero-tolerance” drug DUI bill, SB 289.
SACRAMENTO Apr 23. – The Assembly Public Safety Committee approved Tom Ammiano’s MMJ regulation bill AB 473 on a party line vote. The bill would create a new Division of MMJ Regulation and Enforcement in the Dept of Alcoholic Beverages Control to regulate commercial sales, production, manufacture, testing and transport for MMJ.
April 23 – “I hope everybody realizes that this bill, SB289, is basically a crime creation program,” CalNORML director Dale Gieringer said. “It would take thousands and thousands of perfectly safe drivers who happen to have the technical amounts of unprescribed drugs–particularly marijuana–in their bloodstream, and consider them automatically impaired or under the influence.”
April 14 – Serving as acting governor while Jerry Brown is in China on a trade mission, California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom called for the decriminalization of marijuana in his speech at the California Democratic Convention in Sacramento on Saturday.
Despite growing public support for marijuana legalization, drug warriors are seeking to tighten the screws on consumers by imposing new and tougher drug testing rules that have nothing to do with safety or impairment. CalNORML responds with a new drug testing guide and a campaign against a new DUI bill and drug testing in general. Read Cal NORML’s testimony on SB289
UPDATE April 9 – Concord voted in an outdoor medical marijuana ban on its second reading, after discussing variances. City Attorney Mark Coon asked CalNORML for the Trinity ruling on variances, and it was provided. The public speakers at the meeting were all in favor of patients’ rights, see video.
3/15/2013 – Hearings on Sen. Correa’s zero-tolerance DUI bill SB 289 have been set for April 23rd before the State Senate Public Safety Committee. The bill would outlaw driving with ANY detectable amount of marijuana or other controlled substances in the blood.
3/8/13 – Federal researchers this week began a serious PR push on a flawed driving study; meanwhile SB289 (Correa) has been referred to the Senate Public Safety Committee.
March 5 – Congressman Eric Swalwell (CA-15) co-sponsored several bills that treat marijuana in a rational way and allow more freedom at the state level.
February 26 – There appears to be an excellent chance that the California legislature will once again pass hemp legislation this year, as two bills to legalize production of industrial hemp have been introduced in the CA legislature.
February 6 – The 3rd District Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of Tehama county on a challenge to their medical marijuana cultivation ordinance.
February 5 – The California Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Riverside vs. Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center, a case determining whether or not Riverside may ban medical marijuana dispensaries within its borders.
January 30, 2013 – Daisy Bram, who has had her three children taken from her by Tehama county officials, had her car seized when she appeared in court yesterday, leaving the young mother without transportation while her children remain in foster care.
Over 300 people attended California NORML’s conference marking the 100th anniversary of marijuana prohibition in California, held January 26 & 27 at Ft. Mason Conference Center in San Francisco.
January 22, 2013 – The US Court of Appeals has turned down an appeal by the Coalition to Reschedule Cannabis to reschedule marijuana.
January 15 – This morning at its Board of Supervisors meeting, Shasta county’s board will consider a resolution setting in motion a ban of outdoor cultivation of medical marijuana. The proposal is “a wonderful crime-creation program for the Shasta sheriffs,” said CalNORML director Dale Gieringer.
January 3 – In an LA Times article, the Drug Czar’s office has acknowledged that the “cartel” narrative is a myth devised by law enforcement to help secure federal funding.
January 3, 2013 – Yet another study from California’s Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research shows cannabis to be effective for neuropathic pain. Despite this, Cal NORML continues to receive complaints from pain patients who say clinics are denying them medical marijuana through abusive drug testing practices.
January 1, 2013 – This New Year marks the 100th anniversary of the war on cannabis in California. In 1913, the state Board of Pharmacy led the legislature to pass a bill outlawing possession of “Indian hemp.” The law was the opening shot in a century-long prohibitionist campaign that has cost the state millions of arrests and billions of dollars in enforcement costs even while cannabis has increased in popularity and public acceptance.
In 2012, CalNORML fought off bad bills in Sacramento, advanced good ones, protested federal involvement, and continued to work at local levels on policy. We will kick off 2013 with a conference to mark the 100th anniversary of cannabis prohibition in California and plan for the end of that failed and unjust policy.
