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Prosecutors portrayed Fredrick Wayne Dagit in court Thursday as a drug dealer who allowed more than 150 pounds of marijuana to be stored in his home.

But the attorney for the 60-year-old owner of Williamstown Township’s Green Leaf Smokers Club painted him as a compassionate caregiver who was operating within the spirit of the state’s medical marijuana law.

The case, Dagit’s attorney James White told a judge, “involves a bunch of old guys smoking marijuana.”

Dagit has been in jail on a $500,000 bond ever since police raided the club as well as his house in Okemos two months ago. According to court documents, police seized more than 225 pounds of marijuana – all of which was provided to Dagit by a confidential informant – as well as about 40 marijuana plants.

At Thursday’s hearing in 55th District Court, during which prosecutors amended the charges and reduced the maximum sentence Dagit faces from 15 to seven years, Judge Donald Allen agreed to release Dagit on an electronic tether.

He is expected to be released within days.

After the hearing, White called the initial bond “outrageous,” adding that it was “further indication that this was a political issue regarding the marijuana statute.”

The charges

Dagit, who has a medical marijuana card, faces the following charges: Two counts of possession with intent to deliver between 11 and 99 pounds of marijuana; growing 20 or more marijuana plants; maintaining a drug house; and possession of marijuana.

A preliminary hearing, which determines if the case advances to trial, had been scheduled for Thursday, but was delayed until Aug. 12.

Assistant Prosecutor Bill Crino laid out some of the case against Dagit in court Thursday in arguing a motion about whether he could present certain testimony at the preliminary hearing. Allen ruled that he would allow the testimony.

A confidential informant told police that he had been providing Dagit with marijuana since March. Dagit began operating the club in February. Court documents say Dagit paid as much as $35,000 for about 14 pounds of marijuana, although Dagit paid for some and the informant allowed him to buy some on credit.

Police then used the informant to arrange to sale of more than 100 pounds of marijuana to Dagit.

According to court documents: On May 26, the informant met Dagit at his home on Hillcrest Avenue, and put three duffel bags containing about 154 pounds of marijuana in a basement closet to store it there. Dagit gave the informant a key to his house and told the informant he could buy his own lock for the closet.

Dagit and the informant agreed that 50 pounds of the marijuana was reserved exclusively for Dagit, according to the documents.

Later that same day, the informant delivered about 70 pounds of marijuana to the club. They agreed the total price would be $56,950 and Dagit gave the informant $10,000 in cash as an initial payment.

Soon after, officers from the Tri-County Metro Narcotics Squad raided the club with guns drawn. They also searched Dagit’s home.
‘Overzealous’ team

White called it “a classic case of entrapment” by “an overzealous law enforcement team, who weren’t satisfied after being turned away.”

He said Dagit sometime earlier threw an undercover police officer out of the club after the officer tried to buy marijuana, but didn’t have a medical marijuana card.

“All of the marijuana that is alleged to have been the source of this crime can be accounted for by patients and/or caregivers that were members of the (club),” White said.

Source: http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20100730/NEWS01/7300330/1002/NEWS01

Michigan – There’s a budding attraction in Genesee County: a Medical Marijuana University.

Patients in need of medical marijuana can now learn more about the new law that just went into effect this year and their options at Oaksterdam University.

University officials say this weekend people from all across the country will be learning how to grow and handle medical marijuana.

The Genesee County Compassion Club, a medical marijuana advocates group, is setting up for their fifth weekend operating Oaksterdam University in Genesee Township.

This is the first and only Oaksterdam campus outside of California to host seminars on medical marijuana.

“It’s truly fantastic to finally be able to educate people freely, openly, about this as a medicine,” said Jeremy Rupinski, director of the Genesee County Compassion Club.

Classes are given to patients, caregivers and the general public on the medical law and how to grow the plant efficiently indoors.

“We don’t limit it to just cardholders,” Rupinski said. “We have people from out of state coming. In fact about 40 percent of our students are out-of-state students.”

Dispelling ignorance about medical marijuana is what class facilitators say is one of the best parts of the seminar.

This weekend’s Oaksterdam University seminar costs $250 to attend.

Source: http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=news/local&id=7584315

R.I. – Boston man plans to start a medical marijuana school in Rhode Island that he said will be the first of its kind in New England.

