MMJ Foe Confirmed as DEA Chief,

    The US Senate confirmed Michele Leonhart as administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration in its final hours by unanimous consent. Although medical advocates implored the president to withdraw her nomination, Obama stood by her while as interim chief she disregarded state laws and continued raids against medical marijuana providers in violation of the 2009 Ogden memo. She has also acted to block further scientific investigation of medical efficacy of cannabis.

    Particularly, she has stonewalled an 8-year petition to reschedule marijuana supported by NORML and the American Medical Association. She further denied an application by the University of Massachussets to establish a research facility for developing FDA regulations of cannabis. In addition, she has characterized Mexican drug related violence as a “signpost of the success” of her agency’s policies.

California Democrat senators Boxer and Feinstein voted to confirm her.

Oakland Suspends Cultivation Ordinance

    On December 21, The Oakland City Council abruptly halted plans to allow some of the world's largest marijuana farms to open in the city after prosecutors warned city officials that they could be vulnerable to prosecution. The council suspended the city's cultivation ordinance, which council members adopted in July to raise new city revenue and rein in the sometimes dangerous black-market farms that are now the norm.

The decision came two weeks after Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley warned that the ordinance was problematic because it conflicted with state law.

    The ordinance's suspension does not kill plans for licensed marijuana farms. The council asked city staff to return Feb. 1 with amendments that would make the ordinance comply with state law. However, the very concept also clearly would violate the federal Controlled Substances Act, and the The Drug Enforcement Administration would doubtless also want to intervene

    One problem is that the ordinance appears to have been contingent on the passage of Proposition 19, a state ballot measure rejected by voters in November that would have legalized adult recreational use of up to an ounce marijuana, and allowed cities and counties to tax and regulate it.

    The ordinance did not limit the size of farms, and one potential applicant approached the city with a proposal for a 100,000-square-foot facility - roughly the size of two football fields.

It is likely that the ordinance will be revised to limit the size of farms, said Brunner and cannabis activist Richard Lee, president of Oaksterdam University.

    Oakland's ordinance would have permitted four large farms whose total crop would have supplied a substantial portion of the Bay Area medicinal marijuana needs.  The farms each would have had to pay a $211,000 permit fee and would have been required to meet expensive rules, such as obtaining $3 million worth of insurance.

    However, medical cannabis cultivation cannot result in profit according to state law as interpreted in the 2008 Attorney General Guidelines. Oakland City Attorney John Russo. Russo said the city's best protection was to abide by the guidelines established by Proposition 215, which state voters passed in 1996. "There's no authority in 215 to grow pot for profit," Russo declared.

Marijuana in Sacramento, 2010:

    In January of this year , CaNORML supported AB390, Tom Ammiano’s landmark legalization bill that was approved by the Assembly Public Safety Committee,  the first time a California legislative body has ever voted to repeal MJ prohibition. But time had expired, and the bill was resubmitted as AB2254 and back burnered pending the results of the vote on Prop. 19.

    In March, State Sen. Mark Leno (D-SF) announced the introduction of a bill (SB1449) to downgrade possession of one ounce or less of marijuana to an infraction instead of a misdemeanor. California NORML supported SB 1449 after making sure it was rewritten so as not to raise the present $100 fine. The Senate Public Safety committee passed the bill on 4/20. It was signed by the governor on September 30. The effect will be to allow defendants to pay $100 plus up to $273 in fees while avoiding court appearances and criminal arrest records. On the other hand, they are not entitled to jury trials, a fact that often led prosecutors to drop charges altogether. Misdemeanor possession arrests in California have mounted to new highs in recent years, reaching 61,164 in 2009. SB 1449 takes effect on Jan 1, 2011.

The California Board of Equalization reported in May that the state is collecting some $100 million in sales taxes from medical marijuana, confirming the estimate previously published in an economic analysis by California NORML.     A subsequent analysis by the RAND institute confirmed Cal NORML’s estimates on the cost of marijuana enforcement ($200 - 300 million in California) and state consumption of marijuana (1 million pounds per year).

