The Modesto Bee | Two Modesto men found guilty in medical marijuana case
FRESNO — A federal jury found two Modesto men guilty Thursday of drug charges for operating a medical marijuana dispensary, which raked in $6 million to $9 million in less than two years.

Luke Scarmazzo and Ricardo Ruiz Montes, both 27, immediately were taken into custody.

Both men were convicted of manufacturing marijuana and distributing the drug, as well as operating a continuing criminal enterprise, a felony that carries a mandatory 20-year minimum prison term, with the possibility of life behind bars.

In September 2006, federal authorities raided the California Healthcare Collective in Modesto after a long investigation that included undercover drug buys.

Scarmazzo and Montes said they never intended to break the law. The business, their attorneys said, was “aboveboard,” obtaining a business license, paying taxes and making sure patients had doctors’ notes before purchases.

“Everything the defendants did was legal under state law,” [Scarmazzo’s attorney] said after the verdict. But neither he nor [Montes’ attorney] were able to use state law as a defense because under federal law, marijuana is illegal.

A key part of the trial was a hip-hop video that featured Scarmazzo uttering the line “(expletive) the feds.”

Scarmazzo, a musician and aspiring hip-hop artist, took the stand to explain, saying it was his way of showing that the federal government “is turning a blind eye” to medical marijuana, which he said could help people.

The video was perhaps the most sensational part of the trial, and there were suggestions from [Scarmazzo’s attorney] that Scarmazzo was on trial only because he dared to challenge the federal government’s authority.

Jurors deliberated for two days before delivering their verdict.

One juror, Craig Will of Tuolumne County, said after the verdict that he expected the two men to get probation or a few months in prison.

“I’m really appalled to discover that there’s a 20-year mandatory minimum on the continuing criminal enterprise charge,” he said.

Dispensary owners in California are forbidden from even saying the words “medical” and “marijuana” in the same paragraph when they go on trial in federal court.  The juror listed in this case isn’t the first to be appalled at the mandatory sentences that people can receive for operating legally under state law.; most jurors, once they are told the case involves medical marijuana, are usually distraught that they were forced to render a verdict without knowing the entire story.

This further underscores why we need your help to pass Ron Paul’s HR5842 to end the DEA raids in California and the other eleven medical marijuana states, and why we need to elect a president in November who promises to end these raids.

Eyewitness News WPRI / FOX Providence - Providence, Rhode Island News, Weather, Traffic and Sports | Senate sends medical marijuana bill back to committee
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A bill expanding Rhode Island’s medical marijuana program hits a roadblock in the General Assembly.

The Senate voted 33-2 yesterday to send the proposal back to committee. The bill would allow up to three nonprofit stores in the state to sell marijuana to patients enrolled in Rhode Island’s medical marijuana program.

The state allows patients to possess marijuana for pain relief, but the drug is still illegal under federal law.

Senator Rhoda Perry, the bill’s sponsor, asked the Senate to halt the bill after it was amended to ban patients from smoking marijuana in motor vehicles or in front of other people.

Perry says the amendment insults chronically ill patients who use marijuana for pain relief.

Perhaps there is an argument to be made for preventing the use of medical marijuana in a motor vehicle.  NORML always cautions against smoking and driving, and even if the patient isn’t the person driving, I can see how it would be important from a law enforcement and public safety perspective to prevent any marijuana smoking in a car.

The offensive part is not being allowed to smoke “in front of other people”.  That’s far too broad a wording; here in Oregon, patients aren’t allowed to medicate “in public view”.  But “in front of other people” could be the patient’s own friends or family in their own private residence or a hospital or a hospice.  It is an insult, because it treats marijuana smoking as if it is a shameful act that must be hidden from other.  We don’t require people on Vicodin, Percocet, or OxyContin to swallow their pills without anyone present, why would we require the same of medical cannabis?

The Beach Reporter -
A unanimous decision by the Planning Commission to officially ban medical marijuana dispensaries in Redondo Beach will next be recommended for the City Council’s consideration.

The Planning Commission held a public hearing in nearly empty chambers April 17, and with zero members of the public offering input, made quick work of staff’s recommendation to transform a two-year moratorium on the establishment of medical marijuana dispensaries within the city to a permanent prohibition via an amended zoning code.