“It will teach folks items such as safety, legal compliance, as well as of course medical marijuana cultivation,” Luis Hernandez told NBC 10 IN a phone interview.

Hernandez said the first class will be held on Sept. 25 and Sept. 26 in Barrington. He estimated that it will cost about $200 for two days of training.

“Depending on what our costs are, that will be adjusted. So that’s not a number that’s written in stone,” Hernandez said.

Several groups in Rhode Island already offer free medical marijuana training.

“We take care of whatever a patient needs. If a patient needs to learn how to grow, we’ll teach them how to grow. If a patient needs a caregiver, we’ll provide them with a caregiver,” said George DesRoches of Help Is On The Way.

DesRoches founded Help Is On The Way, a Providence-based charity that works with marijuana patients. He’s also a licensed marijuana patient himself.

“Patients shouldn’t have to go pay to learn how to grow. There are services provided by organizations in the state of Rhode Island,” he said.

“Over half the patients who have licenses are on SSI or SSDI. That means they’re living on about $700 a month,” said JoAnne Leppanen of the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Center.

RIPAC also runs seminars for patients and caregivers free of charge.

“If someone’s going to teach you how to grow, what are their credentials? Are they licensed?” Leppanen said.

Hernandez said his class won’t use any actual marijuana because he’s not licensed in Rhode Island. But he said he’s passionate about teaching the class.

“I think that there’s a whole range of options of how to learn, and there’s a place for all of them. As well as for what we offer to the market.”

Hernandez said he’ll check to make sure people who take the class have marijuana licenses.

He said two people have confirmed they’ll attend, but he said he expects more to sign up.

Source: http://www2.turnto10.com/news/2010/jul/30/pot-101-man-teach-marijuana-class-ri-ar-171990/

As an increasing number of states enact, or are considering enacting, medical-marijuana legislation, employers are being forced to ponder what responsibilities they may have with respect to medical-marijuana users in their workforces, and the individuals who work side-by-side with them.

The confusion among employers in these states increased last fall when the U.S. Department of Justice issued guidelines announcing that the Justice Department, for the time being, will not enforce the Controlled Substances Act that classifies marijuana as a Schedule I substance and criminalizes its use.

The DOJ’s guidelines were immediately hailed by medical-marijuana users, activists and civil libertarians as a welcome relief from the Bush administration’s policy of zero tolerance for medical use of marijuana. Despite the federal government’s change in policy, however, employers in states with medical-marijuana laws must continue to exercise caution in addressing employment issues that arise in connection with medical-marijuana users in the workforce.

The DOJ’s decision to refrain from criminal prosecution of such use does not necessarily relieve employers from their obligations to address the potential dangers that may be associated with use of medical marijuana by their employees.

First, it must be understood that rather than granting medical-marijuana users, including those in the workforce, carte blanche to engage in the medical use of marijuana, the DOJ guidelines can be read as simply aimed at addressing the shortfall of resources that are available to the federal government in its War on Drugs.

The guidelines provide that the DOJ “should not focus federal resources … on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.” According to the guidelines, “prosecution of individuals … who use marijuana as part of a recommended treatment regimen consistent with applicable state law … is unlikely to be an efficient use of limited federal resources.”

However, despite advising that medical-marijuana users in states that have legalized marijuana’s medical use will not be sought out for prosecution, the DOJ guidelines do not go so far as to decriminalize its use under federal law.

To the contrary, the guidelines emphasize that they do “not alter in any way the Department’s authority to enforce federal law, including laws prohibiting the manufacture, production, distribution, possession, or use of marijuana on federal property.”

Further, the DOJ guidance explicitly states that it “does not ‘legalize’ marijuana or provide a legal defense to a violation of federal law, nor is it intended to create any privileges, benefits, or rights … enforceable by any individual … in any administrative, civil, or criminal matter.”

The guidance further warns that even “clear and unambiguous compliance with state law” does not “create a legal defense to a violation of the Controlled Substances Act.” Instead, the guideline “is intended solely as a guide to the exercise of investigative and prosecutorial discretion.”

Accordingly, there is nothing in the DOJ’s recent policy pronouncement that requires employers to turn a blind eye to medical-marijuana use by members of their workforce. Indeed, despite what some might consider a softening of the federal government’s position toward medical-marijuana use, a number of federal laws and regulations limiting the unchecked use of marijuana in the workplace are still on the books and should be carefully considered by employers in states that have enacted medical-marijuana laws.

