One of two medical marijuana dispensary stores in Malibu have already closed up shop, and the second will shut its doors for business by July 1, according to a city official.
Federal authorities began a crackdown on pot shops earlier this month.
Malibu Collective Caregivers will be out of their current location by July 1st, Olivia Damavandi, media information officer for the City of Malibu said.
The other Medical Marijuana dispensary in Malibu, , has already closed. Travis Crisco, who worked for PCH Collective said the store officially closed June 19.
PCH Collective received a Cease and Desist letter from the office of U.S. Attorney Birotte Jr. ordering the store's closure within 14 days on June 5, Crisco said.
If the store did not close, Crisco said, it would risk potential raid and seizures by the DEA.
Earlier this month, federal authorities filed two asset forfeiture lawsuits against properties housing three marijuana stores in Santa Fe Springs and sent out warning letters to property owners and operators of 34 other dispensaries doing buisness or recently closed in Los Angeles County, including in Malibu, U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte said in a statement.
According to federal officials, the targeted establishments were violating federal law, which generally does not recognize the use of pot for any reason.
"Under federal law, the distribution of marijuana ... is prohibited except under very limited circumstances not applicable here. The government is informed and believes that at all times relevant to this complaint, the operation of the marijuana stores on the defendant property was not (and is not) permitted under California law," Lawsuits filed in Los Angeles federal court on June 5 read.
According to Malibu's city code, no more than two medical marijuana dispensaries are permitted to operate in the city at any time.
The less collectives there are - the less competition there will be, and hence higher prices. And if we are to believe all the nonsense and hysteria - greater profits for the Mexican Mafia. But in reality the Cartels and EME are against safe, legal access - because it undermines their black-market weed business, and keeps people from switching to harder drugs as an alternative - where they maintain a monopoly.
For a right-wing-loony you sure don't seem to care much about States' rights. And even Non-profits have the right to pay people for their work. Quite well in some cases, too. Just look at Heal the Bay, and Surfrider. According to your view on the "law" (shared with former AG Jerry Brown and the DEA as well, BTW), dispensaries are allowed to stay open only as long as they are losing money, right? Doesn't that seem like an 'Invidious and Discriminatory' requirement to you? How long would Rite-Aid stay open under those circumsatnces? Are you a conscious-, or an unconscious- shill, for big PHARMA, Police Unions, and the Prison Builders?
For a drug which kills less people every year than either aspirin or tylenol, and has a wide array of acceptable Medical uses - how hard should it be, for people to have the safe access, which the STATE constitution allows them? Marijuana was "legal" until Congress passed anti-weed legislation (right after the repeal of Alcohol Prohibition) based on the fraudulent testimony of Harry Anslinger, and a wave of RACIST hysteria whipped up by William Randolph Hearst - see the Jack Herrer classic "The Emporer Wears No Clothes", for a better recounting of the tale, at length. In the long run this may be a good thing - as patients’ RIGHTS to access their medicine is being directly impaired by the haphazard and unlawful enforcement of "bans" in an ever extending patchwork of cities and Counties. A right which one cannot access is no right at all. It would be like acknowledging the "right to coastal access" and then shutting down all roads to the coast, and beach access-ways.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaGuardia_Commission http://www.420magazine.com/forums/cannabis-facts-information/82491-la-guardia-committee-report-1944-a.html http://druglibrary.net/schaffer/Library/studies/lag/lagmenu.htm
But realistically "dopers" have been getting "wambly" since long before the 1996 Constitutional Referendum on MMJ (for several millenia, actually), and a certain percentage of patients will still be able to grow their own medicine, on their own (if perhaps only a bit inexpertly) - so really it's only the deathly-ill, and squares like yourself - who'll be out of luck when they need access to an effective, inexpensive and useful medicine, with few contra-indications, and a few mild side-effects. Enjoy your OTC Narcotics - because the Gov't and multinational corporations LOVE those. Awfully glib, some people are, when the ox being gored isn't their own. But what goes around comes around. As they said during the Revolutionary War - 'We must all hang together - or we shall surely hang separately.'
