Newest articles and comments on The Sacramento Press written by Cheyenne Cary

Dispensary moratorium extended

2009-08-26T03:45:23Z

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 very slowly. We would call the city, leave a message, get a call back in two days from the wrong person, it was hectic."

As outlined in the original moratorium, new cannabis clubs will be prevented from opening and existing clubs will be unable to physically expand their operations. There is no limitation on the number of patients a dispensary serves, however.

Cannabis club co-owner Lanette Davies spoke on behalf of the dispensary community and voiced her support for setting standards on practices.

American Association for Medical Cannabis state director and longtime medical cannabis activist Ryan Landers also spoke briefly, reminding the City Council of the seriousness of medical marijuana. "It saves people's lives, helps them keep medicine down, makes people eat. Cannabis is vital."

About 40 cannabis dispensaries registered with the city, a number that almost doubled the city's previous estimates. Those that did not register in the 30 day period will not be excluded from considerations, Heppner said. Registration consisted of providing basic information that proved the dispensary in question was open before June 15, but did not probe any further into the structure and practices of the businesses.

"We don't really know what [the clubs] do," Heppner said, "but that will be coming later when we consider regulations. That'll be the interesting part."

In the next few weeks and months, the research task force will communicate with dispensaries, compare regulatory options with other California cities and hold public meetings to invite comment. Current plans include an as-yet unscheduled meeting in late September and a law enforcement tour of Oakland dispensaries.

The moratorium will expire on July 13, 2010 unless it is further extended. Under city code, emergency ordinances can last up to two years.

The science of THC medicine

2009-08-20T04:49:07Z

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 survivor of HIV/AIDS.

"Cannabis has helped me tremendously," he said. "I've been on medical programs and trials since 1983."

Cannabis allows Coy to cope with and overcome many symptoms of the virus. Smoking four joints a day helps prevent seizure, relieve nausea, fight pneumonia and stimulate his appetite.

"If it wasn't for medical marijuana, I'd be dead," Coy said. "Doctors say I'm a living miracle."

Despite a condition that many would find disabling, Coy keeps an active lifestyle and leads Cap Wellness support groups. Last week, Coy's HIV/AIDS group took a camping and whitewater rafting trip.

Coy counsels patients both socially and legally, and has worked for many years with the patients' rights advocacy group Americans for Safe Access. He has testified numerous times on behalf of federally-raided patients and clubs.

"I get out there and I raise my voice," he said. "I say 'this is medicine, hands off it.'"

Patients like Coy are a common sight at dispensaries and rallies, fighting for their rights to medicate for AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, fibermyalgia, glaucoma... the list goes on.

Medical studies on cannabis took a long time to evolve, and Dr. Frank Lucido was there to watch.

Frank Lucido has been a general family practice doctor for 30 years. Since cannabis was legalized for medical use in 1996, he has been an outspoken and highly regarded supporter of herbal medicine. He spoke with The Sacramento Press to offer medical perspective on the drug.

"I started getting into it right away after it was legal," he said. "Every doctor knows they have about 20 slam-dunk patients that could benefit greatly from medical cannabis."

While Lucido was getting his M.D. in the '70s, doctors weren't learning about cannabis, aside from its reportedly high potential for abuse.

"The dangers of cannabis we knew were overblown," he said. "All of us saw people using cannabis in med school and still performing extremely well."

Once California's medical cannabis legalization measure, Proposition 215, got on the ballot, Lucido's interest was piqued. He had heard rumors that cannabis had some vague medical benefits and began checking out studies on what exactly cannabis did.

"There's still a lot we don't know, but we do know there are at least 70 reactive cannabinoids as well as many CBDs," he said.

Cannabinoids are essentially the 'stuff' in cannabis that gets people high. They're a family of chemicals that mimic a substance that the human brain naturally produces, a cannabinoid known as anandamide. There are receptors for anandamide throughout the body and brain. There's a wide variety of cannabinoids in cannabis, but most are concentrated into delta-9 tetrahydracannabinol, known colloqually as THC. More background on THC can be found at 3dchem.com.

Generally speaking, the more THC, the more potent the cannabis, at least for its relaxing properties. THC can be used as a sleep aid, pain suppressant, anti-inflammatory, anti-convulsant, appetite stimulant, muscle relaxant and - perhaps most commonly known - as an anti-depressant.

CBD is an acronym for cannabidiol, a family of substances in cannabis that are a bit of unexplored territory. In ongoing research, CBDs have been found to have anti-viral and even anti-tumor properties. Yes, this means that cannabis may help to prevent cancer, according to recent UCLA studies.

"It was announced about two or three years ago that cannabis didn't increase the risk of cancer, and it was briefly stated that certain doses might even be protective," Lucido said. Several other studies that have successfully used cannabis to shrink tumors in mice have been ignored despite their results, according to Lucido.

It's popular wisdom that it is impossible to overdose on cannabis, as the estimated lethal dosage adds up to smoking 1,500 pounds in 15 minutes. Yet, as it turns out, even if you took in a lethal dose (with Janis Joplin's lungs and Willie Nelson's stash), you'd still survive. Interestingly, there aren't cannabinoid receptors in the medulla oblongata, the part of your brain that controls breathing and other vital functions.

"That means that someone who smokes a fatal dose may be very sleepy, but they wouldn't die," Lucido said.

Although impossible to die from any dose of cannabis, smoking pot does carry other side effects. There's one major one — the side effect that isn't a side effect: Getting high. The psychoactive effect of cannabis can be either a euphoria (pleasant) or a dysphoria (unpleasant); some people enjoy it, others don't. If they turn to cannabis for relief from serious illness, however, dysphoric patients can get over their dislike and even become immune to the 'stoned' effect, something many sources have noted.

Cannabis can also be a mild lung irritant, but that can be avoided by eating a pot brownie or using a vaporizer.

Given the wide potential of cannabis' medical usage, it is still fairly uncommon for doctors to make regular recommendations for patients to use the drug.

"Most doctors are hesitant to recommend cannabis because of two reasons," Lucido said. "Either they don't know about its medical properties or they're afraid of the medical board and law enforcement. I keep myself to a very high standard and I was still investigated by the medical board."

Lucido, a private practice doctor, said that he screens his patients by asking for corroborating evidence of their condition. He quizzes any applicants under the age of 21 with two questions. First: "Are you living at home?" Second: "Are you hiding it from your parents?" He said this sifts out about 90 percent of young applicants.

While cannabis can have remarkable effects on the lives of people living with terminal disease, those cases are fairly rare. More commonly, patients seek treatment for mental tension and physical pain. A survey of Lucido's 1,045 patients in 2008 found that 61% medicated for chronic pain, 7% for anxiety, 6% for migraines, 4.4% for gastrointestinal disorders (indigestion, nausea, anorexia), and 3.4% for depression. Many other disorders take up the last 18%.

New studies consistently point out new uses for cannabis medication, as the University of California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research (CMCR) continues to conduct research throughout the state on THC's effects on everything from spinal cord injury to MS muscle disorders. Interestingly, Lucido said he recently heard of another application for the sensual herb: increasing the female libido. While licentious cannabis-smoking females were key plot devices back in the 'Reefer Madness' days, new findings have shown that cannabis' come-hither effects can be used to stimulate a dormant libido.

Scientific exploration of cannabis' medical properties has yielded some promising fruit. Now, with increased local and national attention, research seems likely to keep on growing.

Photos courtesy of AngelJustice.org and David Scharf and Peter Dasil of Corbis

Cheyenne Cary on "Spotlight shines on shoe shiner"

2009-08-18T22:00:12Z

Looks like Gee's steppin' up his game! The new sign looks great, and I'm glad to see that SacPress can give a hardworking member of the community a bump!

Cheyenne Cary on "What's Poppin Sacramento?"

2009-08-18T21:57:40Z

Creamy and delicious, yet sugarfree and non-dairy... so what ARE they made out of? Maybe a trade secret, but SacPress deserves to know! I've got to give his mint chip a try. Sounds delightful.