For example, U.S. Department of Transportation regulations, pursuant to the Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991, require transportation-industry employers that have employees in “safety-sensitive” positions, such as pilots, school-bus drivers, truck drivers, train engineers, subway operators, aircraft-maintenance personnel, armed transit-security personnel and others, to have drug-free workplace programs that include both drug and alcohol testing.

These regulations are unaffected by the DOJ guidelines.

Indeed, the DOT issued its own policy statement on Oct. 22, 2009, regarding medical use of marijuana in response to numerous inquiries it received following the DOJ’s guidelines on criminal federal prosecutions. In the DOT’s statement , the agency made it abundantly “clear that the DOJ guidelines will have no bearing on the Department of Transportation’s regulated drug testing program.”

According to the DOT’s policy statement, DOT regulations do “not authorize ‘medical-marijuana’ under a state law to be a valid medical explanation for a transportation employee’s positive drug-test result.” The DOT further emphasized that “[i]t remains unacceptable for any safety-sensitive employee subject to drug testing under the Department of Transportation’s drug testing regulations to use marijuana.”

Employers must also consider their obligations under the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act, which imposes a general duty to maintain a safe workplace. This duty, which is set forth in what is commonly referred to as the Act’s General Duty Clause, provides that each employer covered by the Act must “furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees.”

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration website reports that “between 10 and 20 percent of the nation’s workers who die on the job test positive for alcohol or other drugs” and that “impairment by drug or alcohol use can constitute an avoidable workplace hazard.”

It is the position of OSHA that “drug-free workplace programs can help improve worker safety and health” and are “natural compliments to other initiatives that help ensure safe and healthy workplaces.”

Although not mandated by law, OSHA “strongly supports comprehensive drug-free workforce programs, especially within certain workplace environments, such as those involving safety-sensitive duties like operating machinery.” (1998 OSHA Advisory Letter, Enforcement Programs)

While OSHA supports workplace drug and alcohol programs, however, it does not currently maintain a standard applicable to such programs.

Nevertheless, failure to maintain such programs could be found to constitute a violation of OSHA’s General Duty Clause where the following four factors are found to exist: (1) the employer failed to keep its workplace free of a “hazard;” (2) the hazard was “recognized” either by the employer or by the employer’s industry generally; (3) the recognized hazard was causing or was likely to cause death or serious physical harm; and (4) there was a feasible means available that would eliminate or materially reduce the hazard.

Employers should also be mindful of potential obligations under the Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988, which requires some federal contractors and all federal grantees to agree to provide drug-free workplaces as a precondition of receiving a contract or grant from a federal agency.

While the Act does not require drug testing, a number of federal agencies (including the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and National Aeronautics and Space Administration) have issued regulations that require federal contractors, grantees and licensees to maintain fitness-for-duty requirements or drug-free workplace programs that do include drug testing.

For the time-being, at least, federal laws and regulations governing drug-free workplaces and drug-testing will likely take precedence over any rights under state laws permitting possession or use of medical-marijuana, especially to the extent that safety-sensitive positions within the workplace are impacted.

Any employer operating in a state that has enacted legislation legalizing the possession and use of medical-marijuana should therefore consider not only the state’s law, but also the many federal laws, regulations and policy statements in determining the best course of action when presented with an employee or applicant who claims the right to use medical marijuana under the state’s medical-marijuana statute.

Source: http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/story.jsp?storyId=488193341

A new version of medical marijuana is creating a buzz, just not with patients. By manipulating a specific chemical, growers and drug companies are creating a generation of cannabis products designed to treat pain, without giving users a high.

The labels on the medical marijuana at one Oakland dispensary include some familiar initials like THC — the active ingredient that gives users a high. But alongside is another set of initials most people are not familiar with — CBD, short for cannabidiol.

“In the past few years, numbers of breakthroughs have been made about the chemical compounds in cannabis plant. One of the most important discoveries is of a compound called CBD. CBD is medically very effective, but has no psychoactive effect,” Steve DeAngelo said.

DeAngleo runs the Harborside Health Center medical marijuana dispensary. He says a small, but growing number of scientists are exploring the uses of non-psychoactive CBD.

