Putting the cart before the camel

Sacramento, California, is a hotbed for cannabis.  Dozens of medical marijuana dispensaries operate in the city.  A local ordinance regulating dispensaries is being drafted, and is expected to be voted up or down by the city council sometime in late 2010.  In November, Californians will vote on Proposition 19, a state initiative that would allow localities to tax and regulate cannabis as they see fit.  The City of Sacramento has a $43 million budget deficit, and elected officials are eying cannabis revenues to potentially help reduce the city’s debt.  At their June 22, 2010 public meeting, the Sacramento City Council signaled wide interest in placing a marijuana tax on the November, 2010 ballot.  The pot tax was quietly placed by city staff on the council’s agenda, along with a broader, unrelated tax proposal.

ON April 8 it was reported that Maryland had changed their law to allow medical marijuana however MMA has since learned that this is not the case. Medical Marijuana is still illegal in Maryland and we apologize for the inaccurate information posted before.

13 months after her arrest in Operation GreenRx, Donna Lambert will face additional charges to her 7 felony count for medical marijuana

SAN DIEGO - On Friday, April 2nd at 1:30pm, Donna Lambert has been ordered to be arraigned on additional charges stemming from her arrest in the Operation GreenRx Sting in San Diego County last February 2009.  San Diego County is well known for its fierce attempt to overturn California's state medical marijuana laws. Advocates have long criticized the San Diego District Attorney's office for targeting and prosecuting medical marijuana defendants who collectively associate under the Medical Marijuana Program Act.    

Betty Aldworth, director of outreach for Full Spectrum Laboratories, a marijuana testing facility, was at the State Capitol to watch lab co-owner Bob Winniki testify about Senator Chris Romer's just-introduced bill dealing with the relationship between doctors and medical marijuana patients.

But before Winniki could speak, the twosome received an e-mail letting them know members of the Drug Enforcement Administration had stopped by the lab. And by the time they got back to the facility, Aldworth says, "it was full of DEA agents" and other local law-enforcement types, who spent the next several hours seizing all the marijuana testing samples they could find.

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