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Video 1 KTLA Channel 5 News Story June 18, 2010: Lake Forest Medical Marijuana Dispensary Appealing Injunction Order Video 2 KTTV Channel 11 News Story June 4, 2010: Los Angeles Medical Marijuana Dispensary Challenges LA's Ordinance Video 3 Cannabis Law Group's Attorney Damian Nassiri Sues the City of Los Angeles To Block It's Ban on Medical Marijuana as Featured on PBS's So Cal Insider - Part 1

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A Colorado Springs resident lost his bid to recover the marijuana that was seized from him by police – even though he’d been acquitted of crimes related to that possession – because, as Colorado Supreme Court justices ruled: Doing so would require that police officers become distributors of marijuana. As such, they would be violating state law to do so. police

This precedent-setting ruling, which overturned the Colorado Court of Appeals, has the potential to influence sister courts in other states, and in the event there is conflict, the possibility that it will require input from the U.S. Supreme Court. The state-level appellate court had held that police officers were required to return marijuana to defendants who won their court cases alleging illegal possession.

But now, the Colorado Supreme Court justices say that to do so would require police to become complicit in violating the Controlled Substances Act.  Continue reading

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For decades, prosecutors have been securing convictions against drunk drivers using the same tried-and-true means of evidence gathering: Roadside sobriety tests.police car

The officer has the driver stand on a single leg, walk a straight line, recite the alphabet (starting with G), conduct an eyeball analysis. If the driver doesn’t perform as well as they should, the officer will come to court to testify about why they believe the driver wasn’t fit to drive. Criminal defense lawyers have long challenged these tactics, but they have still proven generally useful in drunk driving cases.

However, marijuana defense lawyers are increasingly successful at arguing that such tests aren’t an adequate indicator of whether someone is too impaired by cannabis to drive. There is little to no science to show that these standardized measures are effective in testing the sobriety of someone believed to be high on weed as opposed to drunk on alcohol.  Continue reading

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White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has rattled the cannabis industry after saying he anticipates the Department of Justice to ramp up enforcement of federal statutes that outlaw recreational marijuana – even in states where it is legal, including California. whitehouse

A total of eight states plus the District of Columbia have legalized recreational use of marijuana among adults. What this means is currently 1 in 5 Americans adults can lawfully smoke, drink, eat or vape cannabis under state laws. More than half the population lives in a state where the drug is legal for medicinal purposes. This has given rise to a $6 billion industry that is projected to grow to $50 billion by 2026. But all of that could be in jeopardy.

Many in the marijuana industry have expressed surprise at this about-face, especially given that the Trump administration has seemingly prioritized states’ rights on a myriad of other issues, from education to use of bathrooms by people who are transgender. The statement by Spicer was also surprising given the fact that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is a major proponent of states’ rights. However, Sessions has also for many years vehemently opposed cannabis use. During his confirmation hearing in January, Sessions refused to say he wouldn’t enforce federal law on the issue, and further indicated that if Congressional leaders believed the drug should no longer be illegal, they should pass a law.  Continue reading

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When your business is legal, but you can’t access a bank for everyday functions, you have no choice but to become an all-cash venture. There is perhaps no industry that knows this woe better than those in the business of marijuana. But some are now finding that even those businesses that never actually touch marijuana may have banking headaches. money

The L.A. Times recently reported on a local businesswoman who alongside her partner launched a packaging company that caters to the cannabis industry. They produce containers, bags, logos, labels, custom-printed jars and boxes. They currently have about three workers and are preparing to bring on three more. They provide marketing and branding assistance to growers and distributors, and the owner describes it as “all very upscale.” The biggest problem, however, has been the banking.

She explained how she met with a single accountant last year who informed her she would likely only be paid in cash and that her workers and suppliers would need to be paid in cash as well. Payroll, sales and income taxes – all of it has to be done in cash. The accountant advised her to stash the cash under her mattress and then somewhere down the line find a time to make a large deposit into her bank account. When she told him that sounded illegal, he shrugged, saying that’s how everyone does it.  Continue reading

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When any consumer of marijuana – medicinal or recreational – seeks to purchase products, they typically will find them under names like, “Super Lemon Haze” or “God’s Green Crack.” But increasingly, marketers are seeing these kinds of “stoner slang” terms out-of-step with many consumers – or potential consumers. Instead, those looking to wade into the marijuana business are hoping to capitalize on marketing marijuana with a softer edge. They want to make the names supermarket-friendly, appealing to a broader range of consumers looking not just to get high but to relax and live better.mom

The idea is that marijuana isn’t just about the high. It’s about relieving the stress. It’s about being amorous. It’s about easing you into slumber. To put it another way, new marijuana industry marketers are looking to craft a new image of marijuana that can compete with other products that are already popular in pharmacies, markets and liquor stores.

