News Nuggets

San Diego

Gulf War veteran sues San Diego after medical marijuana bust leads to lost custody of children

San Diego couple loses custody of two children after marijuana use.

Michael Lewis, a Gulf-War veteran, and his wife Lauren Taylor are suing San Diego County after their two young children were taken by Child Services for one year, according to the New York Daily News. Lewis claims that his time in the war exposed him to chemical weapons, leaving him with excruciating migraines. The veteran applied for a medical marijuana prescription to deal with the pain. On August 5, 2011 the police received a tip that the couple was running an illegal daycare center at their home exposing children to marijuana. After investigation, it was clear that although a daycare center was not being facilitated; marijuana was present at the home in proximity of their two children, ages two and four. Lewis assured officers that the marijuana was obtained legally through a prescription and his children were never exposed to it.  Three days later police returned to the home and removed the children to the Polinsky Center, a shelter for abused children in San Diego. Lewis and Taylor are suing seven officers and the City of Coronado for civil rights violations, battery, false imprisonment and negligence. Lewis claims that the police butchered his character, making claims that the veteran was a drug dealer and a danger to his children.

Arizona

Endexx secures exclusive worldwide rights for medical cannabis dispensing technology

Vending machines have been conveniently providing all sorts of goods with the press of a few buttons. Junk food, vegetables, cigarettes—even anything from replacement headphones to iPads. So the thought of a vending machine that offers medical cannabis and related products isn’t that farfetched, especially when it comes to your average MMJ prescription. The company Endexx, through its owned subsidiary Dispense Labs LLC. and its newest agreement with AutoCrib Inc., plans to have a variety prescriptions as well a recreationally related edibles, concentrates and vaporizers available via dispense systems, according to The Sacramento Bee. The machines are estimated to have between 800-1000 individually packaged items, as well as an image and description for each item displayed for the customer. Not to mention the technology of biometric fingerprinting for patient verification and other relative methods of tracking and accountability. This idea has been in research for quite a few years, a one-of-a-kind dispensary specifically engineered with medical cannabis in mind.

Michigan

Board meeting to discuss michigan’s Medical Cannabis Act

Michigan’s Medical Cannabis Act might have added some new changes according to Michigan Public Radio’s Jake Neher. A state meeting is scheduled to discuss if new health conditions should be covered under the measure, which was put into place in 2008. Although a previous board had voted to include people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and Parkinson’s disease to obtain medical cannabis, the two diseases were never stamped to the official list. The discrepancy of what medical ailments warrants the use of medical cannabis is why the current panel is revisiting the act. However, some proponents of the Medical Cannabis Act are questioning whether or not the panel will find themselves repeating the past, claiming that there is a lack of adequate representation from the medical community that will be present. State officials say however that there will be adequate representation on all side during the latest visit to the measure.

Washington

Seattle cops handed out Doritos at cannabis rally

Seattle law enforcement is using creative ways to outreach to participants at the Seattle Hempfest, according to Kiro Television News. Police officers handed out free bags of Doritos to festival-goers attached with information about Initiative 502. The initiative is the latest to pass, allowing small amounts of legal cannabis for consumption, for adults 21 and over. The bag of chips feeds into the “munchies” myth that is said to come with consuming cannabis—a tongue-in-cheek ploy by the Seattle Police Department to get people more well-informed about the initiative. “It’s meant to be funny and ultimately our No. 1 goal is community outreach and public education,” said Sgt. Sean Whitcomb about the outreach at Hempfest. Whitcomb says there is still confusion about the initiative and hopes to make the legalities more clearly to cannabis-users. The festival is the largest pro-cannabis gathering in the country with an expected 250,000 guests to attend the three-day event.

