Los Angeles Times, 28 Jul 2010 - A FEDERAL-STATE LAW INCONSISTENCY SHOULDN'T STOP CALIFORNIANS FROM LEGALIZING MARIJUANA No Law Is Infallible. As It Has Done in the Past, California Can Show Leadership in Driving Needed Reforms by Passing Proposition 19.

The Malibu Times, 28 Jul 2010 - Neighboring Businesses Breath Sigh Of Relief. If the Green Angel Collective medical marijuana dispensary wants to reopen for business, it needs to find a new location. The City Council on Monday refused to adjust the medical marijuana law to allow it do business at the current location on Pacific Coast Highway near Rambla Pacifico.

Grand Rapids Press, 28 Jul 2010 - HOLLAND -- Advocates for medical marijuana spoke on a proposed six-month moratorium on dispensaries. Amy Gasaway, a member of the West Michigan Compassion Club, said she doesn't mind the delay. "We are not asking to have dispensaries in every city," she said. "All we're asking is to be left alone."

Detroit News, 28 Jul 2010 - Pontiac -- Event promoters are high on the recently reopened Pontiac Silverdome again -- maybe a little too much so, the city's top cop says. A three-day "pot party" planned at the Silverdome over Halloween has caught the police chief and others by surprise.

Los Angeles Times, 28 Jul 2010 - A FEDERAL-STATE LAW INCONSISTENCY SHOULDN'T STOP CALIFORNIANS FROM LEGALIZING MARIJUANA No Law Is Infallible. As It Has Done in the Past, California Can Show Leadership in Driving Needed Reforms by Passing Proposition 19.

The Malibu Times, 28 Jul 2010 - Neighboring Businesses Breath Sigh Of Relief. If the Green Angel Collective medical marijuana dispensary wants to reopen for business, it needs to find a new location. The City Council on Monday refused to adjust the medical marijuana law to allow it do business at the current location on Pacific Coast Highway near Rambla Pacifico.

[Editor's note: This post is excerpted from this week's forthcoming NORML weekly media advisory. To have NORML's media advisories delivered straight to your in-box, sign up for NORML's free e-zine here.]

Members of Congress have declined to overrule legislation passed by the D.C. Council in May authorizing the establishment of regulated medical marijuana dispensaries in the District of Columbia.

Congressional lawmakers had up to 30 working days to reject the law. That review period officially ended Monday evening.

In June, a pair of Republican House members, Reps. Jason Chaffetz (Utah) and Jim Jordan (Ohio) introduced legislation to overturn D.C.’s medical marijuana law, stating, “Marijuana is a psychotropic drug classified under Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act as having ‘high potential for abuse,’ ‘no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States,’ and a ‘lack of accepted safety for use of the drug…under medical supervision.’ While certain of these principles may be open to significant debate within segments of the medical community, and among pro-legalization/decriminalization groups, [we are] opposed to re-classification and decriminalization efforts.”

Their effort failed to gain any significant support in Congress.

Under the new law, D.C. Health Department officials will oversee the creation of as many as eight facilities to dispense medical cannabis to authorized patients. Medical dispensaries would be limited to growing no more than 95 plants on site at any one time.

Both non-profit and for-profit organizations will be eligible to operate the dispensaries.

Qualifying D.C. patients will be able to obtain medical cannabis at these facilities, but will not be permitted under the law to grow their own medicine.

A separate provision enacted as part of the 2011 D.C. budget calls for the retail sales of medical cannabis to be subject to the District’s six percent sales tax rate. Low-income will be allowed to purchase medical marijuana at a greatly reduced cost under the plan.

It will likely be several months before Health officials begin accepting applications from the public to operate the City’s medical marijuana production and distribution centers.

District lawmakers said that the newly enacted legislation implements key components of Initiative 59 — a 1998 DC ballot measure that garnered 69 percent of the vote. Until this year D.C. city lawmakers had been barred from instituting the measure because of a Congressional ban on the issue. Congress finally lifted the ban in 2009.

Saginaw News, 27 Jul 2010 - SAGINAW - Edwyn W. Boyke Jr., 64, of Saginaw Township, said he hopes police will return property seized from his home during a raid April 15 - especially the family heirloom, an ought six hunting rifle that the father of Boyke's deceased wife gave him 25 years ago. Boyke's $600, 42-inch Toshiba, flat-screen TV, charcoal filter, dehumidifier and four guns, including three hunting rifles and an antique, non-working Russian gun, are still in the possession of the Saginaw County Sheriff's Department, 618 Cass in Saginaw - even though Boyke has thus far not been charged with any crimes - Saginaw County Sheriff William L. Federspiel said.