Bud business: Cannabis clubs explained

2009-08-14T05:23:35Z

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 much prepared cannabis (8 oz) independent patients should grow or possess at one point in time, but such guidelines aren't law. Instead, these guidelines are sort of a threshold of acceptability to avoid state legal action. Brown's recommendations are more binding of cooperatives, which he requires to operate within the law.

"California law isn't really specific on any of this stuff," a spokesman from Capitol Wellness Collective said, who requested SacPress to not use his name. "It's still evolving."

If multiple patients pool their resources, they can quickly come into possession of far more cannabis than the guidelines suggest or that they're even capable of using. Remember, this plant grows like a weed. A single indoor plant can grow up to six feet tall, producing up to 10 ounces - so even within guidelines, stockpiles can overflow.

If they feel like making a practice out of it, state law allows them to open a dispensary. Dispensaries often start with several growing patients and occasionally another entrepreneur who may not grow or have a doctor's recommendation for THC medicine.

Aspiring club owners must then make the difficult decision of where to set up shop. Dispensaries have to take on a number of concerns when shopping for property, said American Association for Medical Cannabis State Director Ryan Landers. "They need to be a good distance from other dispensaries to avoid being redundant, and they have to be away from parks or kid-friendly businesses."

AAMC is a nationwide activist group that works with lawmakers and law enforcement to make medical cannabis safer and more available.

Friendly landlords are also a must, as opening a pot shop can be a touchy matter.

"Nobody wants to lose their property for renting to a dispensary, so they usually think twice," Landers said. "It's never happened in Sacramento, though."

Accessibility is another major component of a shop's location. Many cannabis patients have limited mobility, and private transport may be a luxury they physically or financially can't afford. Local dispensaries choose to open near bus or light rail lines. Clubs usually avoid busy metro areas: None are presently open in the heart of the downtown grid. Capitol Alternatives, a club on 16th Street, was raided by DEA agents and local police in April 2006, though no charges were made, according to news reports. The club reopened the next day at another location.

Then there's the question of how the medicine gets to the dispensary in the first place. As mentioned before, most dispensaries are run by cultivating patients, but once demand goes up, for the sake of stable prices, so must supply. Patients outside the dispensary are invited to donate their excess medicine if they have an abundance, which is common. Contributions are given free of charge and serve to keep prices down and to increase the variety of strains available. According to local club owners, there is a wide network of patients making regular donations.

Dispensaries are always nonprofit businesses, as required by state law. This means that all of their profits need to be redistributed back to the community. Employee salaries are included in that interpretation of 'community.' According to a spokesman for Hugs Alternative care, about 25 percent of profits go back to salaries. With the remainder, clubs also give back in other ways.

Every club gives a charitable amount back to patients who donate their excess medicine, usually in the range of $100 an ounce, according to local club owners. Doing some quick math, at $50-60 per eighth-ounce, this adds up to a $300 or more profit margin on each ounce sold.

Some clubs also use their excess earnings for other health services, like massage therapy or group counseling, and a few even offer hobby classes and other services.

"At Capitol Wellness Collective, we have a lot of basic outreach programs," CWC's spokesperson said. "We have a full-time spiritual counselor, condition-specific support groups, a masseuse, cooking classes and peer counseling, all of which are provided free of charge."

Some local clubs also make donations to charities to redistribute their income. Capitol Wellness donates to Loaves and Fishes, the local Shriner chapter and "other people that are just doing great work," according to its spokesperson.

Lastly, dispensaries point out that they usually offer 'compassion plans,' that reduce or eliminate the cost of medicine for disadvantaged patients. Veterans can often get a discount, as can the disabled and patients with MediCal and Medicare.

"Clubs should never present an undue hardship to the people that need medicine most," Landers said. "Medical cannabis saves lives."

Dispensaries are almost always incorporated. They charge sales tax for their wares and pay federal and state taxes, although they aren't federally listed to avoid DEA entanglements. They usually employ between five to 10 full-time employees and pay a "comfortable" salary, according to club owners and employees.

"As profits go up, so do salaries. If we're in a good time, we'll meet up and discuss pay," Clyde Baker from Hugs Alternative Care said.

Patients can volunteer their time to help out at some local dispensaries, and some receive free medicine in return for their time. Alexander Skibo volunteers at Northstar Healing Collective and positively loves doing it.

"This is the most convenient arrangement I've ever had with any medicine," he said. "I haven't been able to drive a car since my injury, so walking in to volunteer is just great. I'm definitely a proponent."

Specifics on the actual cannabis commerce that takes place at dispensaries are tough to get. Questions on profits, salaries and even day-to-day business are usually met with "that's a private matter." Some general facts can be learned, but accounting figures will be checked out by the city government, if even then. Clubs still have two more weeks to register with the city and prove they were open before the moratorium's June 16 requirement. After that point, if clubs fail to register, they'll get hit with a misdemeanor every day they stay open.

"That'll add up really quickly," Landers said. "Most clubs have already registered, but we're still expecting more."

For more information on the legality and aesthetics of local medical cannabis, or the moratorium, refer to these previous SacPress articles.

Cheyenne Cary on "Drag Queen Bingo Raises Money for Charity"

2009-08-13T21:38:17Z

I've never put 'bingo' and 'excitement' in the same thought before, but Drag Queen Bingo sounds like a wild evening. The raunchy humor is great - nobody can push the limits like a sweet transvestite. Looks like there was a HUGE turnout of young contestants, and with 10 prize winners out of 75-ish people, you're looking at some pretty good odds. Couple questions: How much is the buy-in? Also, do you know what charity will benefit next week?

Cheyenne Cary on "Know your ganja: A tour of local cannabis clubs"

2009-08-12T19:15:15Z

henstroud: It's fully within the law for medical cannabis patients to grow their own medicine. This is actually how all dispensaries operate - as 'collectives' of growers that distribute their produce to other patients. The only legal ramifications come into play at the federal level.

Cheyenne Cary on "TFO: Totally Friggin Owesome"

2009-08-11T21:44:36Z

I believe it was combined with a book tour, 'If Chins Could Kill.' Campbell loves mixing it up with the fans anyhow and is something like an insult comic in person. I met the guy when I was in high school - he signed my yearbook.

Cheyenne Cary on "KRS-One helps out with Washington Neighborhood Center"

2009-08-11T21:30:02Z

What an all-star night! The community roots of hip-hop culture should never be ignored, and that's something granddaddy KRS-One knows better than anyone. I've seen Butterscotch and Random Abiladeze (note spelling) at UC Davis numerous times, and they're a dynamic duo. Random's got a huge ego, though, but that just makes him mainstream material (ohhhh!) 'Scotch has also done some great work with the folks from Tourette's Without Regrets, an AWESOME Oakland slam poetry outfit. If you're into this, check them out.

Cheyenne Cary on "TFO: Totally Friggin Owesome"

2009-08-11T06:57:52Z

Quick note: the 'Trash Film Orgy' in bold in the first paragraph is actually a link. Check out the TFO at http://trashfilmorgy.com! That's also where you can find all those nifty pictures reproduced in this article.

TFO: Totally Friggin Owesome

2009-08-11T03:03:38Z

We at the Sacramento Press have already spent several hundred words poking and prodding you readers to imbibe in the blood-soaked, cleavage-filled, heavy-metal hilarity that is the Trash Film Orgy. Now, we have escalated to drastic measures and must insist that you attend the last TFO screening of the season Saturday at the Crest Theatre -- at the stroke of midnight.

If you have ever yelled at your television, scoffed at overacting, jeered at cornball love scenes, marveled at excessive violence and explosions or shrieked with laughter at super low-budget special effects, the TFO is for you. For the last nine summers, TFO has shared its impressive collection of exploitation, grindhouse and horror films with punky, belligerent, 18+ audiences exclusively at the Crest.

TFO selects its films not simply for being 'bad,' but for their overlooked potential for cult status. TFO member Amy Slockbower said she thinks 'bad,' is a misnomer anyway.

"I don't think any of these movies are sub-par by any means," Slockbower said. "They're great in their own way, and not 'so bad it's good,' like a lot of people say. These movies are under-appreciated and misunderstood."

