California, Eureka

[palmspringsbum]

Man advertising hash for sale arrested in Old Town Thursday

The Eureka Reporter
6/23/2006

<table class=posttable align=center width=400><tr><td><img class=postimg src=bin/hash-for-sale.jpg width=400></td></tr><tr><td class=postcap>Evidence found during a search of a van located on the foot of D Street in Eureka included approximately 35 grams of suspected hash, a sign that states the cost of a gram and quarter-ounce of hash, a scale and packing materials.</td></tr></table>Eureka police arrested a 50-year-old Arcata man Thursday afternoon, after people in the area of the Eureka Boardwalk said they saw him selling marijuana hash from the back of his van.

Charles Livengood was arrested on suspicion of possession of concentrated cannabis and transportation for sale of marijuana shortly before 2 p.m. at the foot of D Street, after Eureka Police Officer Mike Quigley was informed that he had a sign displayed in his vehicle with a list of prices for his hash.

“I contacted the owner of the van, who when confronted with the information showed me his 215 (medical marijuana) card and said he thought he was covered by that,” Quigley said.

A search of Livengood’s van, Quigley said, turned up approximately 35 grams of suspected hash, a sign that states the cost of a gram and quarter-ounce of hash, a scale and packaging materials.

Patients with a 215 card, or their caregivers, can possess or cultivate up to 3 pounds of dried cannabis buds per year for their own personal use, according to the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Web site, www.co.humboldt.ca.us/distatty/.

[palmspringsbum]

Article Launched: 08/27/2006 04:27:36 AM PDT

Prop. 215 pioneer looking to set up shop in Eureka

Chris Durant
The Times-Standard



Since medical marijuana was passed by California voters over a decade ago, David Kasakove has been at the forefront of efforts to regulate and organize medicinal cannabis dispensaries.

”I've been through a battle with a DA who didn't like me,” Kasakove said. “I've beaten federal and state charges.”

Kasakove, who lives in Eureka, is beginning a process that may end with a medical marijuana dispensary in Eureka.

He first became involved with medical marijuana as the owner of a hemp store in Chico, which he opened in 1995.

”Jerry Garcia died and I needed a job,” Kasakove said. “I didn't want to work for Mobile or Exxon or take a job at Jack-in-the-Box.”

So after Proposition 215 passed his hemp customers began asking him when he was going to start selling medical marijuana.

”I was at the post office and the postal clerk asked when I was going to start selling pot,” Kasakove said.

In 1996, he started providing medical marijuana for patients in Chico, but the next year he was raided.

He said the Butte County district attorney called federal authorities on him and a lengthy court battle began. He was charged in 1998 and arrested in 1999.

Eventually he beat the charges and moved to Eureka in 2000.

Why Humboldt?

”This county is more liberal and more open to (medical marijuana),” Kasakove said.

Since its inception, Prop. 215 has had a cloud of confusion around just what's allowed and what's not.

”It varies from county to county,” Kasakove said.

Kasakove has been in contact with city officials, like the city attorney and city manager, about what it will take to open a dispensary in Eureka, modeled after the Oakland, or “Oaksterdam,” coffee shop/dispensaries.

”I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel,” Kasakove said. “I'll go with what works.”

There's no time frame on when the dispensary may open.

”There's no rush. I'm going to jump through all the hoops,” Kasakove said.

The idea to open a dispensary came out of the 2006 National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws April conference in San Francisco.

”I had three or four lawyers tell me go for it,” Kasakove said.

He said he would run a tight ship, too, like pushing for his patients to get a state 215 card from the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services and keeping track of what medicine is going to what patient and how much, so that it doesn't end up on the black market.

”If someone were to sell the medicine they got from me on the black market, I'd kick them out,” Kasakove said.

He's also aware of how some use 215 as a loophole to sell marijuana illegally.

”If you come into a house and there's scales and baggies already weighed out, that's not 215,” Kasakove said.