Some early research suggests the molecule could have benefits for fighting inflammation and muscle pain.

If CBD has flown under the radar, it may be because growers were not looking for it.

“Unfortunately, all of the CBD has been removed from the cannabis supply in California,” DeAngelo said. “The reason for that is in underground market, psychoactivity was the most desirable trait, anything not psychoactive was selected out by breeders.”

Now growers for Harborside have begun identifying and cultivating marijuana strains that are high in CBD, and in many cases, low in THC.

“So it offers an option to patients who are really looking for the medical effect of cannabis and don’t desire any of the psychoactivity,” DeAngelo said.

The idea of medical marijuana without the kick has also caught the eye of the pharmaceutical industry.

A British pharmaceutical company has just been given the go-ahead to market a cannabis spray in England called Sativex, based on a formula heavy in CBD.

“So it takes the whole plant it removes the active components, then there’s some of manipulation of the ratio of CBD to delta-9 THC, which makes it more pharmacologic,” Dr. Donald Abrams said.

Abrams is head of Hematology-Oncology at San Francisco General Hospital and a long time cannabis researcher at UCSF. He says while promising, CBD-based therapy by itself is still unproven.

“I don’t think we know because clinical trials have not really been done looking at CBD alone,” Abrams said.

Still, interest in less potent forms of medical marijuana is growing, along with the drug’s expanding use in treatment.

In blinded clinical trials at UC Davis, Dr. Barth Wilsey compared marijuana containing lower amounts of THC (the compound that produces the high) to samples with higher amounts. He found both, when inhaled through a vaporizer, were similarly effective at treating chronic pain in certain categories of patients.

“We’re trying to find the lowest dose, so that it’s not diverted to the recreational user,” Wilsey said.

At the Harborside dispensary in Oakland, DeAngelo believes locally grown, low dose products can successfully compete with versions under development by pharmaceutical companies.

“We have all the expertise that’s required to deliver this product to patients in a good way,” DeAngelo said.

Source:  http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/health&id=7583306http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/health&id=7583306

Greg Schoepp knows what it’s like to be disabled — the owner of Crown Lock and Hardware on Balboa Street has been in a wheelchair for almost 30 years since he was shot by a home invader.

Schoepp also knows what it’s like to get in and out of a property he’s renting at 2139 Taraval Street: Disability access is pretty easy. There’s no bad slope, and though the sidewalk isn’t quite level, it’s nothing he can’t handle. But there’s a problem: Schoepp wants to operate a medical cannabis dispensary at 2139 Taraval Street, and while Schoepp appears to have no issue with disability access at the location, city leaders are another matter entirely.

Schoepp’s permit to operate is stalled at the Mayor’s Office of Disability, which — thanks to legislation altered by Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier, also a wheelchair user — forces medical cannabis dispensaries to adhere to the strictest disability access requirements seen in San Francisco.

And right now, the MOD is telling Schoepp he needs to build a seven foot long level plane in his entrance way — essentially a “tunnel,” he says — from the sidewalk to his front door in order for him to pass their standards. That’s no small task for a small San Francisco storefront.

“They’re telling a guy in a wheelchair that I could somehow possibly tip over on my way through the door,” Schoepp says. The slope in his doorway is less than three degrees, according to Gordon Atkinson, Schoepp’s project architect, and the notion that a wheelchair-bound person could tip over on such a small grade is “ludicrous,” Atkinson says.

“They already want me to redesign half of Taraval Street (MCD owners must also deal with any inclines on the sidewalks in front of their businesses),” he says, “and now they want the doorway to be in seven feet in from the front of the building?”

Schoepp’s property used to be a chiropractor’s office. In that iteration, it passed the access test given by the Department of Building Inspection. But since he wants to open a pot club, he must go through MOD. Only medical cannabis dispensaries go through MOD; all other privately funded buildings’ disability access is screened — less onerously — by the Department of Building Inspection.

Schoepp applied for his business permit in November. After a contentious process and a marathon 12-hour hearing, the Planning Commission approved his permits in May. It’s now nearly August, and the Mayor’s Office of Disability is the final hurdle Schoepp needs to clear… before a 15-day window to appeal his permit opens up, and there are at least two neighbors on Taraval Street who will file appeals, according to the office of Supervisor Carmen Chu, who represents the area.

