Results tagged “drugs”

The hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries that cropped up all over town in the past few years are now facing uncertain futures, as City officials mull the next step in the process to close them down, reports the LA Times. They are working on a short list of pot shops "targeted for extinction by a City Council chagrined that it allowed hundreds to open in Los Angeles despite a 21-month-old moratorium."

The storefronts denied today had all applied for hardship exemptions before it was removed from the city's marijuana dispensary moratorium earlier this afternoon. Only owners from two stores appeared to speak during public comment, noting they were unprepared because notices of today's hearing were only sent out last Friday.

In a unanimous vote by the Los Angeles City Council this afternoon, a loop hole in a medical marijuana moratorium was filled. "Hopefully that will bring this matter to success," said Councilman Dennis Zine, a former LAPD officer. Although a ban on new medical marijuana dispensaries went into effect in 2007, the hardship exemption language created a loophole, prompting over 500 new storefronts to pop up around the city. With today's action, hardship exemptions will no longer be an option for new medical marijuana dispensaries. UPDATE: The six month extension may have not actually gone through, we are awaiting confirmation on that item. Stay tuned...

Since a moratorium went into effect on new dispensaries, the exact opposite happened--more than 500 opened because of a hardship exemption loophole in the ordinance. Today, a few months shy of the moratorium being lifted, the City Council will vote on to whether or not close that loophole, as recommended by its planning and land use committee, and will look at 16 (of the many hundreds) hardship applications, either passing them or denying them.

A motion to fill a loophole in Los Angeles' moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries was approved by a City Council committee today. In 2007 when the ban was set, routine ordinance language provided dispensaries a chance to apply for "hardship exemptions," demonstrating why they should not be included in the ban, even if they had not fulfilled basic requirements like showing proof of insurance, a business tax license and other documents. Around 500 applications have been submitted, according to the city's Council File Management System (search "marijuana") and none of have acted upon, but dispensaries continue to open around the city. The moratorium will expire in September. A copy of today's motion, which should move to the full City Council soon, is below:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest budget proposal suggest eliminating welfare. If that would happen, California would be the only state without such a program. "You would think they would legalize weed before this," quipped Shane Hirschman, a multimedia designer, on Twitter.

If you want good quotes, you go to LAPD Chief Bratton. He's always been one to be candid (remember his celebrity gossp/analysis?) Well yesterday, he joined Patt Morrision for her show on KPCC and when asked about LA Weekly's April 30th story refuting the LAPD's touted crime statistics, he dismissed it calling the report "voodoo journalism" said writer Patrick Range McDonald and cohorts must have "smoking a little weed when they wrote the article." That didn't sit well with Tina Dupuy at FishbowlLA:

If you've got 11 minutes this lunch hour, this investigative report on city hall politics and marijuana dispensaries is excellent. "Almost every city has gotten its act together and put regulations in place for marijuana dispensaries except Los Angeles," said Paul Lerner, a Melrose area neighborhood activist who voted for Prop 215, but doesn't like the proliferation of dispensaries on every street corner.

Say what? Via the LA Times: "No trace of the medicine HCG was found in Manny Ramirez's system at the time of his drug test, three sources with specific knowledge of the results have told The Times. It was a prescription for that drug, which is a non-steroid but banned by Major League Baseball, that led to the outfielder's 50-game suspension for violating the league's drug policy." Discuss.

Everyone's jaw is dropping here in Los Angeles (holy shit!) while Cubs fans are screaming "suck it, Dodgers!" Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez has tested positive for performance-enhancing drug and will be suspended for 50 games, according to the Los Angeles Times. His first game back will be July 3rd--in the meantime, outfielder Xavier Paul will apparently be promoted to Manny's position. The official announcement by Major League Baseball is expected later today.

It looks like Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken the debate over marijuana to whole a new level, the Sacramento Bee reports: The governor was asked about a recent Field Poll [.pdf] showing that 56 percent of registered voters support legalizing and taxing marijuana to raise revenues for cash-strapped California. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, has proposed legislation that would legalize the drug for recreational use, rather than just medical purposes.