Interesting to read all of the comments since my first post last week. So my answer is, do 2 (or more) wrongs make a right? 1. The small number of people who really need medical marijuana should be able to get it another legal way like other medications, but the system of these clinics has caused tremendous abuse and made it much easier for kids to have access to Marijuana. 2. I have three kids 18, 16, and 14. None are involved in any alcohol or drug abuse, but they all know plenty of kids who are. Many started with Marijuana. It IS a gateway drug that often leads to coke/meth/heroin addiction. 3. Prescription drug abuse is just as bad or worse. But the answer is going after doctors who prescribe drugs needlessly, not saying because prescription drug abuse happens that we should allow Marijuana abuse. Two wrongs don't make a right. 4. Alcohol abuse is also horrible. And deadly to our kids. The answer to that is more education, stricter penalties for drunk driving as in many other countries, and more drunk driving checkpoints after midnight. Two wrongs don't make a right. 5. Smoking is also bad, but laws and education have reduced smoking rates from 40% in the 70's to 20%, Now we have smoke free planes/restaurants and bars. All substance abuse is bad! Save our kids!
...so your answer is to make everything illegal? Should the whole world revolve around your insecurity as a parent? You sound like someone who has no experience whatsoever with marijuana, or any drugs? Did your mommy tell you all of these things to scare you when you were growing up? did you have a compelling desire to try coke and heroin after a drag off a joint? oh yeah, you never tried it, BUT you have no problem forcing your personal opinions onto others despite your lack of experience. If someone wants to smoke a disgusting cigarette, drink themselves to death, or enjoy smoking weed just for shi*s and giggles, WTF do you care? if you want to save our kids, blame the parents, not the substances.
by a driver under the influence of alcohol or drugs (like Emily Shane did). You make it sound bad that I don't have the experience of being a substance abuser. Sorry.Of course I believe that there is no such thing as a bad kid, it is bad parents, but if the kid has a bad parent, who is going to protect the innocent kid from substance abuse? But ask any kid who knows other kids addicted to whatever, and MANY, not all of them started with weed. So yes, let adults do whatever harm they want to themselves as long as it does not hurt other people, but let's not make it easy for our kids to fall into the same trap.
and BTW, Emily wasnt killed by a drunk driver or a stoner, just a sober suicidal
At the Emily Shane trial, Deputy Morales testified that Khankhanian said he had four glasses of wine and some prescription pills that day. It is just more substance abuse. Whether it is prescription drugs (John Clark Gables girlfriend recently died in Malibu) heroin (Katie Wilkins overdose recently in Malibu, or prescription drugs and alcohol use by Emily Shane's killer. it is all the same. Substance abuse is killing more young people than ever. So sit by and let it happen or try to prevent it?
Who are you to say who "really need(s)" medical Marijuana? Are you a doctor? I'm guessing not. "the system of these clinics has caused tremendous abuse and made it much easier for kids to have access to Marijuana." That's a load of BS. The black market is (and always will be) where kids get access to marijuana. The shops in question had a 21 and up policy, as I understand it. When I was minor (back in the 80's), weed was always available through the black market. And I'm aware of several others who veered into cocaine and other 'hard' drugs as a result of the CAMP program, which limited the herb's availability, at times. Shops in the white market have an added incentive not to allow their weed to fall into the hands of minors - people like yourself and Ms. Vallejo, who would no doubt seize upon any such occurence, in order to justify your unconstitutional campaign.
"2. I have three kids 18, 16, and 14. None are involved in any alcohol or drug abuse" Statistically, at least one of them is probably lying to you. If one or more were, would you stop loving them? "It IS a gateway drug that often leads to coke/meth/heroin addiction." More BS. Correlation is not the same thing as causation. Breast Milk has a higher correlation to later addictions, of the type which you describe. Should we outlaw breast-feeding too? "3. Prescription drug abuse is just as bad or worse. But the answer is going after doctors who prescribe drugs needlessly" Many people who become addicts, start as legitimate users - but opiates cause habituaition and eventually addiction. The same cannot rightly be said about marijuana. Perhaps we should shutter all of the pharmacies in Malibu, too? And you didn't answer my question about the bars along PCH - why haven't you demanded that they be shut? MMJ has nothing to do with substance abuse.