TFO films can be monster movies, zombie films, survival horrors, imported action films, or 'butts in seats' classics like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Movie production companies actually give their OK to these screenings and provide for-real movie reels.

"We're the Trash Film Orgy, so we keep it on celluloid every time we can," Slockbower said. Sometimes this means scratchy prints that are dissolving with time - for classic and authentic 'technical difficulties.'

Behind TFO is a vast collaborative of local comedians, DJs, artists, models and midnight movie buffs who share their campy energies to bring Sacramento residents a night of pure rock-and-roll entertainment. While at the 'straight' movie theater, customers will buy their tickets, sit quietly, watch the feature and leave, TFO is a completely different organism. For the $10 ticket price, you'll be entertained from the moment you get in line until the drive home, when you'll still be smirking, joking and laughing at the whole experience.

The TFO audience is, suffice to say, quite colorful. Attendees range from TFO virgins to nine-year veterans, and you're sure to spot a plethora of punk-rockers, zombies, schoolgirls, metalheads and goth kids as you buy tickets and enter the lobby. The Crest's posh lobby gets renovated/vandalized every week into 'Trashville,' a carnival-esque series of painted wooden booths where you can try your luck to win kitschy toys, take snapshots with TFO's friendly and foxy group of costumed models or listen to a rousing sermon from Lucifer himself.

"Interactivity is a big part of TFO. We like to keep things involving and fun," Slockbower said.

Crest's main theater becomes a nifty meet-and-greet lounge before the show where you can mingle with your TFO peers to the beat of awesome live DJ'ing, courtesy of TFO's long list of musically-talented friends. Occasionally, TFO will play host to cult celebrities, and famously drew Bruce Campbell to the theater for a 2001 screening of "Evil Dead 2."

Before the film starts, you'll be introduced to your emcee deity, the Great Tiki God, who will shout out some context for the night's movie and work the crowd. Stage shows generally follow. Improv comedians and friends of TFO will perform hilarious skit-comedy -- last week's sketch was 'Cannibal Cowboys,' a dramatic tale of people-wrangling zombies filled with heartbreak, betrayal and new beginnings - and some slapstick cap-gun duels.

An intermission brings another chance for audience participation with some form of contest. Last week saw a hot dog-eating competition that ended with more wieners stolen or thrown than digested.

Every week's movie brings a different theme, but the audience tradition of yelling out riffs, jokes or profanity never changes. As soon as the movie begins, the shouting starts. Last week's feature, 'Lady Terminator' was an import film that blended traditional Indonesian mythology with modern Hollywood themes of boobies, pop music and gunplay. The result was a train-wreck, brain-dead bloodbath that had the crowd howling.

The film starts and ends with shouting. As the projectionist sets up, the crowd chants "Gary! Gary!" As the opening credits roll, the crowd mocks silly-sounding names and production companies. Terminator's 'Chuchu Productions' brought a flurry of train noises.

When a character gets eaten, gets naked or gets blown apart, the audience chimes in or cheers. As the movie ends, watchers share closing thoughts.

The sole surviving male protagonist in the Indonesian 'Terminator' was a blonde Caucasian, who stood triumphant with his new love interest. The crowd shouted: "Man, it sure is great being white!"

If you're already a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000 or the Rocky Horror Picture Show, this will sound endearingly familiar.

Walking from the theater into the K Street Mall at 3 a.m., (don't worry, you'll be fine,) you may get a warm fuzzy feeling from participating in a truly unique and community-driven experience. For those with a strong stomach and a campy sense of humor, I give the Trash Film Orgy my highest recommendation.

Go next week for Black Belt Jones, the kung-fu asswhoopin' finale of this year's TFO!

CLUCK presses for changes

2009-08-07T05:36:59Z

Sacramento gardening activists want to take urban agriculture to the next level and legalize raising chickens in your back yard.

"It's really been a hot topic lately," said Jaclyn Hopkins, volunteer coordinator for Environmental and Agricultural Taskforce Sacramento. "A lot of cities are changing their regulations to allow chicken-keeping, and Sacramento's on it's way."

EAT Sacramento and its partner group Campaign to Legalize Urban Chicken Keeping (CLUCK) were founded this year to advocate for more sustainable and organic gardening in the city. To promote the cause of backyard chicken coops, CLUCK will be hosting screenings of the indie documentary Mad City Chickens at the Guild Theatre Friday at 7:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., and again at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are $5 and available at the door.

Mad City Chickens is equal parts entertainment and educational outreach. The film is an intelligent, sometimes-comic look at the relationships between city-dwelling humans and the chickens they raise, following the intersecting stories of various families, professionals and birds. The plot centers around the grassroots movement to legalize chicken-keeping in Madison City, Wisconsin, which successfully changed its city code in 2004. The film's two directors, Tashai Lovington and Robert Lughai, are on tour with the film and will host discussions after both screenings on Friday. They will have moved on to San Francisco by Sunday.

This screening is part of a concerted effort to change Sacramento law on behalf of the birds.

Under current city law, clucking, flightless egg-layers cannot be kept as pets due to an ordinance that bans the non-agricultural raising of any livestock. City laws for the city were changed to prohibit chickens in 1989. The same language that bans chickens also bans most other barnyard animals: horses, mules, sheep, goats, etc.

"It was part of a sweeping ban to make Sac look like a modern city," CLUCK coordinator Abbie Crouch said. "But nowadays, people want to get back in touch with their roots."

After researching the ban for months, EAT Sacramento is still unsure why city government chose to outlaw chickens specifically. Perhaps it was, as Crouch said, to solidify Sacramento's development from a 'cow town' to a metropolitan urban center. Alternatively, it could also have been intended to deal with occasional complaints about noise, odor or chicken mistreatment.

Whatever the case, the ban hasn't stuck. Rogue Sacramento chicken-keepers still hatch, feed, house and learn to love their feathered friends in spite of the law.

"There's a surprisingly large chicken underground, "Crouch said. "A lot of people don't mind breaking the law." CLUCK estimates there are hundreds of backyard chickens in the city.

It's legal to raise chickens most anywhere else in California. San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Jose have all okayed backyard cooping, as have our neighbors in Roseville, Oakland and (of course) Davis.

Sacramento County code allows anyone to raise chickens as long as they have a yard larger than 10,000 square feet, which closes off most city residents but allows folks in Fair Oaks to raise chickens with much gusto.

Regulations usually place a cap on maximum number of chickens (about four to six per family) and add that chickens must be kept at least 20, 25, or 40 feet from neighboring structures. Los Angeles has no limits on how many hens one family can raise. Hens are tranquil, quiet and well-mannered, but their boyfriends can present a problem. Roosters are almost never legal, as they tend to pick fights and crow at godawful times of the day, and even after all that they don't contribute anything toward egg-laying. Slaughtering chickens is also illegal almost everywhere, as some serious health concerns start to enter the picture.

If chickens could talk, they'd be vocal supporters of backyard raising. Animal rights activists brought new attention to the relative brutality of factory farm conditions with the passage of Proposition 2 in the 2008 general election. Prop. 2 will require significant improvements in animal treatment for California meat and poultry industries in 2015. Those improvements reveal how constrictive factory cages are; Prop 2's requirements were simply for animals to have enough space to stand up and turn around.

Comparatively, backyard chickens have massive coops and a great deal more TLC. "Backyard chickens tend to live pretty sweet lives," Hopkins said.

It doesn't take much to really spoil a chicken. A little space to scratch around, a comfy enclosure for laying, feed to peck at, and as a treat, some grass to gobble from time to time. These are simple pleasures that anyone with a backyard can provide.

"Everybody could raise a chicken or two," Crouch said "They're easier to take care of than more conventional pets like dogs."

Raising chickens can enhance life for you and your chicken, according to new scientific studies. Chickens get an easy, comfortable living and you get fresh eggs that knock out the supermarket in terms of quality. Two recent Penn State studies have shown that free-range hens produce healthier eggs, richer in nutrients and Omega-3 fats, and studies of a less-academic nature have confirmed that free-range eggs taste terrific.