A group has sued the federal government for disseminating inaccurate information about medical marijuana. The LA Times points out that although the Obama administration has stated "that science should be guiding government judgments in controversial matters of medicine and technology, not the prevailing political mood," a federal lawyer told the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday that marijuana "has no currently accepted medical use." By law, the government is not allowed to publish false information.

"While I fully support [marijuana's] use for medicinal purposes, why don't we regulate it like we do Lipitor or Viagra," Bratton said today at a media event unrelated to urging city council to expedite the new dispensary laws. "You can't buy those two without getting it through a legitimate pharmacy. If this drug is so important and so helpful, why is it not regulated like every other drug?" In September 2007, the city placed a year-long moratorium on new dispensaries while the city drafted new regulations on them. Twice, the city has extended the moratorium, which is still in effect. Clearly frustrated at the state law passed thirteen years ago by voters, Bratton exclaimed, "they pass a law, then they have no regulations as to how to enforce the darn thing and, as a result, we have hundreds of these locations selling drugs to every Tom, Dick and Harry."

In today's online town hall meeting with President Barack Obama, possible questions were voted on by millions of Americans. Overwhelmingly, and not surprisingly, one of the most popular questions was in regards to marijuana and the economy. "I don't know what this says about the online audience," Obama remarked, adding "no, I don't think that's a good strategy to grow our economy." Jack Cole, the executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), said in response, via the Huffington Post, that "it would be an enormous economic stimulus if we stopped wasting so much money arresting and locking people up for nonviolent drug offenses and instead brought in new tax revenue from legal sales, just as we did when ended alcohol prohibition 75 years ago during the Great Depression."

An investigation launched last fall into an East Los Angeles drug operation netted 48 arrests of gang members during raids yesterday morning conducted at 38 different locations, the Press-Telegram is reporting. The raid, according to Sheriff Lee Baca "put a heroin ring out of business."

On Sunday evening, an interagency drug task force following an alleged trafficker made an arrest subsequently finding over a million dollars worth of ecstasy in his car. Police observed Ramandeep Singh Sandhu, a 25-year-old resident of Fremont, at the corner of Lincoln Boulevard and Broadway Avenue sitting in his car doing unknown things consistent with illegal activity. The LAX-ICE task force, a group comprised of federal and local policing agencies around ports of entry dedicated to the interdiction of drugs into the country, arrested Sandhu on the spot. "It was believed this subject was involved in the transport of ecaasy from Canada into the United States," Sgt. Robert Almada of the Santa Monica Police Department explained over the phone. "We know he made numerous trips to Canada." Police recovered around 40 pounds, some 51,000 tablets, of ecstasy.

Tonight's monthly Skid Row neighorhood watch walk will include a trip to the LAPD Central City Division Police Station for a look at just how the district is using these cameras to reduce crime and increase safety in the area. In 2006, the Central City East Association's Downtown Industrial Business Improvement District installed the cameras.

The teacher addresses the class: "This is a new industry that's going to turn California around, and you're it."

       

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced yesterday that "federal authorities will stop raiding dispensaries in states where medical marijuana is legal," reports the Daily News.

"With the state in the midst of an historic economic crisis, the move towards regulating and taxing marijuana is simply common sense. This legislation would generate much needed revenue for the state, restrict access to only those over 21, end the environmental damage to our public lands from illicit crops, and improve public safety by redirecting law enforcement efforts to more serious crimes", said San Francisco Assemblymember Tom Ammiano in a press conference today, which SFist described as a "media circus."

A 37-year-old Torrance man has been arrested in Phoenix and charged with "contract[ing] out a hit to have a 32-year-old woman killed, as well as a 62-year-old male victim seriously injured," according to XBIZ. The accused is David Elms, who has been called a "as a sex-industry mogul," in the Daily Breeze, and the alleged female target a Long Beach resident who works "as an online adult model and escort."

