Results tagged “medical”

When it comes to making a man's member larger, there are pharmaceuticals, herbal supplements, and pumps that have this very unique market cornered. But rather than employ one of these methods, an Orange County man decided to go with a more homespun do-it-yourself method, with near-disastrous results.

A collective of enforcement agencies including the FBI, DEA, local police departments and the IRS raided at least two dispensaries on the Westside for unknown reasons this afternoon. Warrants were also served on the private homes of the owners. Organica Collective on Washington Blvd. in Culver City was raided followed by the Overland Gardens Collective in West Los Angeles were raided around 11 a.m. and authorities were still searching for unknown things hours later. A dog believed to be a pit bull was shot at one of the locations.

The City Council is slowly but surely making their way through hundreds of applications for medical marijuana dispensaries that applied for permits and set up shot during a moratorium from 2007. 42 of the 779 applications have been denied so far and yesterday, 18 of them were recommended for denial by a City Council committee, according to the LA Times. The moratorium, which has not been lifted, let 186 already-existing dispensaries to continue operations.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's line item cuts to the state budget on Tuesday drastically reduced many programs, including state parks and domestic violence funding. AIDS/HIV programs were also hit particularly bad to the tune of around $85 million, leaving the California’s Office of AIDS with only 20 percent of its funding for programs like HIV education and prevention, HIV counseling and testing, home health and early intervention.

Surprisingly, this didn't happen earlier. A new iPhone App simply called Cannabis, which will "let users search by city for their nearest medical cannabis suppliers, doctors, clinics, lawyers and other relevant organisations," explains The Sun. "Makers the campaign group Ajnag.com hope to add cannabis related news, menus, reviews and videos soon." Also: A few months ago, the iPhone compatible Weedmaps launched. It uses Google Maps and is also like the Cannabis app, being all social networky and all. There's even a community section so patients can find marijuana related jobs, 420 friendly roommates and more.

A budget deal was agreed on last night between top legislators and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Part of that deal was cutting $8 million from the state parks system, saving the majority of parks from the original proposal to cut around $70 million forcing the closure of 80% of them.

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.

Now here's a lede from the LA Times that has marijuana activists cheering in the streets: "U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. said Wednesday that the Justice Department has no plans to prosecute pot dispensaries that are operating legally under state laws in California and a dozen other states -- a development that medical marijuana advocates and civil libertarians hailed as a sweeping change in federal drug policy." Last month, Holder said there would be no more raids on legally operated dispensaries. However, ones operating illegally--as in being a front for dealing drugs--will be targeted.

Nadya Suleman, better known these days as "Octo Mom" has $50k in student loan debt, is unemployed, and now has 14 kids under the age of 8. One question that keeps coming up in the public and the press is how this 33-year-old single mom from Whittier plans on paying for her newborn octuplets and their six older siblings when she's got no income of her own and has driven her own parents into bankruptcy.

Yesterday, 33-year-old unemployed graduate student Nadya Suleman broke her silence and sat down for an interview with the Today Show about her choice to have 14 children via in vitro fertilization, including the octuplets born to her on January 26th in Bellflower. While the interview raised the issue of her life-long desire to be a mother to many children, as well as her struggle with depression, it still could not address some of the very pressing issues of medical ethics raised in the aftermath of her octuplets' birth.

          

Sunday is the last day to catch Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) refugee camp at the Santa Monica Pier. The exhibit, which began last week in Griffith Park, provides visitors with an in-depth perspective into how a refugee camp operates. Aid workers lead small groups around the "camp" and recount their own experiences in the field as they explain what MSF does to provide mental and physical services to the 42 million people around the world uprooted by war.

More than 800 people got sick (13 went to the hospital) after watching the Fresno Bulldogs beat the UCLA Bruins on Saturday at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. What happened? No, it wasn't UCLA's poor performance. For the most part, it was heat-related. "Paramedics from Los Angeles and Glendale were called in to assist in the response," which the the LA Times reported to be the largest medical response to the Rose Bowl.

"The budget will cut $33 million from Medi-Cal, $8 million from probation camps, $10 million from mental health and $6 million from alcohol and drug programs, according to a memo by county Chief Executive Officer Bill Fujioka... The state budget will also cost the Metropolitan Transportation Authority about $133 million this year"

After a two-year investigation into alleged Medicare fraud involving homeless patients, federal agents raided three hospitals this morning: City of Angels Medical Center, Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center and Tustin Hospital and Medical Center. The schemes involved defrauding the state and federal governments out of millions of dollars by using homeless skid row residents. A top executive at City of Angels was arrested as well as one other person, according to the LA Times. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo plans to announce civil litigation this morning. Earlier this year: FBI raids LACMA.

At about noon yesterday Drug Enforcement Administration agents showed up at Organica Collective at 13456 Washington Boulveard in Venice and conducted a raid that yielded no arrests, but left a tremendous amount of disarray in their wake.

For the second time, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo is suing a health plan provider, the first being Health Net Inc. in February. Today, the announcement to sue Anthem Blue Cross of California and Anthem Blue Cross Life & Health came after launching www.protectingtheinsured.org, a city website to "law enforcement investigation regarding denial of health insurance claims or coverage due to unlawful, fraudulent or unfair practices." The website lets consumers directly make complaints to the city.

It sounds a little like something you might see on COPS: What was just going to be a routine traffic stop in Glendale turned out to be a major nab for the FBI.

Just because the federal government can legally rob a medical marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles, it doesn't mean you can too. On Friday, in two separate incidents in the Valley, a dispensary on Cahuenga Boulevard in North Hollywood and Golden State Collective, 10369 Balboa Blvd., in Granada Hills, both got robbed in takeovers. On Sunday, the Granada Hills robbers were caught, according to the Daily News:

During the heist, one shot was fired, ricocheting off the floor and breaking a window. No one was injured.

Continue reading "Citizens Not Allowed to Rob Medical Marijuana Dispensaries"