Kasakove said his past legal bouts won't discourage him from pursuing a Eureka dispensary.

”The establishment doesn't scare me,” he said.

[budman]

Cannabis distribution film shown

by Laura Provolt, 10/7/2006
The Eureka Reporter

Humboldt State University professor Ann Alter and a number of HSU students presented their documentary film “Dispensing Cannabis” at the Minor Theatre in Arcata Thursday evening.

Funded primarily by the Humboldt Patient Resource Center, the film explored the distribution of medical marijuana and focused on five marijuana dispensing centers, including the HPRC.

The HSU Research and Creative Project Grant; the Department of Theater, Film and Dance; the Department of Sociology; Humboldt State University and the Associated Student Body of HSU also supported the project.

Alter said that the project began two years ago, when Connor Hawkins of the HPRC approached her with the idea, and she made the project available to students. Alter said that when the students signed up for the project, they did not know what the documentary would be about. The purpose of the film, Alter said, was to give the students experience in the production of a professional documentary, while tackling a controversial issue.

“We are not questioning whether or not it has medicinal value, we are operating on that assumption,” Alter said. “We are questioning where do people get it, what does it look like and how do they know it is safe?”

The documentary was a collaborative work by Alter and students Don Chia, Lisa Clarke, Matt Compton, Elsa Contreras, Everson Corrigan, Jeffery Jackson, Helen Sanderson, Ben Shaw, Steve Spain, Arlo Starr and MarySugar Stewart.

The film was dedicated to Hawkins and “the brave people who cultivate and distribute medical cannabis,” according to the program.

The film outlined the history of marijuana use, dating back as far as 2799 B.C. According to the film, marijuana is illegal today partly due to William Randolph Hearst’s newspapers spreading lies about the dangers of the drug. The film portrayed widespread opinions about the dangers of marijuana as greatly exaggerated and largely a myth.

The film interviewed individuals who use marijuana for medical purposes and they explained how marijuana is better for them than conventional medicines. According to the film, California is one of 12 states that permit medical marijuana use, and the only state that allows the distribution.

Five dispensaries were examined in their methods of acquiring and distributing the drug, and the conflicts that have arisen between the dispensaries and the federal government, which does not allow medical marijuana use or distribution.

The film explored the Act-Up San Francisco and the San Francisco Patients’ Cooperative, the HPRC in Arcata, the Tehama Health Collective and the Wo/Man’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Santa Cruz.

According to the film, WAMM is currently involved in a lawsuit between the Santa Cruz government and the federal government, which recently raided WAMM.

The film interviewed Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos, Arcata Police Chief Randy Mendosa, Hawkins and members of the HPRC.

“California needs to wrestle, and this country needs to wrestle with the fact of whether we’re going to continue to outlaw marijuana,” Gallegos said in the film. “It certainly has its problems. It certainly creates societal problems. We have much greater problems.”

[palmspringsbum]

War on marijuana is misdirected

The Eureka Reporter
by Dave Stancliff, McKinleyville, 9/29/2007

America is being invaded.

Not by illegal immigrants as some claim. Nor by a world superpower.

We are being invaded by Mexican drug cartels that are growing marijuana from Humboldt County to Keokuk, Iowa. No state, or national forest, is exempt from this invasion. The cartels are so sophisticated and well-funded that they don’t just stop at growing massive amounts of pot outdoors.

They have been setting up indoor grows from coast to coast that produce prodigious amounts of the popular herb. Their methods are simple. They buys houses, put some Mexican nationals in them posing as normal families and “blow-up” all the rooms with indoor grow systems that yield surprising amounts of that billion-dollar bud.

So what is our government doing about this invasion? How are we responding to these armed individuals who live in tents while protecting thousands of acres of marijuana for the drug cartels? The answer varies according to who you talk to.

Local law enforcement has been responding to big grows ever since it stumbled onto to one in the heyday of hippie pot plantations in the ’70s. The state of California has helped our local pot-seeking police with a program called Campaign Against Marijuana Planting for decades now.

