MEDICAL MARIJUANA: Counties To Hold Meeting; Fate of Pot Club To Be Decided
"Fed up with continuing controversy surrounding marijuana use for medicinal purposes," Mendocino County Supervisor Charles Peterson is organizing a meeting Thursday with representatives from five other counties to discuss the issue. The Santa RosaPress-Democrat reports that officials from Humboldt, Lake, Trinity, San Francisco and Marin counties have committed to the informal, closed session. "Frankly, I'm hoping to find out if there's any way we can address some of these problems on a regional basis. ... We're going to see if there's any common ground. It may be the first and last meeting on the subject," said Peterson. Peterson has been a frequent critic of California's marijuana policy. He said "too much time and money is being spent fighting marijuana use." Despite recent reports of problems with alcohol and methamphetamine use among child-abusers, "we continue to put all this effort into anti-marijuana efforts. It just doesn't make sense to me," he said (Geniella, 4/29).
San Fran Club To Go Before Judge
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Superior Court Judge William Cahill will decide today the fate of the Cannabis Healing Center, the medical marijuana club that opened last week after the Cannabis Cultivator's Club, in the same location, was forced to close. State Attorney General Dan Lungren has asked Cahill to close the "business," arguing that it is "merely a sham to thwart" the earlier closing. Cahill heard arguments yesterday from the facility's attorney, David Nick, that the center's current operator, 79-year-old Hazel Rodgers, "is a legally authorized 'caregiver' to 300 to 500 patients a day." Senior assistant attorney general John Gordnier responded that Rodgers was "nothing more than a straw person acting on [original operator Dennis] Peron's behalf." He contended that there was no way she could give individualized care to that many persons per day, as the law requires. "Meanwhile, the center's landlord served a 30-day eviction notice against the Market Street operation, saying he does not want his property used to distribute marijuana," the Chronicle reports (Van Derbeken, 4/29). For past California Healthline coverage on the cannabis club's legal battles, click here.