Dec. 18, 2011 – To say 2011 was a busy year would be an understatement. Read about our plans for 2012. Following up on the strong but losing campaign of the Prop. 19 legalization initiative, Cal NORML began the year with statewide activist conferences to plan the future of marijuana reform in California. As the year progressed, our energies were increasingly tied up in defensive efforts to combat mounting challenges from local, state, and federal authorities: bans and restrictions on dispensaries and cultivation, hostile legislation in Sacramento, and a full-fledged federal crackdown from the Obama administration. Prospects for reform nonetheless strengthened as legalization picked up unprecedented support from the California Medical Association, the national Gallup poll, and the first-ever prohibition repeal bill in Congress. Read about our plans for 2012.
Nov. 7, 2011 – NORML attorneys notified the federal government today that they were filing suit against the crackdown on medical marijuana in all four federal court districts of California. The lawsuit cites multiple constitutional arguments and seeks an immediate TRO or injunction against the DOJ in federal court.
Supporters of California’s medical marijuana laws will be protesting the Department of Justice’s crackdown on dispensaries and providers when President Obama comes to visit San Francisco at the Hotel W on Oct 25th. Demonstrators will be protesting at the corner of 3rd and Mission from 10:30 AM to 3 PM. Advocates will hold a preceding press conference at 10 AM at the Marriott Hotel. 299 Second St, SOMA Room #3.
Oct. 19, 2011 – It’s time for the federal government to recognize the truth: Marijuana is medicine. Current federal policy is bankrupt and counterproductive. It’s time for DOJ policy to change and recognize Californians’ right to medical marijuana.
Oct. 11, 2011 – Flood the White House Hot Line – Tell Obama to stop wasting federal enforcement resources on medical marijuana. Phone 202-456-1111
Oct. 6, 2011 – Medical marijuana supporters are rallying to protest the Obama administration’s crackdown on medical cannabis dispensaries outside a press conference by U.S. Attorneys at the Sacramento Federal Court House this Friday, Oct. 7th from 10 AM to 1 PM.
Oct 5, 2011 – In yet another attack by the Obama administration on medical marijuana, US Attorneys in California have sent out a series of letters threatening landlords with property forfeiture for renting their property to dispensaries deemed too close to “sensitive areas” such as schools and parks.
Oct. 4 – In a ruling with far-reaching implications, an appellate court struck down a Long Beach medical marijuana dispensary licensing ordinance as being contrary to federal law (Pack et al. vs Superior Court of Los Angeles, California 2nd District Court of Appeals, 3rd Division).
September 21 – California NORML and Project CBD release the results of the first “Ring Test” to assess the accuracy of analytical laboratories; Mixed findings show strengths and problems among analytic testing services
September 21 – Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed Sen. Correa’s bill SB 847 to ban medical cannabis dispensaries within 600 feet of residential areas.
September 14 – California reported a moderate decline in marijuana arrests in 2010, according to the latest figures from the Criminal Justice Statistics Center.
September 14 – Reason TV caught up with Dale Gieringer, director of CA NORML, at the 2011 Seattle Hempfest and asked him what’s been happening since Prop 19 failed to pass last November in California.
August 31 – Governor Jerry Brown has signed AB 1300 (Blumenfeld), a bill to allow local regulation of medical marijuana collectives and cooperatives. Read more about this an other bills in CaNORML’s upcoming newsletter. Join Today!
The CA Assembly approved Sen. Correa’s bill SB 847 to prohibit the location of dispensaries near residential zones by a vote of 68-5.
August 15 – Orange Co. Superior Court Judge David Chaffee ruled that the city of Anaheim may legally prohibit medical cannabis dispensaries, highlighting the need for a legal medical marijuana distribution system in California.
Kern Citizens for Patients Rights is organizing a referendum petition to repeal the county’s repressive, new medical MJ dispensary ban and anti-cultivation ordinance. Similar petition drives have succeeded in overturning or suspending anti-MMJ ordinances in San Diego and Butte County.
July 8 – After nine years of regulatory delay, the DEA rejected a petition by a coalition of groups including NORML to reschedule marijuana for medical use. The response came only after advocates sued in federal court for unreasonable delay.
July 6 – The Obama Justice Department released a memo last week declaring that it might prosecute large-scale medical marijuana cultivation operations and dispensaries even in states where they are operating in compliance with state laws. “They want to put a stop to any large scale distribution of medical marijuana, but all they’re doing is prolonging the conflict between federal law and reality,” says CalNORML director Dale Gieringer.
June 23, 2011 – House lawmakers introduced legislation in Congress today to end the federal criminalization of the personal use of marijuana.