After last week's brutal attack on a Tarzana "gentleman's club" dancer, there's been murmurings in the news about the dark life of an exotic dancer. Today's Daily News gives readers insight into the unseemly underbelly of those who dance for dollars.

Cops in Fontana hit the payload last night, after working with drug enforcement and ICE agents, when they found a fortune in marijuana stashed inside some figurines. The authorities had the home in the 8900 block of Reseda Avenue under surveillance for several days, which "paid off when someone dropped off a load of ceramic donkeys, and about 1,500 pounds of marijuana, with a street value of $1.5 million, was found inside the statues," according to abc7.com. The investigation remains ongoing, and no arrests were reported.

Andre Young Jr, the 20-year-old son of rap icon Dr. Dre, was found dead in the family's Woodland Hills home this past August. He'd been out with friends the night before, but was unresponsive when his mother, Jenita Porter, tried to rouse him that morning, and was pronounced dead by paramedics. According to People, The Los Angeles County Coroner announced yesterday after months of waiting for the toxicology report that the cause of Young's death was "from an overdose of heroin and morphine," and that the case was both closed and ruled as accidental.

21-year-old Jeffrey Woods was indicted this week by the Orange County Grand Jury over the death of a 14-year-old teen he hit with his truck in August 2007. Woods was apparently texting about a drug deal at the time of the crash in Huntington Beach. He also was allegedly on Vicodin and Xanax. The teen, Danny Oates--also known as "Oatie"--was riding his bicycle to pick up his middle school schedule. Woods' arraignment for felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence while intoxicated and felony driving under the influence causing bodily injury is on December 5th. Texting while driving will be illegal beginning January 1st, 2009.

Last night around 6:00 p.m., LAPD officers found the body of a missing woman in a car next to the home of Paula Abdul's Sherman Oaks home on Beverly Ridge Drive. The woman's identify has not been released, but police say it is definitely not Abdul. TMZ reports that "the parents of the victim believe their daughter was a 'big fan' of Paula's" and that her death may be from a drug overdose. Additionally, the woman, who is in her 30s, "had an unnatural obsession" with Paula Abdul, according to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department who tipped LAPD off to the woman's possible whereabouts. Her license plate read "ABL LV" and a lanyard hanging from the rear mirror had a photo of Abdul on it.

Citing a drug problem in a money-demanding note he hands to employees of businesses, this man (shown above and below in a YouTube video) is believed to have hit numerous local storefronts, including this Subway Restaurant on the 8200 block of Beverly Blvd. (that's between Fairfax and La Cienega which occurred last Monday night.

So let's say you've got some high-quality homegrown all bagged up and ready to go but no one to buy it--I mean, let's face it, the economy these days doesn't leave much room for luxury items--where can you go? Well, the internet, obviously. Since the goods have a pretty fixed street value, eBay might seem out of the question, so the next logical choice for online wheeling, and, in this case, dealing, is the mecca of the mundane, aka Craigslist.

Randy Lee Soderstrom, a business man already in prison for 12 years, is pointing the finger at well-known names in a federal racketeering case: "An inmate at Folsom Prison who claims he supplied drugs to Broadcom Corp. billionaire Henry T. Nicholas III says in a federal racketeering lawsuit that he also delivered cocaine to Nicholas' Broadcom co-founder and Anaheim Ducks owner Henry Samueli, as well as former Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona, it was reported Friday." To that, lawyers for Corona, who is an easy target considering his past, are saying "preposterous."

Jill Ishkanian, who alerted police to Heather Locklear's alleged drunkeness and erratic driving near Santa Barbara on Saturday, made $27,000 from her photos of the arrest by selling them to TMZ. But then TMZ became wary questioning if Ishkanian was up to no good because, in a way, she set up the incident. But drunk is drunk, right? Not always, she was also booked for being under the influence of a controlled substance.