Under heavy scrutiny from the federal government and an administrative freeze on the city’s permit program, medical marijuana dispensaries in Sacramento could face a full ban – but if Sacramento’s dispensaries are shut down, what happens to the city budget bottom line? In total, the city has received approximately $1.4 million since the start of the permit process for medical marijuana dispensaries – nearly $1 million from one-time fees – according to Maurice Chaney, Economic Development Department spokesman. If the city were to ban medical marijuana dispensaries, they could see a potential $528,000 budget shortfall from reduced or eliminated marijuana business operations taxes in the 20

Local medical marijuana dispensaries recently came under fire as the federal government began cracking down on illegal marijuana growing and dispensing operations across the nation. But wait – medical marijuana is legal in California, right? Yes and no. In the wake of a June 2011 memo sent to state attorney generals from the Department of Justice warning of the federal government’s intention to shut down illegal marijuana operations, there have been numerous raids on dispensaries in California. Some local operators have received warning letters that they may be next. “Joanne,” a dispensary operator in Sacramento who wants to remain anonymous, said Wednesday that local operators have al

Around 20 medical marijuana supporters protested Friday in front of the Sacramento Federal Courthouse. The protest started at 10 a.m. and is scheduled to end by 1 p.m.

The atmosphere was good. Harlow’s was dim, but not dark, and the stage lighting cast a tint of green throughout the club. The Harley White Jr. Orchestra was on the floor, playing an upbeat jazz number to signal the beginning of the show (and though there ended up being a 15-minute delay, no one seemed to notice). Sizzling Sirens were running around everywhere, attractive women dotting the crowd in rhinestone and fringe, lingerie-inspired getups. “I Love You Mary Jane! Cannabis Cabaret” was performed by the Sizzling Sirens Burlesque Experience late last Friday night. The show was described on the Sirens’ website as “a one-of-a-kind tribute themed to expose a variety of Mary Jane’s manifest

Sacramento code enforcement personnel were following up Friday to make sure four medical marijuana dispensaries have shut down. Letters were mailed Friday to property owners and the owners of all four shops after none of them submitted applications to operate legally under the city's new rules by a Monday deadline. Two shops were located in Midtown. Officials are asking the community to help keep an eye out for any new dispensaries that may open up during the city's first attempt to regulate the shops. All four appear to be closed. Letters must still be sent notifying owners that they must stop operating, if they haven't already, within 15 days of the letter or the city will take action

Nearly all of Sacramento's medical marijuana dispensaries have applied to keep operating legally under new city regulations. City revenue staff have begun processing documents from 35 dispensaries that submitted applications under the city's first ordinance regulating the not-for-profit shops. Dispensaries with pending applications can continue operating until Jan. 9, 2012, under the regulations. Four of the city's 39 registered medical marijuana dispensaries didn't turn in applications by a Monday deadline, said city Revenue Division Manager Brad Wasson. "We're going to regulate this pretty extensively and be proactive," he said. In November, the Sacramento City Council created the ci

A controversy is growing over a medical marijuana dispensary that wants to do business in East Sacramento. There's mixed reaction, but not everyone is happy a medical pot shop may be operating out of a storefront and attached house at 3257 Folsom Blvd. There's disagreement over whether the dispensary has opened shop yet. Questions arose after representatives of the dispensary and the landlord notified some neighbors the building's lease had been taken over by the dispensary and the storefront's windows were tinted black in late December, then retinted darker in January. The space has been vacant since a charitable thrift store, This 'n' That Thrift & Gift, left in early September. Half

  While many were gearing-up for an evening of trick-or-treating, Doug Benson was preparing to take the stage at the Punch Line Comedy Club. Doug continued his ‘Pot The Vote’ tour Sunday afternoon with fellow comedians Ngaio Bealum, David Huntsberger and Graham Elwood. The tour was designed around Proposition 19 and Doug’s belief in the legalization of marijuana. The show itself was not your typical comedy routine; instead it was similar to the way Doug does his podcasts – a string of irrelevant thoughts tied together with other comedians interjecting. This is done by Doug inviting each guest comedian up one at a time to showcase their comedy while Doug sits on the stage and interjects

 In 1936, "Tell the Children" was released in theaters. You may know it
better as "Reefer Madness." 
      In the film, a group of high school kids are lured into using "marihuana" by a couple of "pushers." Their experimentation immediately leads to disastrous results, including vehicular manslaughter, attempted rape, insanity, murder, suicide, and (gasp!) really, really fast piano playing. 
      It ends, famously, with a high school principal pointing at the camera and suggesting that the events just portrayed are likely to happen again, except this time, to your children (won't somebody think of YOUR children!?!?!?). 
This was the first time that anti-pot activists played on parents’ fe

  “10 years ago I was high on crack cocaine, now I’m high on life.”, these are the words from Sacramento native, Bishop Ron Allen, a former crack cocaine addict for seven years, and now one of the must prominent leaders in the country on the war on drugs.   Allen united with law enforcement agencies from all over the world, who assembled themselves in the nation’s capitol last week to share data and strategies to help fight the escalating war on drugs in this country.  The event was hosted by HIDTA (The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program) an organization under the executive order of the White House.   Allen was there with the I.F.B.C. (International Faith Based Coalition),