That means it could be well over a year from the time Schoepp filed his permit to when he can open his door — and said door figures to be located well inside what he planned to be his waiting room.

Susan Mizner, the Mayor’s Office on Disability’s Director, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. As of now, Schoepp and Atkinson have appealed the MOD’s latest decision, the seven-foot tunnel/entryway. If the MOD relents, the would-be dispensary operators will be able to move forward with a more reasonable design; if not, a tunnel they will build. And meanwhile, Schoepp pays rent on 2139 Taraval.

It doesn’t sound fair, and it doesn’t seem to jibe with the notion of “equal and safe access” to medical marijuana, codified by the voters in Proposition 215. But it is what it is, Atkinson said, waxing philosophical.

“[The MOD] won’t bend the law just because someone is in a wheelchair themselves,” Atkinson observed. “Though it is ironic.

“And it is very onerous to get approval for [cannabis dispensaries],” he adds. “It doesn’t seem to be fair to the people who are trying to get a business going.”

Source http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2010/07/pot_dispensary_handicapped.php

Snooki of ‘Jersey Shore’ arrested in NJ beach town
AP

Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi AP – FILE – In this July 27, 2010 file photo, Nicole ‘Snooki’ Polizzi , a cast member of MTV’s ‘Jersey Shore’ …
Sat Jul 31, 4:34 am ET

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J. – “Jersey Shore” cast member Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi has been arrested in the New Jersey beach town where the MTV show is based.

Seaside Heights Police Chief Thomas Boyd says Polizzi was arrested at around 3:25 p.m. Friday and charged with disorderly conduct after other beachgoers reported she was bothering them.

Polizzi was processed at police headquarters and released on a summons.

MTV spokeswoman Emily Yeomans declined comment on the arrest, which came one day after the premiere of the show’s second season.

Telephone messages left for SallyAnn Salsano, executive producer at “Jersey Shore” production company 495 Productions, and Pam LaLima, co-executive producer, were not immediately returned.

The show focuses on the escapades of a group of hard-partying, 20-something Italian-Americans at a shore house.

It’s now legal to grow and sell marijuana here in Michigan, if you’re licensed and are doing it for medicinal purposes. As more people try to make ends meet in this tough economy, the thought of making money by growing cannabis to help someone with a health problem is gaining popularity.

Nick Tennant opened Med Grow Cannabis College in Southfield about a year ago. Since then he says he’s watched nearly one thousand students go through the program. It’s a diverse group, including people who really need an income.

Nick told us, “You have laid off autoworkers that have come in looking for a new means of viability for their career path. There are people from age 21 to 81 learning to grow medical marijuana.”

Nick himself used to work in the auto industry. But when opportunities started drying up he saw growth potential as a legalized marijuana supplier and educator. “It was a new industry, something Michigan had never seen.”

At Med Grow Cannabis College, potential suppliers attend six weeks of classes. For a fee of $475 they learn how to start a medical marijuana business.

They’re taught how to use proper nutrients, special lights and fans to maximize growth potential.

Michigan allows a caregiver who is certified to grow 12 plants per patient. They can grow for five other patients as well as themselves, if they are certified to use medical marijuana. That means they can grow a maximum of 72 plants.

Nick says a caregiver can make six figures the way the Michigan law is written.

Earlier this year we introduced you to Mathew Watkins who is battling a deadly brain cancer. For him, medical marijuana relieves his excruciating pain and allows him to gain weight. Before the law he was throwing up all the time.

Matt’s dad buys his medical marijuana from a licensed caregiver… who grows a special concoction for Matt.

In his case they triple the THC. So he’s getting a cocktail of different plants.

But that can run $700 a month.

People who grow medical marijuana aren’t just making money, they’re spending it too.

Mike, the owner of Ultra Green Hydroponics in Redford told us you can spend $5000 on a garden. But for $1000 you can get started in the business.

Mike used to be a skilled machinist. But he saw work in his field dwindling, so he decided to get into a different field.

Dr. William Gonte of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Center in Southfield examines patients to determine if they qualify for medical marijuana. He thinks the growing of medicinal quality pot may soon be taken over by big business.

“I think the state of Michigan is looking at their options. Probably tobacco companies will be the companies that set up and form these facilities where you can buy medical marijuana in packages.”