Humboldt County Sheriff’s Sgt.Wayne Hanson recently told local media that this year CAMP has seen the biggest eradication effort yet in our storied history. More than 300,000 plants have been destroyed thus far, according to Hanson. This figure will surely grow as the pot-searching season continues.

One has to understand, however, that the growers have changed since the mid-’70s and are no longer just local boys who actually helped the local economy by shopping and living in our county. The fact of the matter is pot is still supporting our local economy, but I digress.

What has changed is who’s growing the marijuana. For example, the biggest pot bust in our local history happened this year and has been attributed to those Mexican cartels. The grow, said to be 135,000 plants and valued at $469 million, took place in the county’s eastern edge.

The future promises more massive crops from the cartels, which may or may not be busted. Think about this: Despite these busts, the cartels continue to grow. Why? Because for every one found, there’s another that isn’t. Maybe two, or even more. The profit stays despite the Drug Enforcement Agency’s thus far feeble efforts at curbing their growth across our nation.

Local law enforcement readily admits that the increase in pot plantations is attributable to the Mexican drug cartels. Statistics coming out of California Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s office noted a statewide seizure record for 2006 of more than a million plants.

These cartels do not help our local economy. They don’t help anyone but the drug lords in Mexico who are living like kings and laughing at us stupid Americans. When we bust one of their numerous grows, the most that can be expected to happen is we’ll jail some poor Mexican nationals who have thrown their lot in with them.

Meanwhile, as far as I can see, business is thriving in our national parks and neighborhoods, and despite the DEA’s scattered efforts from New York to Los Angeles, there is no end in sight.

So does that mean we should just go on as we are and hope the cartels will just go away someday? Are we doomed to forever throw taxpayers’ money into an unpopular war on marijuana that we aren’t winning, to an invasion we can’t seem to stop?

It doesn’t have to be that way. There is an answer to this invasion and it’s staring American lawmakers in the face! Legalize marijuana. That’s right. If you want these Mexican cartels to go home, take the profit out of their plantations and they’ll go away. To them it’s a business that thrives in an atmosphere of our own making.

If we want to take a chunk of crime out of the American landscape, then we need to stop this invasion by making it available without being a crime. That slashes profits, which the cartels crave. The only reason the cartels have been able to gain such a strong foothold in our country is this prohibition on pot and misdirected war on weed.

The price of pot would plummet if legalized, especially if every American could grow their own. By ending the prohibition, we as a country could move on to more important things like helping the homeless, better health care for all and other social programs that desperately need funding that our war on marijuana is siphoning off right now.

Instead, we need to redirect our focus on marijuana and decriminalize what a majority of Americans want. We need to take back our national forests and neighborhoods. I propose we stop the so-called war on what many Americans want — as evidenced by the growing medical marijuana laws being enacted by popular votes in states like California — and put a halt to the Mexican cartel’s economic invasion of our country.

As it Stands, if you get to the root of a problem, it’s much more effective than just trimming the leaves in the hope it’ll go away.

(Dave Stancliff is a columnist for The Eureka Reporter. He’s a former newspaper editor and publisher.)

[palmspringsbum]

Eureka to talk dispensaries, accepting stimulus funds for roads

Donna Tam/The Times-Standard
Posted: 04/06/2009 01:26:35 AM PDT

The Eureka City Council will meet Tuesday to discuss the creation of a medical marijuana dispensary ordinance and accept $1 million in stimulus funding for paving the streets.

At a council budget goal-setting session last week, Councilwoman Linda Atkins suggested that the city pursue a way to establish regulated medical marijuana dispensaries as a way to increase revenue and tackle problems associated with grow houses in the community.

Documents included in the meeting agenda, provided by Atkins, give an outline of some regulations with attention to the California Medical Marijuana Program and the application renewal and regulatory process of the city of Oakland.