June 22 – Butte County activists submitted 12,308 signatures on a referendum petition to suspend the county’s controversial medical marijuana ordinance, which is now officially suspended for 30 days pending validation of the signatures. This marks the second successful petition drive against a restrictive local medical marijuana ordinance. A San Diego city ordinance sharply restricting medical cannabis dispensaries was suspended by the submission of 46,000 referendum signatures last month.
June 9, 2011 – In a difficult session for marijuana advocates, the California legislature failed to approve key bills to protect medical marijuana employees’ rights and to decrease cultivation penalties, while advancing legislation to tighten regulation of dispensaries.
June 7 – CalNORML received an announcement this morning that 500,000 people have “friended” the Facebook page for the excellent book Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink, co-written by NORML’s deputy director Paul Armentano. In celebration, the book’s publisher is offering a special price of $5.99 on the book through Tuesday, June 14, but Facebook has refused to run an ad promoting the special.
June 3 – Despite a mandate to reduce the state’s prison population, the California Assembly rejected Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s bill AB 1017 to reduce marijuana cultivation penalties.
May 31 – California NORML estimates that there are now at least 750,000 medical marijuana users in the state, or 2% of the population, according to the most recent data. This represents a substantial increase from Cal NORML’s earlier estimates. Despite this, there is no evidence that liberal access to medical marijuana has spurred overall marijuana use in California.
UPDATE 6/1: In California and nearly every other medical marijuana state in the US, monthly use by teenagers, highway fatalities, and workplace injuries/illnesses are down since the state legalized medical marijuana.
May 23 – Nearly nine years after filing a petition to reschedule marijuana for medical use, a coalition of advocates has filed suit in federal court to require the government to answer their petition within 60 days.
May 2 – Dr. Mollie Fry and Dale Schafer spoke eloquently at their federal surrender in Sacramento to an emotional crowd of supporters, who shouted, “We love you,” as the couple turned themselves in to serve a five year sentence for growing 106 marijuana plants over a period of three years.
April 29 – Today marks a centennial worth notice if not celebration: the 100th anniversary of the nation’s first anti-marijuana law. On April 29th, 1911, Massachusetts enacted a statute making it illegal to sell or possess cannabis or other “hypnotic” drugs such as opium without a prescription.
Medical marijuana supporters will be rallying in Sacramento to protest the imprisonment of Dr. Mollie Fry and her husband Dale Schafer for five years on federal charges this May 2nd.
Three bills affecting marijuana smokers’ rights will be heard in committee on April 26; two more will be heard on April 27.
April 13, 2011 – A bill to allow local regulation of medical marijuana collectives and cooperatives has been introduced by Assemblyman Blumenfield (AB 1300).
April 5 – Legislation to prevent employment discrimination against medical marijuana patients, and continue to guard against impairment at the workplace, passed the California Senate Judiciary Committee today.
The National Cancer Institute has erased a reference to cannabis’s anti-tumor properties on a General Information page for physicians, burying the important news on a page summarizing research studies.
March 30 – Today marks the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Single Convention Treaty on Narcotic Drugs, which initiated the international policy of cannabis prohibition. Pursuant to the treaty, cannabis is prohibited in every single country in the world. Coming: April 29th will be the 100th anniversary of of the first state anti-cannabis law.
SACRAMENTO, March 29 – The California Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings today on Mark Leno’s bill to protect employment rights for medical marijuana users, SB 129, but the vote was delayed for another week due to illness of a committee member.
March 29 – Although our side substantially outnumbered and out-debated our opponents, the city council succumbed to politicians’ habitual bad instinct of over-regulating. The Council’s ill-considered ordinance is highly unlikely to settle matters, although some proposed restrictions were eased.
March 21 – Saturday’s “Next Steps” conference in Los Angeles continued the process begun by CalNORML at January’s Berkeley conference to gather input on reform measures for California in the coming years.
CalNORML Reports, March 2011 – Several important cannabis reform bills have been introduced to the California legislature. They include protecting Prop 215 patients from workplace discrimination, reducing cultivation penalties, legalizing industrial hemp, and establishing full-scale medical marijuana licensing schemes.
February 23 – Sponsored by Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster, Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) has introduced a bill, AB 1017, which would change section 11358 of the Health and Safety Code from a mandatory felony penalty to an alternate felony or misdemeanor, known as a “wobbler”.
February 6, 2011 – California NORML will appeal a court decision upholding Tehama county’s ordinance restricting patients’ right to grow medical marijuana. The ordinance effectively makes it impossible for many patients to obtain their medicine in accordance with Prop. 215. legal options.
January 31 – Before hundreds of attendees at the California NORML statewide “Next Steps” conference on Saturday, January 29, Senator Mark Leno (SF) announced he has re-introduced his bill to end employment discrimination against medical marijuana users.