Worried about people being strung-out on prescription pills (legal heroin) or heroin - support efforts to legalize Ibogaine-therapy (which seems to work fairly well in Europe and Canada - when people are serious about getting clean). One use I've heard of in a clinical study for marijuana was the treatment of alcohol addiction and other hard drugs - when under the care of a physician. Now it isn't NA, or a twelve- step program, but as a form of 'harm-reduction' it has shown positive results (or so the reports which I saw indicated). Demonizing the kind of shops which you had in Malibu, is simply counter-productive to even your stated-goals. It does however, jibe quite well with goal of a jobs program for 'Narcotics' Detectives and Federal Agents. It also is bound to keep the cartels fat and happy, since they'll have no more competition, and during dry-spells people may look for other substances (which they are only too-happy to provide). And of course it turns the inner-cities into 'red-light districts' as Nixon and Anslinger (before him) intended, too.
Be able to easily obtain it. I think the easier it is for our kids, who are not old enough or have the will power to resist other mind altering substances after smoking weed, the more unproductive members of society and eventual losers will be produced. You think getting high is cool, I think it isn't. We will never agree, so this is a waste of time. You probably want all drugs to be legal, and I think stricter control of addictive behavior; smoking, drinking, prescription drugs, weed, cocaine, in any form is good. You think weed is a great drug that helps certain sick people, but I think that if that is true it should not be easily available at medical marijuana clinics that foster abuse of our laws due to improper oversight. It seems to me that the majority of people who support these clinics just want to make it easier and more convenient to get high. But It is an argument that neither of us will convince the other to change their mind. Just a basic disagreement of principal. But at least I have the honesty to use my real name.
I'm certainly not advocation that it should be a free-for-all... but common sense regulation and control, as well as ditching the social stigma, are the only real way forward. A serious question for you, Andy... If it were completely up to you, would you make it a criminal offense for an adult to have a glass of wine? ...to be continued...
I am a responsible adult. I own a home, a business, and have a family. I have a medical marijuana recommendation, and might smoke twice a month to help me get to sleep when my brain won't stop spinning out in times of great stress. It's 100% god-given, untouched, un-fermented, un-treated, medicine... name one other substance that, without having to alter it in any way, shape, or form can do that? You're telling me that god gave humanity this plant because it's WRONG? That just doesn't compute....
As a quick search will find for "Andy Cohen" + "Malibu" - he is one degree of separation from FAUX NEWS. "Unproductive members of society" and "losers"??? Sounds like 'useless eaters' to me...perhaps we should simply create a 'camp' for them, where they can be put to proper use, for the 'Reich'. But seriously, Andy has no answer to factual points, so he avoids them. Mr. Cohen has no background in medicine - and yet thinks the California Medical Board is failing to oversee physicians properly. He has no evidence that either of the clinics in question has "foster(ed) the abuse of our laws" - in fact, quite to the contrary, it is he and the DEA which have done so, here in California - and yet he keeps raising the same emotional talking-points, without any evidence to show how they might apply here. "It is an argument that neither of us will convince the other to change their mind." Actually dude, if I am one thing it is open minded. And I'm always willing to explore the facts from another's perspective (something Roger Ailes might try once and a while). But you have NO FACTS to explore. Just a feeling. Edvice has you pegged. The Chinese were using 'weed' for 'womens issues' thousands of years ago. It is safer than aspirin. And nowhere have I advocated for cocaine to be legal. Decriminalized, perhaps, but not sold as "tooth powder" at every Rite-Aid. Prohibition NEVER works, just ask Al Capone or Ollie North.
Any program involving 'Real Housewives' will become contraband, and anyone producing or conspiring to produce such 'anesthesia' will be guilty of a Felony. What's that you say - that the First Amendment won't allow for such an action??? Well that's just too bad - because you've already established that the Federal Government can do whatever it wants here in California, and can just walk all-over whatever parts of the Constitution it doesn't like - based on the whims of a few.