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Hello Patients and Advocates,

Even though it’s the doldrums of summer, medical marijuana and law reform continues to make progress although it now seems the forces of inertia are slowing that progress rather than outright opposition. Here’s what in this newsletter.
   
1. Don Duncan from ASA to speak at Sat. August 1 MAPP meeting in Palm Springs.
2. Riverside County drags feet on implementing ordinance.
3. NORML convention set for Sept. 24-26 in SF

Don Duncan, ASA Board Member and Collective Operator Extraordinaire, will be the featured speaker at the Saturday, August 1 Palm Springs/Coachella Valley MAPP meeting. Don is one of the most active medical marijuana proponents in Southern California with many years experience in helping patients obtain their medicine. His service to Americans for Safe Access has helped that organization grow into the national force it is today. He will be discussing how recent court decisions and changes in the law impact on the ability of patients to obtain their medicine safely, reliably, affordably and locally. 

The Saturday, August 1 MAPP meeting begins at 3 p.m. and is held in downtown Palm Springs at 266 N. Palm Canyon, Palm Springs CA 92262, next door to Crystal Fantasy.

RIVERSIDE COUNTY ACCESS UPDATE

Unlike San Bernardino County which is moving forward with the drafting of an ordinance to allow for medical marijuana collectives to operate in the county’s unincorporated areas, Riverside County appears to want to do nothing to repeal their existing ban and comply with state law allowing for patients to obtain their medicine through coops and collectives.

After a somewhat contentious appearance before the Riverside Co. Board of Supervisors on July 14, we have been contacting individual Board members to arrange a meeting in order to discuss the importance of going forward with drafting an ordinance to allow for collectives and repealing the existing ban.

Supervisor Jeff Stone, after first agreeing to a meeting, backpedaled and will now not meet with us until mid September. Supervisor Tavalagone refused to meet with us and instead had us meet with his Chief of Staff and a representative of the Planning Dept. At a meeting 
Tuesday, Supervisor Bob Buster did not meet with us but instead sent a Legislative Aide. The meetings, as expected when the Supervisor refuses to meet with constituents, did nothing to enlighten us on the Supervisor’s stand on the issues as the aides could not speak for the Supervisor.
We are still working to contact Supervisors Wilson and Ashley and hopefully something will come from those meetings. We need one Supervisor to take the bull by its horn and introduce a motion directing the Planning Dept. to begin drafting a medical marijuana collective ordinance. Unfortunately, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors is now on summer recess and will not meet again until Sept. 1 so no action can be taken to direct the Planning Dept. to begin drafting a new ordinance. 

Although court decisions and the law are almost uniformly on our side, there are still some forces in Riverside County law enforcement that are unalterably opposed to enforcing California’s medical marijuana laws and they continue to have an inordinate amount of influence on the Board of Supervisors. The only way to overcome these entrenched and formidable opponents is for patients and advocates to be involved.

I want to thank all of those you have taken some of your valuable time to meet with your local supervisors or have signed up to meet with them at a meeting that is still to be scheduled. If you are not on the list to meet with your Supervisor, you can still help out. Send me an email with your phone and address and I will give it to your district organizer and you will be contacted about the next meeting you can attend.

While the Riverside Board plays cat and mouse with us, the Riverside Sheriff’s Office has completely stonewalled on releasing the proposed policy memorandum that will provide deputies with directions on how to recognize legal patients and collectives and to not affect an arrest. The Policy Memorandum is now four months overdue with no end in sight.

I am in contact with Captain Alm and Lt. Wright of the Special Investigations Unit who appear to be committed to getting this Policy Memorandum out, but have been stymied by Sheriff Stanley Sniff’s office. At this precise moment, I do not have a good grasp of just what is going on, but I hope to have some comprehension very soon.

At the MAPP meeting in Riverside on Wednesday, August 5, we will be discussing this unfortunate situation and what actions, if any, we should take to get this Policy Memorandum issued and in effect. Until it is, whether a Riverside County Sheriff Deputy’s will arrest a medical marijuana patient is solely up to the discretion of the Deputy and I don’t believe any patient is comfortable leaving this kind of decision to a Deputy’s discretion.