“This is an issue all South Bay cities have been dealing with,” said Planning Director Randy Berler. “The action was against a dispensary that came in without the city’s approval … at a time when dispensaries were popping up all over. We were one of many cities to impose moratoriums.”

With a looming expiration date, Berler and city staff recommended to the Planning Commission an outright ban of medical marijuana dispensaries and an amendment to the zoning ordinance that specifically reflects that ban. Staff did offer the commission a second option during last Thursday’s meeting, one that would permit but stringently regulate dispensaries within the city, but that alternative was quickly dismissed.

In a 100-plus-page staff report, Berler cited many articles and studies that indicated that where medical marijuana dispensaries were established, the quality of public health, safety and welfare had been compromised.

“There were communities that allowed the dispensaries and were sympathetic to their users, but there were unintended, unforeseen consequences,” Berler said Friday, mentioning for example an increase of crime and outright public use of marijuana within close proximity to the dispensary.

Berler also explained that a prohibition of medical marijuana dispensaries in Redondo was the most “legally defensible” position for the city to take, an opinion shared by City Attorney Mike Webb.

“It’s a difficult situation for a city to be in when you are stuck between federal law and state law,” said Webb.

This is one of those stories that highlights the need for you to get involved in changing our marijuana laws.  There were zero members of the public who showed up to testify in favor of a South Bay-area dispensary.  When we don’t show up, the prohibitionists always win.

We can do something to help fight this at the federal level.  Call Congress at 202-224-3121 and tell them to support Ron Paul’s HR5842, the medical marijuana patients protection bill.  This would tell the federal government “hands-off” the twelve medical marijuana states.  Maybe then the city attorneys in California won’t be so nervous about allowing dispensaries.

Presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton swung through Oregon this week.  My local weekly newspaper interviewed her about many subjects, including Oregon’s successful medical marijuana program.  It looks like she’s waffling a bit from her earlier statements that she’d end the DEA raids on medical marijuana states:

Willamette Week | “Twenty Minutes With Hillary” | April 9th, 2008
What would you do as president about the federal government not recognizing Oregon’s Medical Marijuana Program as legal?

We’ve got to have a clear understanding of the workings of pain relief and the control of pain. And there needs to be greater research and openness to the research that’s already been done. I don’t think it’s a good use of federal law-enforcement resources to be going after people who are supplying marijuana for medicinal purposes.

So you’d stop the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s raids on medical marijuana grows?

What we would do is prioritize what the DEA should be doing, and that would not be a high priority. There’s a lot of other more important work that needs to be done.

So does that mean that when the DEA finishes up with its important work, then the DEA should be tackling the low-priority issue of raiding medical marijuana states?

Look, Senator Clinton, it’s not a fiscal issue, it’s a medical issue and it’s a states rights issue.  It’s not a question of it being a poor use of federal resources; even if it were an efficient use of federal resources, it would be wrong, period.  Medical marijuana raids do not need to be re-prioritized, they need to be eliminated.

Eyewitness News WPRI / FOX Providence - Providence, Rhode Island News, Weather, Traffic and Sports | R.I. lawmakers consider allowing medical marijuana stores
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Nonprofit businesses would be allowed to sell marijuana to chronically ill patients under proposals Rhode Island lawmakers are expected to consider this week.

The bills would allow so-called “compassion centers” to sell up to 2.5 ounces of the drug every 15 days to a patient or his caregiver if they are enrolled in an existing medical marijuana program overseen by the state Health Department. Rhode Island became the eleventh state in the country in 2006 to legalize marijuana for medical purposes, although the drug remains illegal under federal law.

And the state law contains a major flaw: it never explains how patients can buy marijuana, since dealing it remains a crime in Rhode Island. Opening distribution centers would eliminate the need for patients to meet with violent drug dealers or travel through areas plagued by drug-related crime, said Rep. Thomas Slater, who sponsored the latest measure. His bill would allow a maximum of three distribution sites in the state.

“I think it would be a safe place, an area they could get (marijuana) without a problem,” he said. The House Committee on Health, Education and Welfare was expected to hear testimony on Slater’s bill Tuesday, although a vote was not expected, said Larry Berman, a spokesman for House Speaker William Murphy.

A Senate committee was scheduled to vote on a similar bill Wednesday. The bill is likely to face opposition. Gov. Don Carcieri, a Republican, has repeatedly vetoed bills creating the state’s medical marijuana program because it violates federal law. He would also veto any expansion of the program, Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal said.