Some have said that their competition isn’t necessarily other marijuana producers, but those who make your morning coffee, the manufacturers of the pill that helps you sleep at night or those who brew the tea you sip on a crisp evening. Continue reading

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A Canadian company has tripled its production capacity by moving into an old chocolate factory, a long-time vacant facility that had posed the risk of blight and crime for the community in a suburb of Ottawa, Ontario for years.chocolate

According to Financial Post, this purchase could make Canopy Growth, the parent company, the owner of the biggest indoor marijuana production site in Canada, and possibly the world. The building was purchased with the help of a group of collective investors who backed Canopy. There was previously a medical marijuana facility of the site, but they were only a tenant and they only took up a third of the building’s space – a whopping 472,000 square feet.

This new space has the potential for add-ons of hundreds of thousands of square feet of production and processing space, which could include expanding the indoor facilities or creating greenhouse growing platforms. Even as there is a need for commercial processing of the drug, there is also space needed to convert the marijuana and cannabinoids into products that are higher margin means of profit, such as oils and edibles. Vaporizer pens and other medical delivery options too could be easily manufactured at this site.  Continue reading

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Weddings are often about tradition. There is the dress and the vows and the dance and the tossing of the bouquet. But it appears a growing number of betrothed couples in states where recreational marijuana is now legal are forging a new tradition: Weed at the wedding. boquet

There are a lot of different ways couples are incorporating this.

For some, as Fox News noted, it involves “the first toke,” using a “unit bowl” that represents the blending of their two budding lives together – similar to what we see with the older traditions of the “unity candle’ or the “sand ceremony.” In other cases, as CNBC reports, there is at least one florist in Denver who at her “Buds & Blossoms” shop specializes solely on marijuana-infused weddings. She affixes floral wedding bouquets and centerpieces with buds of cannabis tucked among the hydrangeas and roses. And there are other couples who are inviting their guests to imbibe with “cannabis bars.” One company that caters to newlyweds in Seattle and Portland specializes in setting up outdoor cannabis bars (as many venues shy away from having the substance smoked or on display inside).  Continue reading

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There has been a lot of uncertainty for some Americans in recent weeks as President Donald Trump has taken office, and that has extended to the question of how the federal government will proceed with regard to legal marijuana. Especially troubling was the nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions to the post of U.S. Attorney General over the Justice Department. Sessions in the past has been outspoken in his opposition to legalized marijuana, questioning the character of those who use the drug for any purpose. american

However, there is some evidence Sessions may be softening somewhat on his position, and there could be new reason to be hopeful about the Trump-era as far as legal cannabis is concerned. In a recent confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill, Sessions, although shying away from a definitive plan for how to treat states’ legalization of the drug, did concede during questioning that to disrupt the legal marijuana markets by enforcing federal cannabis laws could result in an unnecessary strain on federal resources.

Beyond this revelation came the recommendation of Jim O’Neill for the appointment to lead the U.S. Food & Drug Enforcement Administration (FDA). According to Bloomberg News, O’Neill is managing director at Mithril Capital Management and a Silicon Valley investor. He previously served as the principal associated deputy secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services. Although he doesn’t have a medical background (and the head of the FDA has been for the lats 50 years either a medical doctor or prominent scientific researcher), he is believed to be a supporter of medical marijuana. He has strong ties with billionaire Peter Thiel, a Trump transition team member who co-founded the Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform.  Continue reading

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Law enforcement leadership for years were on the side of tighter marijuana laws. But now, it seems there may have been a substantial shift. police lights

A recent poll of 8,000 officers by the Pew Research Center finds that almost two-thirds of them believe marijuana should be legal for either medical or personal use.

This was a survey that was nationally representative, which mean it took into account a myriad of factors of police demographics. It was also one of the largest surveys of its kind ever conducted.

According to the report, a third of officers said cannabis should be legal for both recreational and medicinal use, while 37 percent opined it should only be allowed if someone needs it as medicine. Thirty percent said marijuana shouldn’t be legal whatsoever.  Continue reading

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Marijuana is now legal in a growing number of states. As of this writing, 26 states and the District of Colombia now have some type of legalized marijuana. Six states allow marijuana for recreational use and two others have passed laws to allow it, though they haven’t yet gone into effect. This patchwork of marijuana legalization – without clear, decisive direction from the federal government – has led to some confusion in some regions.arrest

Case-in-point: A man in Arizona was arrested while sitting in his vehicle, listening to music and smoking a little marijuana. Now, as our L.A. marijuana lawyers will tell you, there is more than one flaw in his thinking. The first is that even in states like California where use and possession of marijuana are legal for recreation, public use is not legal. Beyond that, it’s illegal to operate a motor vehicle under the influence or impaired. Even if the vehicle was not on, authorities could make the argument that he was “in control” of the vehicle and, depending on state DUI or OUI statutes, that could mean even just sitting in the car with the keys in the ignition.

But this defendant’s biggest problem was that marijuana is not even legal in Arizona, at least not for recreational use. Continue reading

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