On November 2, Prop. 19 carried only 46% of the California vote. Proponent Richard Lee of Oaksterdam University claimed the campaign had changed the terms of the legalization debate, achieving the highest ever US endorsement of any non-medical legalization ballot measure. The campaign was endorsed by the National Black Police Officers Association, the California Council of Churches IMPACT, California NAACP, SEIU of California, United Food and Commercial Workers Western States Council, Latino Voters League, members of the US Congress, local Democratic committees, state legislators and many individual law enforcers, faith leaders, civil rights activists, students, law professors and business representatives.

     Meanwhile, cities and counties passed all 13 of their measures to tax medical or recreational marijuana (had 19 passed).

In the aftermath of Proposition 19, California NORML will host a statewide conference to discuss the future of marijuana reform efforts in California at the David Brower Center in Berkeley on Saturday, January 29, 2011.

Harris Defeats Cooley

                                                                                                                                   KAMALA HARRIS the first nonwhite and first woman AG

    On November 24, Republican Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley conceded the race for California attorney general, ending weeks of uncertainty in one of the closest statewide elections in history.

    The Los Angeles prosecutor whose reputation as a fierce opponent of medical marijuana, same sex marriage, Obamacare and environmental regulation belied his professionally projected image as a thoughtful moderate -- the GOP's best hope of winning a major office in the Nov. 2 election.

     His Democratic rival, San Francisco DA Kamala Harris, a Bay Area liberal who opposes the death penalty, was considered particularly vulnerable. Over 70% of Californians support the death penalty, according to a July, 2010 survey.

    But while Republicans rode a wave of discontent to victory in the rest of the nation, Cooley's defeat shows the enormous difficulties the GOP faces in attracting majority support in California.

    Harris is the attractive daughter of a Jamaican father and a mother from India. She made history by becoming the first woman and first non-white candidate to win election as the state's top law enforcement officer. In her new post, she will decide where the state stands on some of the most important and controversial political issues of our time. She supports California’s Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2007 that would lower the state’s greenhouse emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, a 25% reduction. The measure was threatened by the unsuccessful Prop. 23 on the November ballot backed by out of state oil companies.
    The AG seat is a frequent springboard to California governorship, and Democrat party consultants don't hesitate to attribute "star quality" to the AG elect.

    For over a year before the election, Cooley aggressively targeted medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, on legal grounds, challenging the City Council’s desire to regulate them. He argued that state laws do not allow marijuana to be sold. During his tenure, he oversaw police raids on LA’s medical marijuana dispensaries and attempted to criminalize the sale and distribution of medical marijuana. Americans for Safe Access vigorously opposed Cooley’s campaign.
    Both Cooley and Harris signed the official ballot argument opposing Prop. 19 in November that would have legalized personal possession by adults of less than an ounce of recreational cannabis, but Harris is on record supporting medical marijuana.  She cast herself as "smart on crime" and called for new approaches aimed at reducing recidivism and prison overcrowding.
    For his part, Cooley promised a nonpartisan approach to the office and described his opponent as a radical who opposed the death penalty.

    Harris herself was burdened by scandals during her tenure and her campaign, including accusations she failed to reveal cocaine abuse by a San Francisco police crime lab worker that led to the dismissal of over 600 drug cases. She also failed to return a  contribution of $1,250 from a convicted swindler, and reveal criminal backgrounds of SFPD officers testifying in criminal trials.

    The election was extremely close. With more than 2.3 million ballots still to count after election night, Cooley regained the lead only to watch it evaporate. Harris held a slim advantage for more than a week prior to Cooley’s concession. At that time, the charismatic Harris led by nearly 58,000 votes statewide, making a recount cost prohibitive. In the end, Cooley failed to carry his own of Los Angeles County jurisdiction, losing by more than 14 percentage points. But other Republicans lost by twice that margin.

    Harris's victory was buoyed by a large turnout of Latino voters who supported Democrats for governor and U.S. senator and then checked off the rest of the Democratic candidates lower on the ballot. •