Lawmakers in the Democratic-dominated General Assembly have always overridden Carcieri’s vetoes. Opening marijuana distribution centers in Rhode Island could also attract unwanted attention from federal law enforcement authorities, Slater said. Federal agents have not targeted patients for enrolling in Rhode Island’s medical marijuana program, saying they focus on upper-level drug dealers.

But the Drug Enforcement Administration did raid about two dozen marijuana dispensaries in the Los Angeles area last year. The centers were designed to serve patients seeking marijuana for pain relief. A DEA spokesman in Boston did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Medical high jinks leave Tom Cruise camp fuming
Tom Cruise isn’t getting any giggles from a new strain of medical marijuana being marketed as “Tom Cruise Purple.”

Word is that the actor’s lawyers are taking a serious look at the strong brand of bud after we brought it to their attention.

One of Cruise’s friends found it “outrageous” that licensed cannabis clubs in Northern California are selling vials of pot featuring a picture of Cruise laughing hysterically.

Like other followers of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, Cruise is opposed to the use of psychotropic drugs.

Staffers at several California clinics we called said they were forbidden to discuss any of the herbal varieties in their “inventory.”

But one weed devotee said, “I heard it’s the kind of pot that makes you hallucinate.”

Tom Cruise Purple, huh? Does it make you jump on a couch and sing in your underwear? Now Tom’s been on a rampage against modern psychiatry and an over-reliance on psychotropic prescriptions; I can even agree with him on that point to an extent. But you’d think someone who is so against the modern pharmaceuticals could at least see the benefit in natural herbal remedies. We’re on the same side on this one, Tom, you just don’t know it yet.

Last Tuesday, 2/26, twin bills were introduced in the Rhode Island General Assembly that would regulate distribution of medical marijuana by allowing a non-profit Compassion Center, an independent state-regulated facility, to distribute medical marijuana to Rhode Island’s licensed patients. In the House, Representative Tom Slater introduced H7888, and in the Senate, Senator Rhoda Perry introduced S2693. Click here to read its text.

(2) “Compassion center” means a not-for-profit entity registered under section 21-28.6-10 that acquires, possesses, cultivates, manufactures, delivers, transfers, transports, supplies or dispenses marijuana, or related supplies and educational materials to registered qualifying patients and their registered primary caregivers who have designated it as one of their primary caregivers.

Bill would also allow RI to accept recommendations from CT and MA

Medical marijuana dispensaries banned - San Jose Mercury News

Medical marijuana dispensaries won’t be allowed to open in Contra Costa’s unincorporated areas as county supervisors Tuesday unanimously agreed to ban them.

Too often dispensaries are a gateway for people with questionable medical ailments to obtain marijuana and then sell it on the streets, supervisors said.

“While I am empathetic to patients with serious and terminal illness, the marijuana dispensaries have attracted both criminal and nuisance problems to the communities where they operate,” said Supervisor Mary Piepho of Discovery Bay.

Such facilities have been prohibited since the county approved a temporary moratorium in April 2006. But that moratorium expires April 10, which is why supervisors fast-tracked the permanent ordinance banning land uses that violate state or federal law.

Banning new facilities will inspire a black market for medical marijuana sales, patient advocates told supervisors.”The smart thing to do would be to regulate these (dispensaries) and have a safe environment rather than people having to go through backdoor means,” said Armando Soto with Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group.

Supervisors said that patients are still free to smoke marijuana in their homes for medical purposes or grow it themselves, as permitted by state law.”The use of (medical) marijuana is allowed by patients who qualify,” said Supervisor Susan Bonilla of Concord. “We’re not changing that provision.”

Sure, the Contra Costa patients can use marijuana… if only they can find some. And if they can’t get it at a legal, regulated dispensary, they are going to get it from an illegal, unregulated drug dealer. Nothing like government providing price supports and guaranteed clientèle to black market operations, huh?

This insanity will continue so long as marijuana remains illegal for healthy people. I still don’t get why the cancer patient and the healthy person sharing a doobie means one of them is a criminal deserving of prison. So long as non-patients have to pay exorbitant black market prices, that black market will continue to set the prices and the public’s perception of the legal dispensaries in California. You just can’t have a black market run alongside a white market without both becoming a little bit gray.