I will provide more information on what is happening with this crucial policy memorandum in an email I will be sending out over the weekend about the Wednesday, August 5 MAPP meeting at the THCF Medical Clinic in Riverside.

NORML NATIONAL CONFERENCE

The 2009 National NORML Conference will be held Thursday, September 24 through Saturday, September 26 at the Grand Hyatt in San Francisco, CA. The annual NORML Conference is one of the best pro-marijuana conferences held with speakers on wide range of subjects on all things marijuana. If you have never been to a NORML Conference, rest assured it will be of the most empowering three days you have experienced in a long time. For more information on the 2009 NORML Conference, check out their website at www.norml.org.

Working with OC NORML, we have obtained a special discounted rate of $175 for all three days of the conference – a saving of $75 from the regular rate of $250. Plus if we get more than ten people to go, we will get another 20% discount. For more information on the conference and to get the discounted rate, send an email to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Following a rather problematic snafu with the Walnut Creek building department, wherein a crimson-red "Stop Work" permit was duct taped to the front of our forthcoming storefront (be careful who choose to sign off on your construction plans, kids), it had come to our attention that the city finally has become aware of the fact that we are establishing an MMJ collective in WC. The news was rather alarming, since we were informed by the building department of a mysterious and foreboding email sent weeks ago that spoke of our plans. Moreover, it was disconcerting that in a city with no use permit in place currently for collectives like ours, we were already vulnerable to prosecution by the city courts. And, until Jub Jub Muffin (who is a "golden god," for lack of a better term) was able to get us back on track and our scarlet letter removed from the front door, things looked mighty bleak.

Crisis is a ceaseless harbinger of change. It implores us to reconsider not just the things that have led us directly to collapse, but even the new and emerging things that we didn't pay enough attention to. It is an impetus not just to recover, but to do so with greatness. After catching a mere glimpse of Walnut Creek's economic woes, which so closely resemble those of the country and the state of California, we realized that C3 reflected not only a positive change for seriously ill patients living in Contra Costa County, but for the budget deficit that WC is facing right now. The crisis that these patients have been living with, of having to venture into the distant (and frankly, over-saturated) collectives across the tunnel; the more universal fiscal issues that many citizens are encountering--these issues compound to form a plateau that pleads for an institution such as ours to set a precedent in one piece of a larger uncharted region. 

Our solution to the city's potential reticence to allow us to operate within state guidelines would thus be twofold: to illustrate how C3's presence there would be wholly beneficial. Not only would patients benefit from having medicine closer to them, but the city would glean a sizable revenue from donations submitted by our members. The roughly twenty or so patients that have already contacted us about membership have almost uniformly expressed their overwhelming interest in having a collective closer to them. These voices need to be brought before the city, so that they can see not only the general impact of medical cannabis on ailing patients, but the wrongness of depriving such individuals of medicine near to their homes. Moreover, these patients want to support local business in Contra Costa, not to continue exporting their funds across the tunnel. If you are a seriously ill patient in Contra Costa, or in the city of Walnut Creek, or simply want to devote some time to advocate on behalf of the MMJ movement there, please contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Nothing changes by itself. We face an uphill battle, though not one that is unwinnable for both sides of the debate. 

Cannabis iPhone App has reached 1000 purchases!!! Non-Profit to be formed for grassroots campaign. 

CannabisApps Twitter

Cannabis 0.5.0 is now available in the Apple iTunes App Store. Purchase Cannabis from iTunes

New Features Include

• RSS News Feeds
• Auto Locate
• Radius Preferences
• List View

Some folks out here (or so I am told) believe that when it comes to opening up storefront MMJ collectives in the Bay Area, one cannot go through the tunnel; that is, one cannot form a convenient, consistent, and compliant collective for medical cannabis patients living in the far East Bay. Indeed, as I am again informed by Jub Jub Muffin, the response to the locale choice has been varied. At times, the representatives of more "established" collectives in areas where a legal precedent has been enforced and protected by the county for some time have scoffed at the notion that Walnut Creek should have its own storefront collective.

