Marijuana
Oakland City Attorney John Russo joined other law enforcement officials in front of Oakland City Hall today to declare support for the marijuana legalization initiative Proposition 19, which Russo argued would give Californians “a chance to take drugs off the street corners and out of the hands of children.”
On Monday night the Oakland City Council approved the addition of four initiatives to the city’s November ballot, all geared towards bringing revenue into the cash-strapped city.
Richard Lee is president of Oaksterdam University, a cannabis trade school located in downtown Oakland. He’s also a driving force behind the November state ballot initiative to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana in California.
In a lively, standing room only meeting, the Oakland city council voted Tuesday night to approve on first reading a city-wide plan for the cultivation of medical marijuana in four new large-scale factories.
It’s been almost a year since the Justice Department announced it would no longer go after medical marijuana providers who comply with state law. For Mickey Martin, whose Oakland shop distributed edibles laced with cannabis, the decision came a little too late. [This video report is no longer available.]
Mickey Martin is about to go to prison. The charge was something both he and the State of California say is not a crime: selling medicinal marijuana.
Even as states decriminalize marijuana use through programs for medical purposes, continued arrests for marijuana cultivation, possession and distribution are seen by legalization advocates in Oakland and beyond as both an obstacle and a sign of hope in the drive to legalize marijuana.
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