Crouch said that chickens can make great pets, too. "Not only do you get delicious food, you get some evening entertainment."

Even though they may have brains more like dinosaurs than like cats or dogs or hamsters, chickens can be a kind of companion animal. Chickens can hop on your lap and get friendly, and they generally like being petted. "And it sounds silly, but you can have a beer on the porch and watch your chickens be cute and do stupid stuff in your back yard," Crouch said.

Legalizing and regulating chicken culture in Sacramento would have benefits across the board, CLUCK members surmise. Documenting the number of chickens in the city is one perk, and increased attention could also allow for better disease control or donation of deceased chickens to local colleges.

"When we talk to city council, we usually keep things loose to allow for the development of regulations," said Hopkins. At present, CLUCK is looking at a six chicken maximum and a mandatory distance between coop and home.

The eggs of reform are incubating, according to EAT and CLUCK representatives.

"It's now just a matter of when," Hopkins said.

For information on CLUCK and EAT Sacramento

•Campaign to Legalize Urban Chicken Keeping, a subsidiary campaign of EAT Sacramento
info@EATsacramento.org or 916-551-1883

•Mad City Chickens on Friday, 7:00 and 9:30 and Sunday at 7:00
Guild Theatre
Post screening discussion with independent filmmakers Tashai Lovington & Robert Lughai, of Tarazod Films

Cheyenne Cary on "Shoe guy shines as bright as his shoes"

2009-08-06T20:23:01Z

It makes it awesome, Colleen.

Cheyenne Cary on "Aaron Young: rising Sacramento soul singer"

2009-08-05T21:51:17Z

Great article, Jonathan. I think I actually met Aaron outside the SacPress office as he was chillin with a frappucino. He mentioned he'd want to talk to us about a story, so it's good to see that take shape. Vernon Black has got some awesome guitar credentials, so I'm sure Friday will be a great show.

When pot and paper don't mix

2009-08-05T17:08:22Z

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 smoking weed or medicinal cannabis, he says, "If they get caught, I tell my patients to just say they were doing it for the hell of it."

Medicinal cannabis laws are confoundingly thorny, unlike the plant in question. A long list of can-do and can't-do legislation adds up to conflict between levels of government and continuing confusion over raids, trials and incarcerations nationwide. It takes real education to sort these loopholes out, so what follows is a primer on the different and often conflicting ways that federal, state, county and city laws regard medicinal cannabis.

Sacramento city's legal haze

Sacramento city government doesn't really have anything to say on the case of medicinal cannabis. The 45-day moratorium is the first time that the existence of cannabis dispensaries has ever been addressed by the city, and progress toward developing zoning code, tax plans and other regulations is going to take a while. At present, the city refers to a copy of the county's policy on medicinal cannabis.

Other California cities have adopted new ordinances pertaining to dispensaries. In Berkeley, dispensaries can't open in certain zoning areas or within 300 feet of a school. In Santa Barbara, dispensaries must apply for a city permit to operate, then pay a continuous fee to stay legit. In Davis, city government banned dispensaries entirely. Last month, Oakland became the first city in the country to introduce a specific tax on medicinal cannabis, levying an $18 tax for every $1,000 of gross sales.

Sacramento County's duplicative statutes

Sacramento County has a few provisions for medicinal cannabis but leaves most of the lawmaking to the state. The Board of Supervisors decided to comply with California's medicinal cannabis plan in December 2008 and instituted a program to provide THC patients with the state's Medical Marijuana ID card.

County code contains one ordinance in addition to state law: an increase in penalty for publicly smoking medicinal cannabis. This was a provision included with the adoption of state law. Smoking cannabis for non-medical purposes ( ie. "getting high") only nets you a possession charge and a $100 fine, but medicinal cannabis is punished much more harshly. If you're smoking your legal medicinal joint strolling through the city, you can get busted for a $1,000 fine and risk six months in jail. This is the discrepancy Landers highlighted earlier.

Literature display at Northstar Healing Collective

California state law: wellspring of legality

State law is the source for all real medicinal cannabis provisions in California. As addressed in previous articles in The Sacramento Press, legalization was brought about by two separate laws: Proposition 215 and State Bill 420.

Prop 215 was added to voter ballots in the 1996 general election and was passed by a 55.6 percent majority. The ballot measure added language to the California Health and Safety Code under the title of the Compassionate Use Act. Language states that criminal law no longer applies to "seriously ill Californians" and their "primary caregivers" for the possession and cultivation of cannabis for medicinal purposes, and that no physician would be subject to punishment for its recommendation.

The CUA also lists ailments that are considered treatable with cannabis such as "cancer, anorexia, AIDS, [and] chronic pain," but the list is by no means binding or complete. It is key to note that medicinal cannabis is not a prescription for a specific illness, but it is a recommendation that can be applied to individuals on a case-by-case basis and does not require a specific condition to even be mentioned, according to Americans for Safe Access.

State Bill 420 is a separate law that did not amend Prop 215. Altering 215 was deemed to be unconstitutional, as doing so would override the intentions of voters. Instead, 420 recognized medicinal cannabis in the state legislature and introduced new provisions for dispensaries and patient ID cards. This was intended to better allow the enforcement of patient protections and allow all qualified patients to have the cannabis option open.

In the language of the bill, patients and caregivers who "collectively or cooperatively" cultivate cannabis for medical purposes cannot be punished on those grounds alone. This also allows dispensaries to exist, but only as not-for-profit enterprises. This is distinct from non-profit in an important way: Non-profit is a federal listing. Dispensaries, of course, aren't interested in asking the Feds for permission.

Medicinal cannabis dispensaries are almost exclusively a California phenomenon. Several other states have a handful of cooperatives, but the vast majority are here in the golden state. This means that federal policy toward dispensaries and federal court cases deal entirely with California.

Under 420, qualified patients can also apply for a medicinal cannabis ID card under the Medical Marijuana Plan. (On the law books, the unscientific term "marijuana" is always used.) By presenting documentation and paying a fee for the Department of Health Services program, patients can receive an ID card that confirms their eligibility for one year. This program is primarily for convenience, but it has its remaining issues.

"Often times, just an ID card isn't enough," Landers said. "Police are the only ones to usually check ID. I carry my card, my application and my doctor's recommendation to stay safe. I don't even reduce them; I leave them as full-size papers."

SB 420 was passed by state legislature in 2003, but had a long history before it hit the law books. It was originally introduced in 2001 as SB 187 and passed both the Assembly and the Senate, but was placed in the suspense file — basically bill purgatory — and not sent to the governor. While in progress, the bill underwent significant rewriting until its language was identical to the later SB 420. The bill's authors and advocates decided to wait until the time was right for the governor to sign it (and the hemp-culture favorite number "420" was available.) Then-governor Gray Davis was lukewarm on the issue in 2001, but after his recall and replacement with Schwarzenegger he was more amenable to the idea. The 420 legislation was one of the last bills Davis signed on his way out the door.

Federal agents raid a San Francisco dispensary.

Federal law: The war on a plant

United States federal government lists cannabis as a Schedule 1 substance under the Controlled Substances Act. This means that cannabis is illegal and given the highest priority for control by the Drug Enforcement Agency under the Department of Justice. The CSA was drafted by the Nixon administration and passed by Congress in 1970 as part of an expansive drug enforcement package, the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act.

Since 1970, federal lawmakers have held that cannabis fits three criteria for control: that it has "a high potential for abuse," has "no currently accepted medical use in treatment" and "a lack of accepted safety for use [...] under medical supervision." These three points are extremely controversial, as a quarter of the states in the union have opened the door to medical usage and reform advocates can draw on a growing body of scientific evidence against potential for abuse and in favor of potential for medical benefits.

Almost all cannabis arrests are made at the state or local level, but the federal ban is by no means purely symbolic. The War on Drugs still makes battlefields out of legitimate businesses, as federal agents raid medicinal cannabis dispensaries and supersede state law. According to a report by the Marijuana Policy Project, over 190 dispensaries in California have been raided since 1996. Raids can consist of seizure of property and medicine, often the physical destruction of security equipment and computers, and some have resulted in incarcerations of medicinal cannabis patients, according to the MPP. Not all raided patients end up getting tried.

