As the curtain lowers on quasi-legal dispensary operations in Fresno County, medical cannabis patients may be forgiven for feeling angry, sad and bitter. There are hurt feelings and a renewed distrust of the same government we expect to protect our rights. “Only in Fresno…” some may mutter, but that’s not the case. The dispensary melodrama is playing out in hundreds of [...]
‘Twas 10 nights before Christmas when the Fresno Police Department put an outdoor marijuana-growing ban on the City Council’s agenda. It was, department officials said, a matter of some urgency. Urgent enough, in fact, to bypass the normal planning process. Upon further review (thank goodness for video), the city railroaded its cultivation ban through at the most opportune time, hoping to [...]
George Mull opposed Proposition 19. Steve DeAngelo campaigned for it. Which made it all the more interesting at the recent CalNORML conference in Berkeley, where both said that medical cannabis distribution in California is — and I’m paraphrasing here — a total fucking mess. Mull is a Sacramento attorney who represents several NorCal collectives, and their struggles in assorted cities and [...]
The Drug Policy Alliance gets top billing today in our belated video coverage of CalNORML’s marijuana reform conference in Berkeley. Ethan Nadelmann, DPA’s founder and executive director, and California director Stephen Gutwillig both possess a keen understanding of the political process, and their thoughts on legalization in 2012 deserve special attention. First and foremost is understanding that political compromises will be [...]
Today’s videos arrive from the better-late-than-never department, considering a month has passed since the CalNORML conference in Berkeley. But context is important, as is video editing, so taking my time isn’t a bad thing. We begin with a new and slightly improved video of Oakland Vice Mayor Desley Brooks, who has taken the lead on rewriting the city’s proposed regulations for [...]
Journalists don’t get any respect, which sucks, but that’s nothing compared with the scorn and ridicule heaped upon our public servants in Sacramento. Let’s face it: It feels good to talk smack about those stuffed suits in the Legislature, especially when it comes to cannabis. Honestly, you couldn’t find a more ignorant bunch of canna-phobes unless you went slumming to your [...]
I wish I could tell you more about what’s happening in Oakland, but sometimes it’s more useful to tell you what’s NOT happening. For the past month or so, we’ve been hearing that the feds have warned city officials to back off on its medical cannabis cultivation ordinance. That’s probably because that’s exactly what the feds have been telling the media, [...]