And Nick hopes getting in on the ground floor of this new medical marijuana wave will take him to new heights.

“I know we’re on the verge of a big, new industry.”

Len Goodman can’t grow enough marijuana to keep up with demand.

He is one of just 11 growers approved by New Mexico to produce pot for all of the state’s 2,000 registered medical marijuana patients, and his customers routinely wipe out his supply. Once a strain of marijuana is harvested, dried and cured, he sends an announcement that patients can place orders, and the pot is usually gone in 24 hours.

New Mexico has been so cautious in licensing and regulating growers under its 3-year-old medical marijuana law that the small number of providers can’t grow enough, creating a shortage that has forced some patients to the street to buy illegal drugs.

The dilemma in New Mexico could have ramifications elsewhere because the state’s program has been held up as a national model, with other states looking to replicate its strong regulatory structure to avoid the chaos that has prevailed in places like California.

Prospective pot growers are subjected to a painstaking screening process before being granted a license. Once that happens, they are limited to 95 plants and seedlings and an inventory “that reflects current qualified patient needs.”

The providers’ identities and locations are kept secret, avoiding the kind of storefront dispensaries that have flourished in Colorado and California.

State Health Secretary Dr. Alfredo Vigil says he must balance patients’ needs against preventing so much legal pot from being grown that it ends up in the illegal market. He said the program is being expanded methodically to ensure sufficient oversight and to get to know producers and how they operate.

He also opposes having hundreds of producers and many thousands of patients, which he said “absolutely takes it out of the arena of use for in-state patients and into the arena of defacto legalization.”

Medical marijuana patient Larry Love sees New Mexico as an example of what not to do. He contends the department approves new growers much too slowly.

Love, who runs a radio blog and has been highly critical of Vigil, got his medical marijuana card in June 2009 but said it was November before he could get a supply from an authorized grower. He said that drove him and other patients to the illegal market, despite the risks.

Goodman’s Santa Fe County business, NewMexicann, has 650 registered patients — five times the number of patients he said he can supply. Other producers are in similar shape, he said.

As a result, he has to ration pot to patients who are chronically ill.

“Sometimes they don’t have enough so they use it when it’s really severe, which is not good,” he said. “It’s like seniors cutting down on their meds because they can’t afford it.”

The situation in New Mexico is being closely watched by other states as medical marijuana becomes increasingly popular nationwide.

New Jersey, Iowa, Maine, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Colorado, Washington, D.C., and some California municipalities have called about New Mexico’s law, Health Department spokeswoman Deborah Busemeyer said. They have been asking how the state manages producers and how it’s kept some control over legal pot while avoiding problems with federal agencies, since marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

New Jersey and Rhode Island have laws that are closer to New Mexico’s system than California’s much more freewheeling one.

New Mexico passed its medical marijuana law in 2007 with a groundbreaking provision to license production and distribution.

The Health Department spent more than a year crafting regulations, electing to go with a state-licensed system of nonprofits that places strict restrictions on how much pot they can grow.

Patients can get licenses to grow their own, but most turn to the state-sanctioned growers. The first producer wasn’t approved until March 2009. The health Department OK’d four more in November, then six more last week. It takes five to six months for a grower to ramp up to production.

In the meantime, patient rolls have grown to about 2,000. New Mexico approved 200 patients in the program’s first year; now it’s approving about 200 a month.

While Love praised the approval of the new producers, he said New Mexico still will have only about half the supply it needs for current patients. He claims the state needs at least 10 more producers by the end of the year to keep up.

FROM ANOTHER VIEW: Medical marijuana should be legalized
Photos
Grizzoffi.Victoria.jpg
Joe Tamborello / The Journal-Standard
Victoria Grizzoffi, Democratic candidate for 89th district state representative.

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By Victoria F. Grizzoffi
The Journal-Standard
Posted Jul 16, 2010 @ 05:34 PM
Last update Jul 16, 2010 @ 05:35 PM
State of Illinois —

I’m glad to read that I’m in such good company with so many optimists.

I have my ups and downs just like everyone else. If I can’t solve a problem myself I reach out to others and work together to find the best solutions.

I would support Senate Bill 1381. If a terminally ill person can benefit from marijuana, I don’t see why not. It must be regulated and under the strict guidelines from a physician. I have personally experienced the death of family members from cancer and frankly, there comes a point where there isn’t anything you wouldn’t do to make a loved one as comfortable as possible.

