State Sen.Ron Calderon (D-Montebello) is seeking to push through a last-minute bill to establish a statewide BOE tax registration system for medical marijuana sellers, distributors, growers and transporters. In order to bypass the normal legislative hearings, Sen. Calderon has sneakily devised the bill as a "gut-and-amend" to another bill, SB 1131, which has already been approved by the Senate. Text of SB 1131: http://info.sen.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=sb_1131&sess=CUR&house=B&site=sen
SB 1131 would require all commercial growers, retailers, wholesalers, and transporters to register with the state, but would DO NOTHING to legally protect them by changing the law to explicitly legalize wholesale or retail sales. The bill would also create an extraordinary, new, complicated system to require wholesalers to pay part of the retailers' sales tax in advance.
In order to pass, Sen. Calderon's bill must first be approved the Assembly Rules Committee, chaired by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner (Berkeley-Oakland). Please tell the Committee to reject Calderon's underhanded effort to pass this ill-considered bill into law without proper hearings.
Assembly Rules Commitee Members, phones & e-mail addresses:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/newcomframeset.asp?committee=22
D. Gieringer, Cal NORML
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A judge this week denied an emergency legal attempt to stop the city
from shutting down four medical marijuana dispensaries, but more
lawsuits against Los Angeles appear to be on the way, a City
Attorney's office official told the Weekly.
The victory Wednesday came after the four dispensaries sought a
temporary injunction that would bar the city from shutting them down
on June 7, when a tough new ordinance that would criminalize most
L.A. pot shops takes effect. A hearing on a permanent injunction was
set for June 18 -- after the City Attorney's office plans to start
legal proceedings against dispensaries that violate the new law.
However, Jane Usher, senior adviser to City Attorney Carmen Trutanich
and the former head of the L.A. planning commission, told the Weekly
that two additional pot-shop lawsuits against the city, on top of
four existing ones, were rumored to be in the works.
Still, Usher expressed confidence that the city would remain in a
winning position in court. "There is at the moment to no judicial
order restraining the city's enforcement come June 7," she said.
On Wednesday a judge indicated he might just give the plaintiffs
their injunction. But when he said he was unable to preside over a
subsequent hearing for a permanent injunction, the suit was
transferred to Judge David P. Yaffee, who shut the door on the
foursome of dispensaries.
Attorneys for the shops had argued that the city's new law denied
them due legal process -- there's virtually no pathway for legality
under the new ordinance -- and equal protection under the law
(because they weren't part of a 2007 group of shops grandfathered in
by the city for possible legality).
Now it's full steam ahead for a June showdown with weed retailers
that don't close their doors. On June 7 at least 400 or so of the
583-and-counting dispensaries in the city will be out of compliance
with the new law, and the City Attorney's office will "proceed
methodically with enforcement," Usher said.
It sounds like some pot shops will become examples for the rest. The
new law establishes mandatory, 1,000-foot distances from "sensitive
use" sites such as schools, churches and playgrounds -- thresholds
that most dispensaries violate. It also only allows the 186
dispensaries that existed before a 2007 city moratorium to apply to
continue operating if they are compliant with the new rules.
Interestingly, the City Attorney's office, in its attempts to warn
operators of the impending rules via letter, keeps coming across new
pot shop locations. Asked if they were brazen new dispensaries, Usher
was only sure enough to say they could be ones that had moved from
one address to another. But it's possible. In any case, she
indicated, most are doomed:
"If I am someone who can never comply with an ordinance and I'm the
potential recipient of the penalties, I would shut down," she said.
"I think those who don't comply are rolling the dice."
Cal NORML Release - May 5, 2010
California collects $100 million in cannabis sales taxes
The California Board of Equalization reports
that the state is collecting $50 - $100 million
in sales taxes from medical marijuana, confirming
the estimate previously published in an economic
analysis by California NORML:
http://www.canorml.org/background/OakFinancialReportRelse.htm
(also independently affirmed by Americans for Safe Access).
California NORML currently estimates the
state's retail market for medical marijuana at
over $1 billion per year in a total adult use
market of $6 billion. An initiative to legalize
and tax marijuana for adult use will be on this
November's ballot:
http://www.taxcannabis2010.org.
Opponents of legal marijuana, led by Los
Angeles City Attorney Steve Cooley, have sought
to choke off the state's lucrative medical
marijuana market by claiming that sales are
illegal. The state stands to lose $10s of
millions in sales tax revenues and millions more
in enforcement costs if Southern California's
dispensaries are closed.
"Marijuana prohibition is a losing proposition
for California's taxpayers," argues Cal NORML
director Dale Gieringer, "On one hand it costs
the state to arrest, prosecute, and imprison
marijuana offenders, on the other it deprives the
state of valuable tax revenues."
Adult use legalization could net the state
some $1.4 billion in revenues according to the
state's Legislative Analyst's Office, or over
$1.2 billion by California NORML's estimate:
http://www.canorml.org/background/CA_legalization2.html
- Cal NORML Release 5/5/10
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* LA THC Expose - Convention Center Apr 23-5
http://www.thcexpose.com/about_expose
* Jack Herer tribute Sunday, April 25th
Memorial services for Jack Herer
Sunday April 25th, 1:00 P.M. at:
Eden Memorial Park
11500 Sepulveda Blvd
Mission Hills, CA 91345
* Support LA Mayor's Cut of Funding for City Attorney Trutanich:
City Attorney Carmen Trutanich is responsible for pushing LA's
outrageous medical marijuana ordinance, aimed at shutting down
hundreds of tax-paying businesses. Now the Mayor wants to cut funding
for Trutanich's office. Let them know that you support cracking down
on the out-of-control City Attorney.
- D. Gieringer, Cal NORML
date Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 6:05 PM
subject Fwd: Mayor Declares War on City Attorney
Please read the email sent to me yesterday by Ms. Usher. It is all over the
news. I hope you guys are responding: how many millions has the City
Attorney cost the City by pressing for a draconian medical marijuana
ordinance, shutting down
businesses paying millions in sales and other taxes into the City coffers,
not to mention the cost to the City for lawsuits as a result.
Why not cut the CA budget at the top- administration/management so lawyers
can keep jobs and go after the real bad guys? I hope mj activists respond
in the media - LA Times, Daily News
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