"A lot of patients aren't ever put on trial," Landers said. "They're held without Fifth Amendment rights and can't be charged with a crime."

When patients find themselves on trial in federal courts, they have few resources at their disposal. In the 1998 case U.S. v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that state legality was not a workable defense, overruling a previous federal court decision. A 2005 Ninth Circuit case,U.S.Gonzales v. Raich, ruled against another legal defense: "medical necessity" could no longer stand up in court. These decisions greatly constrict the defense options that patients have; state law and medical recommendations don't protect them from conviction.

"You can't make the case for the medicinal benefits of marijuana in court, but federal prosecutors can talk smack about medicinal cannabis all they want," Landers said. "They can use the same arsenal that you're denied."

Federal courts did agree to one protection regarding medicinal cannabis: the rights of doctors to recommend it. In the 2000 district court decision of Conant v. McCaffrey, doctors became protected from federal punishment for discussing or recommending THC to their patients. This was regarded as a First Amendment right and thus ensured.

"Doctors that prescribe medical cannabis are true patriots," said Brian Davies, co-owner of the local Canna Care dispensary. "They study hard for eight years and then risk their careers and reputations to prescribe people the medicine they need."

Different presidential administrations have different approaches to enforcement when it comes to medicinal cannabis. Under Clinton, civil measures were preferred over raids, and cases were generally sorted out in court. In the Bush years, the War on Drugs was in full swagger and raids became more commonplace. Now, under the Obama administration, the medicinal cannabis policies of the DEA remain in flux.

Obama promised before and after his election that federal raids of state-legal dispensaries and patients would stop, but the DEA's trademark door-busting has yet to cease.

"I'm not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue," he told the Oregon Mail Tribune in March, and continued that the "basic concept of using medical marijuana for the same purposes and with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors, I think that's entirely appropriate."

Yet, at least six dispensaries in California have been raided since Obama took office.

A DEA spokesperson clarified this seeming contradiction: "Obama didn't say that DEA raids would stop . He said that those abiding by state law would be given the lowest enforcement priority." He also alleged that medicinal cannabis activists have unrealistic expectations. "It doesn't mean 'no more DEA raids forever,' that's just what the legalizers want to hear."

The DEA source said that they "don't get to choose the laws they enforce," but acknowledged that "there is a selection process as to which dispensaries get raided." According to the source, the choice is based on complaints or reports of "harm to the community."

Only the most careless dispensaries get raided, according to Landers, so for the most part clubs are only partly worried about federal agents breaking up the show.

"It's always a concern, but we're a legitimate business and we're staying open," said Clyde Baker, owner of Hugs Alternative Care.

The jumble of legal cannabis statutes, and lack thereof, resembles an M.C. Escher sketch. Numerous perspectives all seem to be true at once, but in the end, it's just lines on paper.

Photos by Cheya Cary / Frederic Larsen of Corbis

Editor's Note: The Sacramento Press editorial staff edited this article after it was published due to a formatting error.

Cheyenne Cary on ""Buffy" at the Trash Film Orgy"

2009-08-04T23:56:44Z

That 'Shart' image is perfect. I was there for Satan's Cheerleaders and got the added bonus of seeing one of TFO's home-grown short films, Cheerleaders from Hell. A colorful, hilarious and gory experience. Like a Rocky Horror Show that's different every time.

Cheyenne Cary on "Know your ganja: A tour of local cannabis clubs"

2009-07-30T21:47:14Z

Quick note: Photo formatting turned out a little weird. To get a better look, right click the images and select 'View Image' to see them in high-res.

Know your ganja: A tour of local cannabis clubs

2009-07-30T03:51:29Z

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 states across the country, where it has been legalized by ballot initiative or the signing of a bill (AK, CA, CO, HI, ME, MI, MT, NV, NM, OR, RI, VT, and WA).

California made the first jump into medicinal legalization in 1996 thanks to a 55% majority vote for Prop. 215. After hard-fought negotiation and years of delay, the California Legislature further defined the legality with State Bill 420 in 2003, which added greater specificity to the measure and offered a second layer of state protection to cannabis patients.

In Sacramento, medicinal cannabis establishments are fairly commonplace, and have been tolerated by law enforcement since they first started popping up in 2005. After finally catching the scent, Sacramento city government has acknowledged them and has imposed a 45-day moratorium on dispensary development to research how many there are and what can be done to regulate them.

Under present city law, cannabis clubs can open just like any other business and require no extra paperwork for the sale of THC medicines. By state law, the dispensaries all must operate as not-for-profit collectives or cooperatives as a 501 (c)(3). In accordance with this, patients can pool their resources to open a shop -- that's how they all start -- and must reinvest all their earnings into salaries, rent, insurance, product quality, and other expenses to have a bottom line of zero.

Nearing the club, you notice that the building's windows are tinted or barred, and the shop's logo is printed in simple typeface, with no image of the iconic seven-fingered hemp leaf. Clubs always have an eye toward safety due to the sensitive nature of their business. Frequently, store owners post cameras to watch over the area outside and hire a friendly but firm security guard to help out.

To get in, you'll have to ring a doorbell or press a buzzer, and the staff will attend to you within 10 seconds. Some dispensaries have an unlocked front door and a buzzer inside, but others have their patients wait briefly out on the street.

"Safety is our number one concern," said Lanette Davies, co-owner of Canna Care, a dispensary in North Sacramento on Harris Street. "We don't want people to feel scared or feel shady coming to get their medicine. These people are already sick, so we want them to be as comfortable as possible."

Various waiting areas and numerous sofas

'Comfort' is certainly the first word that occurs to you once you get inside a dispensary. The place immediately strikes you as far more cozy than a doctor's office, with plush leather sofas, walls covered in psychedelic posters, magazines to flip through, informational pamphlets to take home, and a big-screen TV tuned to the news, the Discovery Channel or The Boondocks.

"Everything here is designed to be clinical," said American Alliance for Medical Cannabis state director Ryan Landers at the El Camino Wellness Center. "The check-in window, the music, even down to the bright clean floor -- it's what patients want to see." El Camino, off of I-80 in North Sacramento, is the only club this reporter visited that had a landscaped pagoda garden out front and floor-to-ceiling clear glass windows.

Exotic exterior of El Camino Wellness center

Waiting areas range in professionalism -- some look like upscale hotel lobbies, but most look like the living room of a very, shall we say, "green" family.

"Everyone who works here is family," said Clyde Baker, owner of Hugs Alternative Care near the UC Davis Medical Center. He means that biologically and spiritually. As is the case with many cannabis dispensaries, most of his employees are relatives or longtime friends.

"We have a great understanding and trust between us," he said. "If they say they want to take some medicine home with them, I know they'll be good for it."

A cordial receptionist will check your doctor's recommendation or your medicinal cannabis ID card before you enter the patients-only showroom, where the shop's medicine is on display.

Displays of edibles, smokables and growables

Huge glass cases contain a wide variety of cannabis, cannabis products and other non-cannabis herbal remedies. Any dispensary will have a selection of old-fashioned smokable buds, usually between five and 15 different strains ranging in price and potency. Common names to find are OG Kush, Sour Diesel, Northern Lights, Orange Crush or Purple Haze -- different balances of the two species cannabis sativa and cannabis indica that have different flavors, THC content, and are recommended for different purposes.

"I prefer a good sativa myself," Baker said, "it's much more of a picky-upper that can help you focus and still treats my chronic back pain. A good heavy indica can help you relax and get to sleep."

Any serious cannabis dispensary will also have a wide selection of edibles, baked goods that have THC oil cooked right in. Edibles can appear in the form of cookies, brownies, carrot cakes, cherry cobblers, ice creams or marshmallow rice squares, which all come in different prices and dosages. These edibles are a smoke-free medicine for patients with sensitive lungs, a sweet tooth, or both.