Kennebec Journal, 27 Jul 2010 - AUGUSTA -- A zone change that would allow a medical marijuana dispensary to locate at a Middle Road property faces a public hearing tonight. In June, city councilors approved medical marijuana dispensary zoning rules to limit the location of such facilities to the city's medical district.

Kennebec Journal, 27 Jul 2010 - AUGUSTA -- A zone change that would allow a medical marijuana dispensary to locate at a Middle Road property faces a public hearing tonight. In June, city councilors approved medical marijuana dispensary zoning rules to limit the location of such facilities to the city's medical district.

Daily Lobo, 26 Jul 2010 - New Mexico's medicinal marijuana program is running dry. The state has only 11 growers to satisfy the demand of the 2,000 patients prescribed cannabis for chronic illness. This position leaves many patients rationing medication or turning to the illegal market, while the state wants to ensure that its program for growing cannabis remains legal, said Len Goodman, executive director of NewMexicann, a nonprofit organization that grows medicinal marijuana.

The Daily Sentinel, 26 Jul 2010 - Mesa County and the city of Grand Junction may be the target of lawsuits from Front Range attorneys if either entity places a medical-marijuana-center ban on the Nov. 2 ballot and voters approve it. Both governing bodies decided last week to hold a place on this fall's ballot in case either decides to ask a question about medical marijuana. Neither has committed to ballot language or asking a question at all.

Daily Lobo, 26 Jul 2010 - New Mexico's medicinal marijuana program is running dry. The state has only 11 growers to satisfy the demand of the 2,000 patients prescribed cannabis for chronic illness. This position leaves many patients rationing medication or turning to the illegal market, while the state wants to ensure that its program for growing cannabis remains legal, said Len Goodman, executive director of NewMexicann, a nonprofit organization that grows medicinal marijuana.

The Daily Sentinel, 26 Jul 2010 - Mesa County and the city of Grand Junction may be the target of lawsuits from Front Range attorneys if either entity places a medical-marijuana-center ban on the Nov. 2 ballot and voters approve it. Both governing bodies decided last week to hold a place on this fall's ballot in case either decides to ask a question about medical marijuana. Neither has committed to ballot language or asking a question at all.

Santa Cruz Sentinel, 26 Jul 2010 - SANTA CRUZ - After the last several WAMMFests encountered challenges, organizers of Santa Cruz's annual medical marijuana awareness event appear to be in for an easier time getting the city's nod of approval. Today, the City Council will consider lifting a smoking ban at San Lorenzo Park for five hours Sept. 25 to allow authorized pot users to medicate inside open-air tents designed to create privacy. The item is on the council's consent agenda, indicating that it may not be as controversial as in years past.

The Gazette, 26 Jul 2010 - The Colorado Springs City Council is getting impatient to implement rules that would govern the zoning of medical marijuana dispensaries and related businesses. Saying the city is turning into the Wild West of the medical marijuana industry, council members said they want to get land-use regulations on the books as soon as possible.

Santa Cruz Sentinel, 26 Jul 2010 - SANTA CRUZ - After the last several WAMMFests encountered challenges, organizers of Santa Cruz's annual medical marijuana awareness event appear to be in for an easier time getting the city's nod of approval. Today, the City Council will consider lifting a smoking ban at San Lorenzo Park for five hours Sept. 25 to allow authorized pot users to medicate inside open-air tents designed to create privacy. The item is on the council's consent agenda, indicating that it may not be as controversial as in years past.

Pueblo Chieftain, 26 Jul 2010 - Bankers Worry About Medical Pot Deposits Several Pueblo banks are among financial institutions statewide that are refusing to accept business deposits from medical marijuana dispensaries. But a local lawyer representing three such local businesses said his clients are doing business with banks, although he declined to say which ones.

The Oakland Tribune, 26 Jul 2010 - IN JULY of 2009, Oakland became the first city in the U.S. to tax the sale of medical marijuana. Now, exactly a year later, the City Council has taken another major step on the road toward outright legalization.

The Gazette, 26 Jul 2010 - The Colorado Springs City Council is getting impatient to implement rules that would govern the zoning of medical marijuana dispensaries and related businesses. Saying the city is turning into the Wild West of the medical marijuana industry, council members said they want to get land-use regulations on the books as soon as possible.