Compiled by CULTURE Staff
THE STATE
New restrictions for Long Beach collectives
The Long Beach City Council has added new restrictions to where marijuana collectives can locate in the city.
Revisions approved in November created buffer zones around parks, adding to existing rules that prohibit dispensaries or growing cannabis near schools, residential areas or other collectives. The new rules require nine sites to shut down, leaving only 27 dispensaries to operate.
L.A. County bans dispensaries in unincorporated areas
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has banned medical marijuana dispensaries from unincorporated areas of the county, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The proposal, which is anticipated to be finalized this month, also calls for shutting down unlicensed shops that have opened in the unincorporated areas. L.A. city officials have previously imposed their own restrictions—which have been legally contested—on dispensaries within their jurisdiction, essentially allowing less than 200 to remain in operation, but outlawing many others.
Collectives will not be allowed in unincorporated Orange County
Medical marijuana dispensaries will no longer be allowed to operate in unincorporated areas of Orange County, The Orange County Register reports.
The Board of Supervisors approved a ban in November. Officials said allowing collectives to operate could have a negative impact on public health and safety and encourage stores to cluster.
Until now, the county had no regulations for collectives, allowing them to operate in the unincorporated county.
THE NATION
Cannabis skin care products in the works for patients
A Colorado company is marketing a new line of skin care products that contains cannabis.
Apothecanna founder James Kennedy, who has created products for Aveda, called cannabis a very versatile product when it comes to skin care, helping to relieve inflammation.
Because of federal laws, Kennedy had to move from Brooklyn to Colorado to sell the product, only available at dispensaries and sold to patients with medical marijuana documentation. He hopes to market it in other states that have medical marijuana laws such as California and New Mexico.
Medical cannabis lobbying group forms
Medical marijuana industry leaders are creating a Washington D.C.-based trade group to lobby on behalf of their business interests, according to the New York Times.
The National Cannabis Industry Association will lobby Congress to loosen laws regarding the use of marijuana while helping its members deal with local regulations.
“This is an industry that is emerging—from the dispensaries to the ancillary businesses that are now coming out of the shadows,” says Aaron Smith, the group’s executive director.
Arizona city working on regulations for dispensaries
With the passage of an Arizona ballot measure allowing for medical use of marijuana, the city of Scottsdale is moving forward with a proposal regulating where dispensaries can be located.
The Arizona Republic reports that the proposal could go to the City Council for a vote in early 2011.
Medical pot support very strong among Massachusetts voters
Massachusetts voters showed strong support for medical marijuana reforms in districts across the state in the November election, the Massachusetts Daily Collegian reports.
A majority favored medical use and a repeal on prohibitions of pot sales in questions on the ballot in several towns and districts. Supporters say they hope the results influence legislators to develop taxation and regulation plans for marijuana.
Activist Marc Emery moved to Georgia prison
A Vancouver political activist convicted of selling marijuana seeds to U.S. customers has been moved to a federal prison in Georgia.
Supporters of Marc Emery had petitioned that he be allowed to serve his five-year prison sentence in his native Canada. Emery had originally been ordered to a California prison. In a blog entry on his Cannabis Culture website addressed to his wife, Emery said the change of location was to send him “as far away from you as possible.”
Rapper Wiz Khalifa tweets about marijuana arrest
Rapper Wiz Khalifa was arrested on suspicion of possessing marijuana after a concert in North Carolina, CBS News reports.
Several hip-hop web sites said authorities halted his show 45 minutes after it started and raided his tour bus where police said they found marijuana.
Khalifa, who has his own line of rolling papers, tweeted “waken…baken . . . wrist still achin. thnx for tha love and support.”
THE WORLD
Activists give New Zealand cops a “smoke bomb”
Protesters pushed a marijuana “smoke bomb” into a police station in
Wellington, New Zealand, according to news reports.
About 100 protesters were there as part of the Armistice Tour advocating for the legalization of marijuana. During the protest, a shopping trolley full of burning cannabis leaves was pushed into the police foyer.
Police are considering filing charges against the activists.
Cannabis could inhibit growth of breast cancer
Researchers in Italy say that compounds in marijuana could inhibit the spread of breast cancer cells, according to an article in the May issue of the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.
Pre-clinical trial data showed that some cannabis compounds inhibited or canceled cell growth in animals as well as some human culture.