Most cannabis dispensaries will also have a rotating inventory of other cannabis products. This includes things like bottles of THC oil, tins of topical THC balms, eyedroppers of THC tincture (a bud soaked in alcohol), and small cannabis plants ready to take home and grow. These plants are all rooted cuttings of successful female plants that are guaranteed to bear ounces of medicine with proper care and a little luck.

Medical research on cannabis has documented its effectiveness with relieving symptoms of a long list of diseases. Cancer patients on chemotherapy, AIDS sufferers with chronic nausea, people living with multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, rheumatoid arthritis or fibromyalgia all come to cannabis dispensaries seeking mental and physical peace and tranquility.

Other herbs share the stage with cannabis at some dispensaries. Occasionally, you can find bags of St. John's Wort, Star Anise and Slippery Elm Bark, selections of teas and soaps and other personal care products available along with THC medicine. These plant remedies are standard fare at a health food store, so next to NorCal Super Skunk, they can seem just a little underwhelming.

Pricing charts at two dispensaries

Employees will happily show you through their collection and describe the expected effects and experiences each product has to offer. Anything you're interested in they'll pick out and let you look over, even offering lenses or microscopes to see the crystal quality of cannabis buds. Once you make a selection, they'll bag it up and take you to the register. The cost can be $5-10 above "street" prices, but you're paying for much more than just the bud: hospitality, management, compensation for time and materials, security, and, yes, California sales tax.

On your way out, they'll watch over you until you get to your car or hop on the bus. Most cannabis dispensaries are located near public transit lines to better serve patients with limited mobility. Watching patients leave through security cameras is both for their safety and the club's. Patients are generally forbidden to "medicate" on the premises, and illegally exchanging meds with non-patients is equally discouraged. Crime such as robbery of an exiting patient or of the entire club, is rare, according to Sacramento Police Department Spokesman, Sgt. Norm Leong.

"We want to maintain an open relationship with law enforcement," Landers said. "Crimes are infrequent, so when they do happen, we want to be able to report them."

Clubs that have been around for more than a few months get usual inspections from the Sacramento police. Inspections focus on structural matters such as main entrances, windows and back doors, to ensure security. Hugs Alternative Care has been robbed twice, but has since stepped up security. The crimes were reported to the police.

"I really can't say enough about the Sacramento Police Department," Baker said. "They dealt with us with the utmost respect and concern for our well-being."

Safety was reported by all to be the first concern. While at the club you might run into full families, with kids hanging around patiently in the waiting rooms, watching Spongebob for a few minutes while their parents get their medical treatments.

Almost half of the cannabis dispensaries in Sacramento opened in the last six months, according to club owners. Many new dispensaries were created in response to the new Obama administration's drug policy of no federal raids. Despite the recent influx, no new clubs can be opened during the 45-day moratorium, which the Sacramento City Council can extend for up to two years. All club owners and managers agreed, though, that cannabis dispensaries should be as normal as Rite-Aid.

A model transaction at Northstar Healing Collective

"Medical cannabis is here to stay," Baker said, "and it should be."

It's quick, it's easy and it's starting to get more accessible. If you show up at 4 p.m., you can be in and out before 20 after.

Photos by Cheya Cary

Cheyenne Cary on "Front yard ordinance allows DIY food"

2009-07-28T21:56:07Z

Glad to hear that the FYO is inspiring some new gardens. For anyone interested in reading the actual legal language, the FYO can be found in Sacramento's City Code online: http://www.qcode.us/codes/sacramento/view.php?topic=17-iii-17_68-17_68_010&frames=on

Front yard ordinance allows DIY food

2009-07-17T21:17:38Z

This is the second growing season that Sacramento residents have been able to grow vegetables, fruit trees and other food plants in their front yard thanks to a revised city ordinance. After a three-year effort by food activists, the city's Front Yard Ordinance was reworded in 2007 to specifically allow veggie gardens in that soil near the sidewalk. That change has enabled more and more Sacramento homeowners to grow their own food in an edible landscape, mingling [with] or replacing decorative foliage. Blueberries with your zinnias, perhaps, or tomatoes with your chrysanthemums, or lettuce where that brown scrubgrass used to be.

The original FYO was written into zoning code in 1941 and actually banned the growing of edible plants. Vegetables were confined to the backyard and growing any food plant on the front lawn was an offense punishable by a fine. This may seem like an unusual law, considering that homeowners own their lawns. The main concern of the old FYO was preventing overgrowth of plants, whether food or otherwise. It didn't explicitly forbid food plants, but didn't list them as legal either, whereas perennial grasses and decorative plants were listed as legal groundcover.

Sacramento resident Karen Baumann brushed up against that little-known ordinance when she planted tomatoes and a fruit tree on her front lawn in 2004, according to a city official. A neighbor reported her garden to city authorities, who then notified Baumann that she would have to pull up the plants or face a $750 fine. This was a surprise to Baumann, who asked folks at local gardening groups what she could do to save her leafy comestibles. Before she could act, an unknown party sprayed Baumann's lawn pretty heavily with RoundUp, a Monsanto-brand herbicide, and killed off most of Baumann's plants, as well as some nearby lawns.

Food activists citywide responded to Baumann's plight and petitioned the city council to revise the outdated law. "There was a tremendous amount of community pressure," Paul Towers, a Sacramento resident and state director of Pesticide Watch said. "There were articles in the News & Review, The Bee. Organic Sacramento got involved. It was everywhere."

This grassroots effort to make Sacramento lawns more than just pretty finally achieved their goal in April 2007. Baumann's war-torn lawn was later restored. Capitol Nursery donated a bundle of plants to replace her sprayed veggies.

The new FYO changed key wording to more explicitly allow food crops on front yards. There are still requirements for maintenance, but no limitations on what can be grown. There are limits on what you don't grow; the law requires that landscapes must be "landscaped, irrigated and maintained," and there can be no dead plant matter taller than 4 inches. "Basically, you can grow all you want," said Community Garden Coordinator Bill Maynard. "But make it look good."

A tricky segment of the FYO still causes some concern amongst front-yard growers. It reads: "All landscaping materials shall be mowed, trimmed, and/or maintained as often as necessary to prevent overgrowth and blight."

But Towers said "blight" is a vague term that city authorities would be hard-pressed to enforce. The FYO lists no definition of "blight," only the word. Fortunately, the city is presently uninterested in enforcement.

"The city sent around a code enforcement memo that said not to bust food landscapes," said Towers, and Maynard corroborated that the city isn't cracking down. Unless a withering garden is a clear fire hazard, then dried-out or overgrown lawns aren't a problem. In a dry season, water conservation is at a premium, and accordingly the city has revised its enforcement plan.

Growing a plot of vegetables can actually reduce a front yard's water consumption and benefit the community in drier times. "A lot of edibles are drought-tolerant plants, so people can tear up thirsty grass and replace it with food." Maynard said. "[The FYO] provides a whole 'nother way to think about your yard."

The FYO places no restriction on fertilizer or pesticide use but Maynard hopes that Sacramento residents will pursue 'river-friendly' practices to reduce chemical runoff.

A front yard garden offers advantages that a backyard garden might not have. More sun usually hits a front lawn, and backyards might be covered with a patio or a pool. The FYO benefits homeowners almost exclusively, though, as landlords would may be unreceptive to suggestions of tearing up grass for greens.

Still, the FYO allows Sacramento city-slickers double the opportunity to turn their lawn into a bountiful foodscape.

"Our mission is to make all landscapes more healthy and sustainable, and we always put food first," Towers said.

Medicinal cannabis clubs face scrutiny

2009-07-15T05:28:39Z

Although the medicinal use of cannabis has been legal in California since 1996, in Sacramento there's a growing concern over the uncertainty that surrounds local cannabis clubs — nonprofit clinics that sell cannabis in various forms to qualifying patients.

On Tuesday night, the Sacramento City Council voted unanimously to adopt a 45-day moratorium on the development of medical cannabis dispensaries in the city. No new dispensaries can be created and existing dispensaries will be unable to physically expand their operation, though they can still take on new clients.

The moratorium is intended to investigate the current status and number of medical cannabis clubs in the city to better inform future regulations, because even city officials acknowledge that they don't know.