That being said, it is all the more inspiring and encouraging when we hear from seriously ill individuals who have been waiting patiently for a place like C3. Like the other day, when a young man from Lafayette, doctor's recommendation and state ID in hand, knocked on our door and asked us when we were opening. His father, also a MMJ patient with chronic nerve damage, shared the same sense of excitement. Left and right, we are recieving emails and comments from patients and well-wishers alike, wanting to see not just the appearance of our storefront, but the emergence of a better and more regulated system, in which patients can become further educated on the responsible use of medical cannabis. Moreover, these patients are tired of traveling miles and miles to gain relief for their qualified condition: they want safe and seamless access to top-shelf medication in an area minutes of their home.

We are continuing to renovate the space, despite a temporary holdup that has just thankfully been cleared up, and are opening to dispense meds to seriously ill patients within the next two weeks or possibly more. Our grand opening is still scheduled for the first week of September, when our storefront will become completely available. If you are a seriously ill patient in the Contra Costa area and would like to get in touch with us, or if you would like to pre-register for patient screening, you can send us an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 17, 2009

You Can Now Buy Cannabis Legally on iPhone

 

 

As per CannabisApps update on Twitter, the iPhone application "Cannabis" is now available for purchase in Apple's iTunes.  Press Release harvesting soon....

 

Purchase "Cannabis" App from iTunes 

 

We are C3, Contra Costa County's newest medical cannabis collective, merging professional, experienced care with a chic boutique-style environment. C3 Collective is a private membership collective, wherein we screen our patients prior to providing membership services.

Located in Walnut Creek, C3 Collective aims to provide fitness and wellness services and top-shelf medical cannabis to qualified patients in strict accordance with Prop. 215, SB420, and the August 2008 guidelines submitted by California attorney general Edmund J. Brown. Its location, directly off of CA-24 and I-680, and only 7 minutes walk from the Walnut Creek BART station, provides convenient and safe access for patients in Danville, San Ramon, Dublin, Pleasonton, Concord, Pittsburg, Antioch, Livermore, and other East Bay locales.

Some photos of THCelebrities at the THC Cannabis hemp Expo 2009.  BIG UPS to rappers Nipsey Hussle and Jay Rock, and the Bishop Don Juan OG Pimp. Big Jay, Klub Kush, holding down the video interviews (coming soon)...

 

TIME.com recently featured a California based medical cannabis collective making home deliveries to qualified patients.  In May, Ajnag was approached by award winning photo journalist, Mark Allen Johnson, to help produce a story for TIME.com surrounding the medical cannabis industry and its unique individuals.  He said TIME was very interested in the topic and wanted to tell the real story...We spoke with Mark on a few occasions and shared with him our experience and passion for medical cannabis and the hemp movement.  We shared stories of young, old, rich, poor, gay, straight, white, brown, black, crazy, and sane.  We talked about budget saving cannabis economics, families that sustain from harvests, the medicinal life saving properties of cannabinoids, and how hemp is going to save the Earth.

Most of the medical cannabis industry coverage within mainstream media has focused on storefront dispensing collectives, popularly known as dispensaries.  We felt that delivery collectives in California had yet to receive the awareness they deserved. Not to say all delivery services are profound but the experience is much different than walking into a pharmacy like setting.  Many patients are unable to acquire their medicine from storefronts because they are either wheelchair bound or simply cannot make long distance commutes due to their condition. The delivery model fills this need. Beyond accessibility and convenience, truly compassionate delivery services provide a strong sense of community. Or as Wendy said in the TIME piece, a “family.”  Caregivers within the collective are able to carefully assess a patient’s medical needs and develop one-on-one relationships that are rarely found in the get in, get out, experience of many storefronts.

How To Open A Medical Marijuana Dispensary In California?  You wanna know how to do it?

Take lessons from the professional in the field at 420 College.  This summer 420 College will be holding classes in Sacramento for the Northern California medical marijuana patients.

Visit 420 College