Results tagged “stevecooley”

The people of Los Angeles and L.A. County have elected themselves a hot mess. District Attorney Steve Cooley and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich--both elected by the public--believe most all medical marijuana dispensaries are illegal. That's because their interpretation of state law is that marijuana cannot be just sold to those with licenses, but distributed to members of a nonprofit collective of people who carry licenses.

In response recent promises of strict medical marijuana enforcement from City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and District Attorney Steve Cooley, the Marijuana Policy Project quickly hired an an independent firm to poll L.A. County voters on the issue. No surprises here, 74 percent support the California's medical marijuana law with 54 percent in support of marijuana being legalized for all, just the way Governor Schwarzenegger wants it.

"If Bernie Madoff had committed his crime in California under the proposed statute, his … scam which has destroyed countless lives and fortunes, would have been a misdemeanor," wrote LA District Attorney Steve Cooley in a letter to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger obtained by the LA Times today. In trying to fix the $24 billion state budget deficit, Schwarzenegger proposed changing state sentencing guidelines so that some felonies would be prosecuted as misdemeanors. The theory behind that idea is saving $1 billion over three years since 23,000 criminals would be ousted from state prisons and into local ones and re-entry programs.