Notes within the document mention applying the regulatory fee towards both retail and wholesale sales, as well as determining a limitation on dispensary supply. Also included were guidelines from the cities of Fortuna and Palm Springs.

Atkins has said she thinks that if the city keeps the dispensaries tightly regulated, the city will benefit. Other cities, she said, are estimating that they've been able to raise between $500,000 and $1.5 million through medical marijuana dispensary taxes.

City Attorney Sheryl Schaffner said no draft regulations have been discussed yet. If she receives formal council direction Tuesday she will begin researching possible options.

The council will also be using nearly $1 million of stimulus funding to improve streets, as well as the volume of traffic and condition of adjacent sidewalks, according to staff reports.

The funding will be used to improve Hodgson Street from F Street to W Street and Summer Street from 5th to 14th streets, and grid and patch areas on Harris Street from Broadway to S Street. If funding permits, work will also be done on Third Street from Broadway to B Street and Glen Street from Harris Street to Allard Avenue.

In other matters, the council will discuss John Vitale's application to rezone property adjacent to St. Joseph Hospital from one-family residential to hospital-medical.

According to staff documents, the Eureka Planning Commission has recommended denial of the application based on the concerns from neighbors.

The city may also designate a lot at California and 15th streets as a community garden and orchard. The council may direct staff to prepare a Humboldt Area Foundation grant to support the construction of the garden and orchard.

<span class=postbold>If You Go:</span>

What: Eureka City Council meeting
Where: Eureka City Hall, Council Chambers, 531 K Street
When: Tuesday, 5:30 p.m.

<small>Donna Tam can be reached at 441-0532 or dtam@times-standard.com.</small>

[palmspringsbum]

Eureka puts off medical marijuana ordinance

Donna Tam/The Times-Standard
Posted: 04/08/2009 01:23:35 AM PDT


Eureka will not be following in Arcata's medical marijuana footsteps anytime soon.

The Eureka City County Tuesday night voted three to two not to look into the possibility of creating a medical marijuana dispensary ordinance.

In the absence of Councilman Jones, Mayor Virginia Bass was the deciding vote against the measure, saying that the issue needed to be discussed at a later time.

Bass's comments about the abuse of medical marijuana and the need to address the issue of illegal grow houses echoed those of Councilmembers Frank Jager and Jeff Leonard.

”I would say that the first thing we need to work on is these grow houses and work on it right away, and put a stop to that before we have a discussion about medical marijuana,” Jager said.

Councilwoman Linda Atkins, who initiated the discussion about the ordinance, said the matter is a compassion issue as well as a fiscal issue. She said she just wanted to direct staff to look into the possibility of coming up with a responsible form of regulation.

”The only way we're going to stop people from growing marijuana in houses illegally is to enforce a code,” she said.

Representatives from established medical marijuana cooperatives in Arcata came forward to offer their assistance in creating an ordinance.

The council did approve of a motion by Councilman Larry Glass to expand the duties of an already existing task force to look at how to address the problem of grow houses in residential areas, separate from regulating medical marijuana.

The council also unanimously supported the planning commission's decision to deny the proposal for a general plan amendment of property on Dolbeer Street.

Applicant John Vitale, who had applied to have the zone changed to be appropriate for medical services, asked the council to allow him to meet with the residents and create mitigation measures, but the council felt the concerns of residents in the area were valid.

Nearly a dozen residents spoke out against the zoning change, citing traffic concerns. Many questioned the necessity of having additional property for medical services while there is presently other property already zoned as such that is unused.

The council encouraged Vitale to come up with concrete mitigation methods if he chooses to propose the amendment again.

In other matters, the council approved a Safe Route to Schools grant application, accepted $1 million in stimulus funding for street improvements and approved the designation of a lot on California and 15th streets as a community garden and orchard while authorizing staff to apply for a grant and also communicate with the groups that also occupy the lot.


Donna Tam can be reached at 441-0532 or dtam@times-standard.com.