Regulation & Legislation
Monday, May 7, 2012
Connecticut Medical Marijuana Bill Expected To Become Law
Regulation & Legislation David Downs — Mon, May 7, 2012 at 10:04 AM
Connecticut's Democratic governor, Dannel P. Malloy, has said he will sign a bill to make Connecticut the 17th medical cannabis state. The bill passed the state senate early Saturday, Reuters reports, after already having passed the House. Under the law, marijuana would be sold in multiple forms at dispensaries, which must have a licensed pharmacist on staff.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi Objects To Obama's Medical Cannabis Crackdown
Regulation & Legislation David Downs — Thu, May 3, 2012 at 10:02 AM
Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi saw the writing on the wall and came out in defense of medical cannabis patients and dispensaries under assault by the federal government this week. San Francisco dispensaries served her a petition with thousands of signatures May 2. Subsequently, Speaker Pelosi released the May 2 statement saying:
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Cannabis Patients To Flood Sacramento May 19-21
Regulation & Legislation David Downs — Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 2:38 PM
Monday, April 9, 2012
I.R.S. Raid of Oaksterdam Part of Massive Attack on California Patients
Regulation & Legislation David Downs — Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 10:17 AM
Little-known fact: Income earned from crime is taxable. So if you make $15,000 thieving this year, the IRS doesn't care how you made it, you owe them income taxes on it. If you get caught, the IRS might come after you for back taxes. Crazy, right? It gets better.
Back in the Eighties, a convicted meth and coke dealer in Michigan was audited by the IRS for his illicit business. The IRS determined he owed. So the polydrug dealer did what any other business owner did. He claimed his deductions, writing off his rent, car insurance, pager bill and the like. The IRS allowed it!
This was the tough-on-crime Eighties. Congress was incensed, and so it passed a law banning "drug trafficking organizations" from taking business deductions, adding section 280-E to the tax code.
Fast-forward three decades to Saturday's Chronicle, where reports indicate the IRS is using the thirty-year-old drug-dealing law against a city-permitted, lawful medical marijuana dispensary in Oakland:
Thursday, March 15, 2012
New Dispensary Alert: Oakland Community Collective Coming to 2101 Broadway
Regulation & Legislation David Downs — Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 10:44 AM
Oaksterdam's Salwa Ibrahim
Tidewater Patients Group
Board Members: William Koziol, President; Alexis Parle, Managing Member; David Koziol, Jay Dodson, and Michael StewartG8 Medical Alliance, Inc.
Board Members: Toni Mims-Cochran, Leo Bazile, Joel Elliott, Ekundayo Sowumni, Ariana Patino, Aaron Goodwin, Joyal DeganiAgramed
Jeffrey Wilcox, CEO
Berkeley Patients Group Must Be Out by May 1
Regulation & Legislation David Downs — Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 9:37 AM
One of the East Bay's leading lights of medical cannabis distribution, Berkeley Patients Group weathered the Bush Administration, but couldn't make it through President Obama's first term. California Watch has a story today by Michael Montgomery and me, breaking the news that BPG is set to close it's San Pablo Avenue dispensary, quoting the US attorney that caused it, Melinda Haag, and outlining why her reasons are bunk.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Appeals Court: California Dispensaries Immune to Bans, Must Grow Their Own
Regulation & Legislation David Downs — Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 11:37 AM
"California cities may not ban medical marijuana dispensaries, but the operations may sell only weed that is grown on site, an appeals court ruled in an Orange County case," the Los Angeles Times reports March 1. "The decision conflicted with other appellate court rulings on medical marijuana, and attorneys in the case said they expected the California Supreme Court would agree to hear an appeal."
Thursday, February 23, 2012
"The Truth Is, This Is Just not Something That's Going to Be Addressed in This Congress."
Regulation & Legislation David Downs — Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 5:55 PM
From Steve Fox, director of public affairs for the Washington-based National Cannabis [Industry] Association, on federal legislation to protect the medical marijuana industry from attack.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Rolling Stone: Pres. Obama's War on Pot Is Futile, Strange
Regulation & Legislation David Downs — Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 6:28 AM
From the magazine that brought you Fear & Loathing, a roundup of Presidential flip-floppery on the topic of the sticky-icky: "'Whether you call it medical or recreational, the marijuana genie is out of the bottle, and there's no one who's going to put it back in," insists Sheriff Allman of Mendocino, whose department had been targeted by federal prosecutors for its attempts to regulate medical pot. 'For federal officials who plug their ears and say, 'No, it's not true, it's not true,' I have some words for them: You need to get over it.'"
Thursday, February 16, 2012
'New York Times' On Pot Taxes in Oakland, San Jose, Nationwide
Regulation & Legislation David Downs — Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 4:23 PM
"Sometimes lost in the discussion of medical marijuana is the extent to which it has become a small but growing source of new tax collections for cities and states that have been struggling to balance their budgets for more than four years now." - New York Times "Struggling Cities Turn to a Crop for Cash"
