THE STATE
L.A. orders 140 dispensaries shut down
The City of Los Angeles has notified 140 medical marijuana dispensaries that they must shut down immediately, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The notices were sent to facilities that did not submit applications to take part in a lottery in which the city chooses the 100 dispensaries that will be allowed to operate.
The lottery is an attempt to reduce the number of dispensaries operating in the city.
San Bernardino County enacts ban
The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors has approved an ordinance that bans medical marijuana dispensaries in the unincorporated county and imposes restrictions on patients’ ability to grow cannabis.
The new law, criticized as overly restrictive by opponents, defines a dispensary as three or more people involved in the cultivation or distribution of marijuana. The ordinance also bans outdoor cultivation of marijuana.
Bay area ASA and dispensary to help Japan
The San Francisco chapter for Americans For Safe Access and a local dispensary have launched a fundraising effort to help Japanese victims of the recent earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country recently. The goal is to raise $5,000 in the next few weeks, says David Goldman, a spokesman with the local ASA chapter. Credit or debit donations are being collected at the dispensary and the ASA plans to collect solicit at its monthly meeting.
THE NATION
Medical cannabis expected to be a $1.7 billion market
Medical marijuana will soon be a $1.7 billion market in the nation this year, according to a report from Medical News Today.
About 25 million people are eligible to get marijuana under a recommendation and purchase it legally under state laws and about 730,000 people do so.
Federal health institute posts info about medical marijuana
The National Cancer Institute—part of a federal agency—has added a new medical cannabis section to its website.
Under the “complementary and alternative section,” the institute, which falls under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides an overview on the use of cannabis to treat people with cancer-related illnesses.
Arizona unveils new MMJ guidelines
The Arizona Department of Health Services has released guidelines for the use of medical marijuana following voter approval of a November ballot measure.
Patients must have their physicians complete a certification document while dispensaries must be non-profit and include security measures such as security cameras, under the rules.
Federal audits being used against dispensaries
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has begun auditing medical marijuana dispensaries and asking them to pay back taxes.
The agency has told the dispensaries that businesses trafficking in controlled substances cannot deduct normal business expenses.
A Fairfax dispensary that was the first to be audited in California was told that it could owe the government several millions of dollars.
Colorado approves too-medicated to drive limits
The Colorado House of Representatives has approved a bill setting the limit on how much marijuana can be in a driver’s system before he or she is considered too impaired to drive, the Denver Post reports.
Drivers with 5 nanograms or more of THC per milliliter of blood will be considered impaired under the law.
No leniency for Willie Nelson in Texas case
A Texas judge says she won’t go easy on country music icon Willie Nelson in a case involving misdemeanor marijuana possession. The prosecutor in the case, Kit Bramblett, had previously joked about having Nelson perform “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” in exchange for leniency, possibly a $100 fine. Judge Becky Dean-Walker was not amused. “My court is not a jester court,” she was quoted in New York’s Daily News. “I understand that people are star-struck, I’m not one of them.”
Nelson was arrested in November when his tour bus stopped near the West Texas community near the Mexican border and officers discovered six ounces on board.
THE WORLD
Researcher studies ganja-smoking Jamaican mothers
A University of Massachusetts, Amherst researcher has completed a study on Jamaican infants and children whose mothers used cannabis during pregnancy.
Dr. Melanie Dreher said she found no difference between the children of 30 cannabis users and 30 non-users who were followed during the study, which tracked the children from infancy to age 5.
Australia considering allowing hemp foods
Australia may allow for food—such as ice cream, cake and beer—made with hemp.
The country’s food standards agency is considering an application from a doctor seeking to have the country’s ban lifted and is seeking public comment on the proposal. The agency has already concluded, however that the level of THC is so low in hemp that anyone consuming products made with hemp seed or hemp oil, for example, would not feel any psychoactive or medicinal effect.
