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Marijuana Blog

Dutch coffee shops face new curbs on cannabis sale

Category: News | Posted on Mon, October, 10th 2011 by THCFinder

(Reuters) - Coffee shops in the Netherlands were left wondering on Saturday how to comply with restrictions announced by the Dutch government on the sale of "strong" cannabis, saying enforcement would be difficult given the laws on production.

The Netherlands is famous for its liberal soft drugs policies. A Dutch citizen can grow a maximum of five cannabis plants at home for personal use but large-scale production and transport is a crime.

On Friday, the coalition government said it would seek to ban what it considered to be highly potent forms of cannabis -- known as "skunk" -- placing them in the same category as hard drugs such as heroin or cocaine.

But the industry said the guidelines were not clear enough.

"Commercial cannabis growers are already breaking the law so how can testing be legal? It's not clear what coffee shops need to do," said Maurice Veldman, a lawyer from the Dutch cannabis retailers association who represents coffee shops in court.

A pioneer of liberal drug policies, the Netherlands has backtracked on its tolerance in the last few years, announcing plans in May to ban tourists from coffee shops, which are popular attractions in cities such as Amsterdam.

The government said it would now outlaw the sale of cannabis whose concentration of THC, seen as the main psychoactive substance, exceeds 15 percent.

The average THC concentration in cannabis sold by Dutch coffee shops is between 16 and 18 percent, according to the Trimbos Institute.

"All this will do is lead to people smoking more joints and me selling more grams. But as it's used with tobacco it will damage their health more," said Marc Josemans, who owns a coffee shop in the city of Maastricht.

The Dutch government says high THC content is detrimental to mental health, particularly when used at a young age, and that it wants to send a clear signal that strong cannabis poses an unacceptable risk to users.

(Source) http://www.reuters.com

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Calif. braces for medical marijuana crackdown

Category: Medical Marijuana | Posted on Mon, October, 10th 2011 by THCFinder

CBS News) Thousands of medical marijuana outlets in California are bracing for a federal crackdown. Prosecutors say the shops are doing more than just helping their patients.

CBS News correspondent John Blackstone reports that, for Justice Department officials, the photographs of marijuana being sold in lollipops and candy show the problem with California's medical marijuana law.

"Where there's marijuana there's money. And lots of it," said Melinda Haag, U.S. Attorney for Northern California. "People are using the cover of medical marijuana to make extraordinary amounts of money. In short, (they're) engaged in drug trafficking."

Medical marijuana has been legal in California since voters approved it in 1996. Fifteen other states now have similar laws, but marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

Now federal officials have sent warning letters to dozens of California dispensaries telling them to shut down or risk arrest and property seizure.

Lynnette Shaw has been given 45 days to close the dispensary she has run for 14 years.

"It's so mean, it's so inhumane that I'm broken hearted and I'm appalled and I'm shocked. And i'm righteously indignant," Shaw said.

Shaw, who operates in Fairfax, a northern California town of about 8,000, says she doesn't just help the sick, she pays taxes.

"We're the number three sales tax contributor to our town. We are a very good resource for the community," Shaw said.

But federal officials say California has become a source of marijuana that is now shipped across the country.

(Source) http://www.cbsnews.com

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Overkill?

Category: Fun | Posted on Mon, October, 10th 2011 by THCFinder

Would this even smoke right?

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R.I. medical-marijuana advocates: Calif. a completely different world

Category: News | Posted on Mon, October, 10th 2011 by THCFinder

PROVIDENCE — Advocates of Rhode Island’s medical-marijuana program were not surprised when they learned that four U.S. Attorneys in California announced last week that they were cracking down on large commercial marijuana operations that make millions of dollars and supply the drug to hundreds of dispensaries across the state.

But, they said, it’s important to note that Rhode Island is nothing like California. The biggest difference is that the licensing of dispensaries in California is not regulated, while state law in Rhode Island permits the opening of just three dispensaries in the nation’s smallest state.

“It’s a completely different world,” said JoAnne Leppanen, executive director of the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition. “It’s apples and oranges. The face of the patients has gotten lost in California.”

The announcement in California came just days after Governor Chafee issued a statement saying that he would not grant licenses to three dispensaries that the state Health Department selected last spring to provide marijuana to approximately 4,000 patients in the Rhode Island medical-marijuana program.

The dispensaries are the Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center in Providence, Summit Medical Compassion Center in Warwick and Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center in Portsmouth. Chafee, bowing to a threat from Peter F. Neronha, the U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island, said he was worried the federal authorities might raid the dispensaries and arrest anyone affiliated with their operation.

The governor’s decision angered patients and advocates of the program who said Chafee was violating state law by refusing to grant the licenses, and robbing patients of an opportunity to legally buy marijuana from state-regulated facilities.

The move by the federal prosecutors in California seems to buttress Chafee’s argument.

“Large commercial operations cloak their money-making activities in the guise of helping sick people when, in fact, they are helping themselves,” said Benjamin B. Wagner, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California. “Our interest is in enforcing federal criminal law, not prosecuting seriously sick people and those who are caring for them.”

Added Laura E. Duffy, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California: “The California marijuana industry is not about providing medicine to the sick. It’s a pervasive for-profit industry that violates federal law. As the number-one marijuana-producing state in the country, California is exporting not just marijuana, but all the serious repercussions that come with it, including significant public-safety issues and perhaps irreparable harm to our youth.”

California has an estimated 5,000 marijuana dispensaries or stores in the state, including about 1,000 in the greater Los Angeles area. Supporting the industry is more than 200,000 patients who are licensed by the state to buy medical marijuana.

Leppanen said that California, which first permitted medical marijuana in 1996, lost its way years ago. She said that physicians on the Venice Beach boardwalk offer, for $50, passersby the opportunity to get the OK to buy marijuana. She said she wants to see the marijuana dispensaries in Rhode Island, also referred to as compassion centers, “reflect the Rhode Island population.”

Leppanen and Seth Bock, proprietor of Greenleaf Compassionate, said the Rhode Island dispensaries would be tightly regulated and serve only patients in the medical-marijuana program. Bock pointed out that the program’s growth has been steady, but fairly slow, climbing to 4,000 in five years.

“What has been proposed here is a much smaller scale,” he said, adding that California has been “pushing the boundaries of medical programs.”

Bock and Leppanen said that they would be willing to meet with Chafee and his staff with the hope of reaching an agreement on the future of the dispensaries. They said the answer might be in scaling back the grow operations and revenue projections of the three Rhode Island establishments.

Chris Reilly, a spokesman for the Slater Center, said that Slater officials also would be willing to reduce its size “as long as the patient needs can be met.”

When Neronha, the state’s federal prosecutor, first hinted that the federal authorities might raid the Rhode Island dispensaries, he cited the projected size of Slater, Summit and Greenleaf. Summit called for revenues of $24.8 million in year three and up to 8,000 patients, while Slater projected 1,500 patients and revenues of $2.9 million after two years.

Greenleaf projections are more modest.

Christine Hunsinger, Chafee’s spokeswoman, said that Claire Richards, the governor’s chief legal counsel, will meet with Leppanen about the dispensaries and discuss the possibility of reaching an agreement on smaller marijuana distribution that might be acceptable to federal authorities.

She said that the governor supports the medical-marijuana program, and he wants to do what’s right by the patients.

“There is a community in need of this,” she said.

(Source) http://www.projo.com

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