Estimates vary on how many clubs operate within the city. Assistant City Manager Gus Vina estimated between 20 and 24, whereas at least 34 can be found online at sites such as Sacramento Cannabis Clubs.

These dispensaries bear various titles that may cause confusion over their actual services and legal standing. Some are wellness collectives, others are healing centers, some offer holistic or alternative medicines and others are labeled as delivery companies. Labeling in this way, many clubs avoid registering themselves as cannabis dispensaries with the city government and exist completely under the legal radar. The city council is uncertain as to how many exist within city limits and how many of those are working within legal statutes.

"That's one of the biggest problems," said Sacramento Special Projects Manager Michelle Heppner. "It's hard to say whether the city should regulate, prohibit or leave the dispensaries alone if we may have a zillion of them out there."

The city council heard testimony from a long list of interested parties before the vote, including medicinal cannabis activists, dispensary owners and patients benefiting from prescriptions. Among the speakers was Rich Guitron, CEO and general manager of R&R Coffee Wellness Collective, who vocally defended medicinal usage of THC.

"It's not just pot anymore," Guitron said. "There are thousands of strains that treat different ailments. It's a cutting-edge industry." He also highlighted discrepancies between drug legality and safety. "Over-the-counter medications kill 20,000 people a year and medical marijuana has never done that."

Currently, medical cannabis dispensaries are in legal limbo, caught between state and federal law.

Medical cannabis has been legal in California since 1996's Compassionate Use Act and further defined by the 2003 Medical Marijuana Act (a.k.a. Senate Bill 420), which allows for non-profit provision of THC herbal medicines. Sufferers of THC-treatable ailments, ranging from AIDS and cancer to depression and anxiety, are protected from arrest for the possession and cultivation of cannabis so long as they possess a doctor's recommendation or a medicinal cannabis ID card.

Yet, federal law still lists cannabis as a Schedule 1 controlled substance. This means that although dispensaries are protected in state law, federal drug enforcers could raid stores, seize assets and prosecute distributors at any time.

In fulfilling an Obama campaign promise, Attorney General Eric Holder said that the Justice Department has ceased federal raids on state-legalized dispensaries. However, Drug Enforcement Administration agents, although overseen by the DoJ, have raided and dismantled at least six California cannabis clinics this year, according to media reports.

Cannabis dispensaries are also illegal according to Sacramento city code, which complicates proceedings. During the moratorium, all cannabis dispensaries are asked to register themselves with city government. Once the dispensaries are registered, city government will not pursue enforcement and will allow them to continue operation, provided they remain within legal limitations on permits, sale volumes and clientele.

West Sacramento passed a similar moratorium on July 8 and other city governments have made similar moves to reexamine the weed community that has sprung up under their feet.

Local artist Rena Davonne provided the last piece of testimony, running to the City Hall after seeing the discussion on TV. "Marijuana saved my sister's life," she said, and detailed how her sister recovered from life-threatening illness with the help of THC. Cannabis didn't work for Rena's chronic pains, but seeing the relief the plant brought her sister made a believer out of her. "I would like to see medicinal marijuana expand, or grow, if you will."

Photos by Cheya Cary / courtesy James Leynse of Corbis

City plants seeds for new gardening opportunities

2009-07-10T08:07:20Z

The Sacramento Parks and Recreation department has responded to local calls for more community gardens by slating two new sites to be publicly cultivated , bringing the total number of city community gardens to seven. One of the fresh gardening plots is on the downtown grid - E and 8th in Zapata Park - and is planned to be opened to the public by the end of the year. The other is in North Oak Park and will be sprouting next spring.

Locally grown produce is a burgeoning attraction for Sacramentans and Community Garden Coordinator Bill Maynard has taken note. "We've seen a dramatic increase in interest recently," he said. "In a 2008 Master Plan Development survey, more than 10 percent of suggestions were for new community gardens." The Sacramento Parks and Recreation department responded to these suggestions by evaluating potential plots and eventually settling on the two most viable. There still remains a waiting list of roughly 40 other potential gardens.

The Zapata Park garden was originally a planned expansion of the J.Neely Johnson garden on 11th Street, but has now developed into a project of its own. It measures about 40 feet by 60 feet. The actual development of the park will be going out to bid and will be adopted soon.

The site in North Oak Park lies between Martin Luther King Boulevard and 12th Street and is significantly larger than the Zapata garden. It's about 150 ft by 250 ft, so there's space for a good number of garden plots. The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency donated the land and funds for cultivation.

Once they're opened, the two new community gardens will offer chunks of land for low annual prices. Available plots range from 10 feet by 10 feet to 20 feet by 20 feet and prices run from $25 to $50 per year. Aspiring gardeners are limited to one plot per family, but even then the space is expected to sell out quickly. "There's only one or two plots left in all other community gardens," Maynard said, "so we don't really have to worry about unused garden space."

As reported earlier this week, Parks and Recreation has experienced an $8.3 million budget cut, but this doesn't hinder community gardens. "We don't have much budget to cut," Maynard said, "our budget is very low, and after the gardens are built, they're basically done." Aside from tools and small repairs, community gardens have an extremely low maintenance cost.

Funding for gardens comes from various sources, one of which is the Community Development Block Grant. More resources come from the little-known California Quimby Act. The 1975 act requires developers to set aside land or money equivalents for every project they undertake, and the donations scale up with the size of the project. This is intended to counterbalance buildings with attractive public spaces to be enjoyed by the community.

Community gardens are maintained entirely by volunteers. Plot-holders come by the gardens regularly, so gardens are usually watered twice a day. Second Saturday Art Walk volunteers also take part in garden upkeep during their bimonthly activities.

Garden operations place an emphasis on organics and conservation. "Gardeners don't take any more water than they need," Maynard said, "so very little is wasted." Small-scale fruit and veggie plots will of course not be treated with synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, meaning growers will end up with much healthier produce.

The recent upswing in community garden interest comes at a ripe time - Saturday is Sacramento's first 'Urban Agriculture Day,' as recently introduced by City Council. Festivities will be held tomorrow at several existing community gardens during Slow Food Sacramento's AgFest.

Also, the present economic slump has strained everyone's food budget, so a low-cost garden plot could well be an answer to some grocery worries.

Gardens can provide innumerable benefits to the community at large. "They can get neighbors to know each other, so it builds a stronger community," Maynard said, "and parents and kids will be working side by side, so it's an educational venue as well."

The problem with community gardens? "Some people still don't know about them," Maynard said.
For more information, check out the community gardens website or contact Bill Maynard at wmaynard@cityofsacramento.org

Cheyenne Cary on "Strong mayor progresses, questions remain"

2009-07-09T21:38:19Z

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Glad to see the SacPress readership is so vocal and, in the case of Ms. Millin's substantial essay, verbose. Your contributions are much appreciated. Mr. Burg: If the initiative makes it to the ballot and passes in 2010, the position of City Manager would remain. Kerridge would hold on to his office unless fired, as it would still be an unelected position -- just appointed by the mayor rather than the council. He'd also have significantly less to do while in office, so he may have to get creative to pass the time. Upside: he may start reading SacPress.

Cheyenne Cary on "Saturday festival on Sacramento's first 'Urban Ag Day'"

2009-07-09T21:28:46Z

Hey Jenn, thanks for bringing up a couple things I overlooked -- Tickets are available online and can be purchased ahead of time at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/69377 And secondly, yes, the $25 covers you for a whole day of events, just the evening function is separate. Thanks again for reading so closely!

Saturday festival on Sacramento's first 'Urban Ag Day'

2009-07-09T18:55:41Z

Whether you've got drip-irrigated corn in the front yard or just some potted mint on top of the fridge, the Common Table agriculture festival has something for you. Slow Food Sacramento, the local chapter of the worldwide food community Slow Food, is offering city residents the chance to spend this Saturday getting green at their first AgFest workshop series, called the Common Table.

Saturday's AgFest is taking place on the Sacramento's first Urban Ag Day. The Sacramento City Council recently adopted a resolution to make July 11 an annual citywide celebration of local gardening.