There are also situations where marijuana helps a person receiving treatments cope with the side effects better. I would trust marijuana before the countless synthetic drugs that come and go off the market. They advertise drugs on T.V. and the side effects are worse than the ailment you have. We’ve all heard them, “may cause death.”

Marijuana has been around forever and demonized. I have never seen or heard of anyone turn into the crazed maniac portrayed in the 1936 movie Reefer Madness. That was pure Hollywood, before my time, and I have seen the movie.

If anything is a “gateway” drug it starts with cigarettes and alcohol. Yet there are many people who smoke and drink and are not criminals and addicts. And just like cigarettes, alcohol, prescription drugs, weapons and even a driver’s license, comes personal responsibility.

Once again I must stress here that it must be regulated and a person must have a prescription just like any other narcotic. I am not endorsing or condoning general use and a free for all.

I see regulating it to be the biggest obstacle because here comes the patent wars. The drug companies will worry because this is something that can be grown by anyone. And the problem always is, money and greed.

There is also industrial hemp used for rope, clothing, oils and many other uses that has less than 1 percent THC levels in it. During WWII our country grew hemp to help the war effort. Farmers in North Dakota are fighting to change legislation so they can grow it. Imagine the entrepreneurism, economic growth, and revenue that could be generated by a new textile industry. I know there is space available at Mill Race.

NEW YORK – An emergency medical technician accused of refusing to help a dying pregnant woman while on his coffee break has been shot and killed near a New York City nightclub.
Police say Jason Green was shot in the face near Manhattan’s Greenhouse club Sunday morning. Green was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. There have been no arrests.
Green and fellow EMT Melisa Jackson had been under criminal investigation for their handling of a distressed woman at a Brooklyn bakery Dec. 9. They were in line at the bakery when 25-year-old Eutisha Rennix collapsed.
Witnesses say the EMTs told workers to call 911 and left without helping the six-months-pregnant woman, whose prematurely born baby also died.
Green and Jackson insisted they tried to get help. They were suspended without pay.

Just posted new videos of axe murder boyz menace 2 sobriety and kronic sin

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration last week raided the Covelo home of the county’s first applicant for a 99-plant exemption under the county’s newly revised medical marijuana cultivation code.

“I don’t know why this came up on the DEA’s radar,” Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman said, adding that none of the other approximately 10 applicants had been raided by the DEA.

“I’m sure when the case is unsealed by the judge we’ll know a whole lot more,” Allman said.

The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors finalized changes in the county’s ordinance governing the cultivation of medical marijuana earlier this year – codified as section 9.31 of the county code. Among the changes is an exemption to the county’s 25-plants-per-parcel rule for cooperatives that apply for a permit with the Sheriff’s Office.

The changes were effective in May, and the county adopted permit and garden inspection fees June 22. The permit requires applicants to buy a zip tie for each of their plants from the Sheriff’s Office, which are intended to signify that the plants were inspected for compliance with state and local law.

The woman, identified as Joy Greenfield of the Chicken Ridge area, had purchased 25 zip ties from the Mendocino

County Sheriff’s Office and was in the process of buying 74 more, according to Allman, for a total of 99 plants. Her marijuana garden had passed an initial inspection, he said, but she hadn’t yet received her permit.

Greenfield posted a notice in her driveway stating she was in the process of getting the permit, about 200 yards from her garden. An MCSO officer who accompanied DEA agents said Greenfield was asked to move her sign closer to her garden.

The MCSO officer who accompanied DEA agents on the raid knew they were going to the property of a woman who had applied for the exemption, Allman said.

“The DEA knows the Board of Supervisors passed the 9.31 exemption,” Allman said, adding, “That doesn’t mean you’re exempt if you’re in violation of federal law.”

The investigation is ongoing, Allman said, adding that he couldn’t comment further because he didn’t know much about it.

“Her application wasn’t shown to anybody from the federal government,” he said, noting the raid didn’t have as negative an effect on the numbers of people applying for the exemption as he had thought it would.

Since the fees were adopted in late June, Allman noted, about 10 co-ops have applied for the permits. The Sheriff’s Office has sold $30,000 worth of zip ties since January.

Source http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/ci_15530520