Bay Area

Feminism in cannabis culture

New York Magazine’s Anne Friedman penned a thought-provoking piece titled “Why Women Aren’t At Home in the World of Weed” this past July caused a stir in the medical cannabis community. Friedman claims that women in the world of medical cannabis are portrayed as sexy bombshells and little else in a male-dominated culture. Friedman says that despite many successful women from all demographics enjoy medicinal cannabis; the face of women in the industry has been painted by young and sexy vixens as seen in medical cannabis expos around the country. However, San Francisco Chronicle’s Smell the Truth blog claims that there are valid reasons as to why the face of women in the world of cannabis has been one-sided, in their analysis. The criminalization of cannabis despite its acceptance for medicinal use is what keeps many women hesitant to become vocal about their cannabis use. Furthermore, horror stories of parents being punished for using cannabis in their home is another issue that scares women who are mothers to become public about their cannabis use.

Colorado

Colorado medical cannabis dispensary golf tournament raises $40,000 for multiple sclerosis

A charity golf tournament was recently hosted by The Clinic (one of the state’s prominent MMJ centers), celebrating its successful charity golf tournament in its fourth year—which earned a whopping $40,000 dollars for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, according to Ground Swell Denver. MS is a disease of the immune system which attacks the nervous system and can cause a number of symptoms, including numb limbs, paralysis and even loss of vision (severity can vary dramatically from person to person). Studies are split between whether or not medical cannabis can be used to assist in healing the disease, but there are a number of stories proving its success. Representatives from such leading companies as Heady Glass, Dixie Elixirs and CloudPenz, among hundreds of other MMJ community members teed off together in support for the cause.

Los Angeles

MMJ groups defeat CA vaporizer ban for now

California Senator Ellen Corbett’s SB 648—a bill to ban vaporizer use in much of CA—was withdrawn this week, according to the San Francisco Gate. The office for California NORML reports this morning that Corbett has held the bill over for another year. Medical cannabis activists across the state lobbied to defeat the bill, which would have banned e-cigarette use wherever tobacco use was banned. Cannabis patients adapt e-cigarette devices for cannabis-use, and patient advocates say it’s sometimes the only way they can use the pain and nausea drug. A 100-person citizen lobbying campaign in Sacramento orchestrated by Americans for Safe Access lobbied Aug 12 to kill the bill.

THE NATION

Arkansas voters could see multiple proposals to legalize medical marijuana on . . .

Residents of Arkansas may be seeing the phrase “medical marijuana” on their ballots more than once in the coming months, according to the Kansas City Star. Recently, a measure from a group called Arkansas for Responsible Medicine (ARM) inched its way closer to state voters when Attorney General Dustin McDaniel certified its popular name and ballot title. The ARM collective can now begin working on obtaining signatures in an attempt to gain a spot on the 2014 ballot. ARM, as well as various other pro-medical marijuana collectives are gearing up in preparation of the 2014 Arkansas vote. The group needs 62,507 signatures to be eligible.

Medical marijuana efforts soldier on without Congress’ help

Illinois joins 19 other U.S. states in its acknowledgement of marijuana as a therapeutic product, containing medicinal values. Once the law is fully put into practice, it will be among the dozen states that license the production and dispensing of medical marijuana. It should be noted, two states—Washington and Colorado—are in the process of licensing the commercial production and sale for recreational purposes, according to The Daily Caller. It kind of goes without saying, but times are changing.  Whether or not federal law will catch up with the changing of times soon is still in question.

Business Symposium To Focus On Legalization Of Medical Marijuana

Huge possibilities await the cannabis industry in the coming years. In Illinois alone, the NCIA presume 1,000 new jobs generated due to the recent legalization of medical marijuana, according to CBS. These jobs include a demand for individuals who can produce and package products like lotions and lozenges for patients uninterested in inhaling marijuana, as well as opportunities for people involved in accounting who can specialize in marijuana revenues. The list continues adding software providers, insurance providers, as well as attorneys, all being reputable fields in demand by the cannabis industry.

THE WORLD

Uruguay has taken a leap to legalize marijuana

Uruguay’s president has taken a huge leap in favor of marijuana. A bill to legalize marijuana has been passed by the House of Representatives and is expected to be approved by the Senate and signed off by President Jose Mujica, according to the BBC. Chances look highly promising for the President’s approval, as the initiative to legalize marijuana wasn’t spearheaded by activists—but by the President himself. Upon its approval, Uruguay will be the first country in the world to fully legalize the growing, selling and recreational use of cannabis.