Starting at 8:30 AM, AgFest activities include lectures on how to grow and manage food crops at home, tours of local farms and Sacramento community gardens, screenings of documentaries and opportunities to get your hands dirty at Soil Born Farms. The workshops are spread all over the Sacramento area and attendees are encouraged to check out as many as they like.

For those hungrier for ag knowledge, a separate set of evening activities will be held at the Fremont Community Garden, including a charity auction, a lecture from local food activist Brahm Ahmadi and a three-course dinner of seasonal foods from local business Magpie Caterers.

Admission to the daytime workshops is $25, and the evening entertainment runs at $75. Half of ticket revenues will go toward the Sacramento Community Garden and Sacramento Hunger coalitions, who are working with Slow Food to put on the event.

As the charitable fundraising would suggest, the workshops have a focus on community outreach and will address the question of how to keep all members of our city healthy and well-nourished.

"Slow Food has always had the mission of increasing the availability of good, clean and fair food," said event coordinator Charity Kenyon. "In this economy, we're emphasizing the 'fair' part of that mission. That's food justice." 'Food justice' refers to the equitable distribution of food in a society, or in simpler terms: feeding the poor and homeless.

One of the more experimental workshops, Hunger 101, places participants in the role of hungry Sacramentans who have to learn to cope with limited food availability. This hour-long simulation at the Sacramento Food Bank seeks to raise awareness and understanding of the difficulties of stable food sources for low-income families.

Other workshops offer lessons on composting, organic soil management and a variety of other green subjects. You can also get tips on how to give back to the community through gardening, crop-swapping with your neighbors and "gleaning" excess fruit from unpicked trees to donate to local food banks.

If you're up for a bike ride, you can visit Sacramento gardens on a guided cycle tour to check out "what's 'growing' on" in your neighborhood (pun courtesy Slow Food).

Two films will be screened in the afternoon: the critically acclaimed documentaries The Garden and Fresh. The Garden documents a neighborhood's challenge of maintaining an urban garden in East L.A., while Fresh critiques mainstream fast-food and educates about healthy alternative diets. They will be followed by question-and-answer sessions.

Those attending the evening festivities will be able to place bids in a charitable auction for a variety of green goodies. Auction items range from professional cooking lessons, countryside getaways and gardening consultations to "the best damned pie you've ever tasted" prepared by pastry chef Kira O'Donnell.

A full listing of the times and locations of each of these workshops is available at Slow Food Sacramento's website.

Slow Food Sacramento and its allies are seeking to educate Sacramentans on the viability of being more self-sufficient when it comes to food.

"In Moscow, 56 percent of food comes from urban agriculture," Kenyon said. "Here in Sacramento, we're in one of the richest ag regions in the world, yet not very much of our food is locally grown. We want to show that this is more possible for more people."

Strong mayor progresses, questions remain

2009-07-09T04:49:29Z

Two weeks after taking office in December, Mayor Kevin Johnson launched a ballot reform initiative to expand the executive powers of the Sacramento mayor, suggesting that enhanced executive powers would make city government more efficient and accountable. It would also make him one of the more powerful executives in any California city.

Throughout its short, tumultuous life, the so-called "strong mayor initiative" has been praised or criticized by citizen groups as either a democratizing modern reform or a gateway to tyrannical government.

Last Friday, the primary group promoting the change, Sacramentans for Accountable Government, presented City Hall with a petition to put the initiative onto the 2010 ballot; by the group's figures, it was signed by more than 50,000 city residents. Others have come out in strong opposition, including Stop the Power Grab, a citizen group started this January. The Sacramento City Council formed an 11-member Charter Review Committee in February to consider the issue, and it has been holding hearings for the last few months.

Sacramento's current council-manager system has been in place since the city charter was drafted in 1920. Sacramento’s position of mayor is essentially just a modestly embellished city council seat. As laid out by the charter, the chief executive officer of Sacramento is actually the city manager, which is an unelected position.

This means that Ray Kerridge, the present city manager, wields most of the powers you would expect of an executive arm of government, including enforcing laws, appointing department directors and proposing the budget.

Under the council-manager system, the city manager is appointed by the city council and serves "at their pleasure," with no term limit until he or she retires or a majority of councilmembers decides to fire him.

In the strong mayor plan, the council-manager system would be replaced by a mayor-council system. That plan installs the mayor as executive of city government, removes him from the city council and gives him a wide degree of political independence. If approved, this measure would give the mayor all the executive powers of the city manager and more.

The mayor could hire and fire department directors, including the city manager, treasurer and attorney. He could also run without term limits and could propose a budget that could only be blocked with council override. The strong mayor initiative also grants the mayor a powerful tool that the city manager doesn't have: veto power over any city council ordinance.

City Attorney Eileen Teichert voiced concern over the initiative's provisions in an analysis presented to the April 20 hearing of the Charter Review Committee.

"Essentially, this proposed strong mayor initiative creates an imbalance of powers," she wrote. "It lacks important checks and balances and blurs the lines of authority and accountability contained in other strong mayor cities' charters."

Over-expanded budget control was a primary concern Teichert listed, as was the strong mayor's comprehensive appointment power that would eliminate intra-governmental checks.

Steven Maviglio, Johnson's volunteer spokesman and a key figure in Sacramentans for Accountable Government, conceded that the plan is a stiff prescription that would give the mayor many powers.

"It depends in how you look at it," he said. "But it's definitely one of the strongest ones out there."

Maviglio also voiced strong disapproval of the charter review committee and dismissed them as being "politically appointed." Each of the 11 members was appointed by a city councilmember, including the mayor, with two other committee members nominated by a subcommittee. "They were put in place by councilmembers who had their views already set in stone," Maviglio said.

Committee Chairman Bill Edgar replied to this claim, "It's simply not true.... Everybody on the committee has an open mind on the matter and everyone is invited to testify." Ultimately, the charter review committee can review proposed changes and make recommendations, but cannot and will not make the definitive choice. That's the job of Sacramento voters.

Strong mayor systems are common to major California cities including San Francisco and Los Angeles. Fresno introduced the system in 1997, while San Diego started its strong mayor system in 2004.

Fresno Bee columnist Jim Bowen wrote this January that the strong mayor system was "one of the smartest things that Fresno voters did," and the initiative's wide passage suggests that Fresnans agreed. Strong mayorship, Bowen writes, "put an end to the confusion of who would control Fresno" and allowed the economic development expertise of Mayor Ashley Swearengin to reign with less resistance.

However, the Sacramento plan would allow for greater mayoral impunity than any of these other cities and should be taken with corresponding gravity.

For many, the question remains: What is Johnson restrained from accomplishing under the current council-manager system? The central benefit of a strong mayor, according to the initiative's author, Tom Hiltachk, is increased accountability.

"A more representative form of city government will lead to a more effective and accountable government," he wrote in the initiative. "If city services are inadequate, citizens should be able to hold their elected representative responsible for such failures.

This still leaves unanswered what issues a stronger [strong?] mayor would be able to address, or for that matter, in what ways the current system is ineffective. Opponents to the measure make almost precisely the same argument for the reverse outcome: A stronger mayor, to skeptics, would be less accountable due to greater political license.

Maviglio has much to say on the strong mayor initiative, but not a lot on what Johnson would actually plan to do with that unleashed power. Under a strong mayor system, Johnson "would be able to get things done," Maviglio said, but those precise "things" weren't quite clear. "He'd put more cops on the street, work for economic development, and support our schools," he said.

Those changes are political bread and butter. A councilmember would risk their public image by opposing any of those reforms. Again, what would a strong mayor do?

The clearest answer may be tighter control over Sacramento's budget, but many argue that enough can be done in the present budget system.

"I have a vision for what I think the city can become," Johnson told The Sacramento Bee last week. "But if I can't allocate some resources toward making that vision happen, then it never will."

Whether a strong mayor in Sacramento is a means to accomplish otherwise impossible goals or merely an end in itself is a contentious point in the ongoing debate. City Hall is presently counting petition signatures and the charter review committee met July 2 to continue discussion in a forum open to the public. According to Edgar, no decisions will be reached until August.