Plans for local regulations on marijuana will share the spotlight with Mayor Kevin Johnson’s strong-mayor proposal at City Hall this month. The City Council will tackle marijuana proposals at its July 13 and July 27 meetings. Before the meetings, the public is invited to weigh in on two proposed medical marijuana rules. A meeting to gather input will be held in the second-floor hearing room of Historic City Hall, 915 I St., on Tuesday at 6 p.m. The city also held a public meeting last month about plans for a medical-marijuana ordinance. At its July 13 meeting, the City Council is scheduled to address a proposal to tax marijuana dispensaries. The idea to tax pot dispensaries is part of a

The Sacramento City Council wants to start taxing pot dispensaries and possibly increase a business tax. Expecting California voters to legalize recreational marijuana in November and facing continued financial problems, the council discussed putting a measure on the general election ballot to ask Sacramentans to enact a tax on pot dispensaries and to increase the city's business operations tax (BOT) so bigger companies could pay a more proportionate share. At a public hearing Tuesday afternoon, several council members indicated they're leaning toward alternatives to a 5 percent, across-the-board pot tax after hearing from at least a dozen patients, operators and advocates for the indust

Written by L.C. Linden, PublicCEO.com SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Sacramento has become a boomtown over the past year for medical marijuana dispensaries, but the influx of businesses may not be a boon to medical marijuana patients or the city in general. "We don't want Sacramento to become like Los Angeles," which has been overwhelmed by a rampant proliferation of medical marijuana operations, said Don Johnson, director of Unity Non-Profit Collective, a dispensary with 3,100 members that opened in March 2009. The collective, located in an industrial park off Tribute Road, sells only marijuana that is cultivated by its members and, unlike many other businesses of its ilk, scrupulously follows

Artistic Differences theater company opened a monthlong run of the hit musical "Reefer Madness" Friday evening. According to director Christine Nicholson, the company's largest cast ever is putting on this Capitol Stage musical production about a 1936 murder trial. "The subject is also especially worth exploring, considering the upcoming California ballot," she added. The story is based on the original musical appeared Off-Broadway in 2001, which in turn was based on the B-movie cult classic. Nicholson said she thinks this is the area's first performance of "Reefer Madness." The musical features many of the same characters as the film: Mae, Sally, Ralph and Jack. Mary Lane and Jimmy are

In this Sunday’s Sacramento Bee,  Marcos Breton blasts the attempt to legalize Marijuana. Breton said, “… the point –for most users- is just getting high.” Really? I am 35 and an epileptic; I have had chronic Insomnia all my life and Marijuana has been the only thing that helped. In 2005 I smoked Marijuana for the first time and all that happened was that I was relaxed and slept? Over the last two years I have constantly complained of sever insomnia only to have doctors ignore my complaints. Mr. Breton characterizes the people using Marijuana as just stoners looking for cover. Having been on Pharmaceutical drugs for almost all my life I can tell you first hand how they zone you out

During Tuesday night's hearing, the Sacramento City Council voted unanimously to extend the citywide moratorium on medical cannabis dispensary openings and expansion for ten months and fifteen days, totaling a year of halted development. The city is now 42 days into the moratorium's original 45. In that time, city government has been collecting information on cannabis clubs and invited existing dispensaries to register themselves within 30 days, a time window that closed on August 16. The registration has ceased; the research has not. "We felt that 45 days was just too short," said City Special Projects Manager Michelle Heppner, who helped conduct the fact-finding mission. "Things moved

Regardless of the smoldering controversy cannabis stirs up in Sacramento City Hall, the state Capitol and Washington D.C., the global scientific community has examined the drug with increasing interest recently. Local patients and doctors can't say enough about the groundbreaking potential of THC as a pharmaceutical. There's a fairly large medical cannabis community in Sacramento, of patients, caregivers and researchers. Some dispensaries work directly with patients and doctors to bridge the gap between medical knowledge and social support. Sacramento resident Thomas Coy has worked with the Capitol Wellness dispensary since it opened in 2004. He's a patient, an activist and a 28-year s

As part of the fact-finding process of the cannabis dispensary moratorium, the Sacramento city government is taking a look at how, exactly, medical pot stores operate. Without many precedents to refer to, dispensaries don't have solidly established business practices. All dispensaries are somewhat similar, but none are alike. Dispensaries all have the same basic foundation. By state law, pot shops must be collectives or cooperatives of medicinal cannabis patients. After ill Californians get cannabis recommendations, they have the ability to medicate and cultivate as they see fit. Last year, California Attorney General Jerry Brown published some guidelines on how many plants (six) and how

Cloned cannabis plants at Canna Care Munching on a herbal brownie at El Camino Wellness Center, AAMC state director Ryan Landers explained how tricky and self-conflicting medicinal cannabis laws are. "In Sacramento County, publicly smoking medicinal cannabis is considered ten 10 times worse than just smoking weed," he said. Landers has been a medicinal cannabis activist for over 15 years and has worked extensively in drafting legislation and law enforcement plans for the new dimension of legal medicine. He works with patients and patients' rights groups, lobbies and national advocacy groups. If weed was legal expertise, he'd be "the guy on the corner." Regarding the legal gap between

Approaching an unassuming commercial building in a quiet part of town, you might think to double-check the address -- is this really a cannabis dispensary? It's just another discreet storefront surrounded by small-scale businesses. Where are the glaring neon lights, the billows of heavy smoke, the muggers, the hustlers, the junkies, the wild pot-smoking depravity in the streets? And then you realize: it's just another pharmacy, man. To Californians without the cannabis card, the idea of a cannabis dispensary is a funny sort of abstraction - a fantastical "pot store" that D.A.R.E. education and anti-drug advertising never anticipated. Medicinal cannabis dispensaries can be found in 13 st