City's Medical Pot Sales Reach $35 Million In 2010

Most sectors of the economy are pretty grim right now, but that assessment doesn't include the medical marijuana business in Oakland, California.

The city is projecting that Oakland's three dispensaries will sell between $35 million and $38 million worth of cannabis this year, reports Zusha Elinson at The Bay Citizen. That means about three and a quarter tons of marijuana -- 104,000 ounces, or 4.2 million joints.

tokeofthetown.com

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley entered the fray over the city's new law regulating large-scale commercial marijuana grow operations this week, warning that the law is probably illegal and could land city officials in jail.

In a letter to Mayor-elect Jean Quan, which was also delivered to members of the City Council, O'Malley cautioned that the city's attempt to tax and regulate grow operations for medical marijuana would most likely be considered illegal under state law and result in prosecution by her office.

mercurynews.com
californiachronicle.com

Preliminary rules for would-be users and prescribers of medical marijuana in Arizona are so stringent that no more than 20,000 people likely will qualify for the drug - a sharp decrease from earlier estimate of 100,000 in the first year alone, a regulator said Friday.

The revised estimate was made after Arizona Department of Health Services Director Will Humble looked at rules and numbers of users in 14 other states that allow medical marijuana

washingtonpost.com
phoenixnewtimes.com

Store suspected of overselling to customers, which make up overwhelming majority of the 500 patients allowed to use cannabis by Health Ministry.

Police detained three people associated with a cannabis distribution outlet in Tel Aviv for questioning Wednesday, on suspicion of selling more than the prescribed amount of drugs to customers.

The store is operated by the Tikun Olam non-profit organization, the Health Ministry's official grower and supplier of medical marijuana. The overwhelming majority - 85 percent - of the 500 patients permitted by the Health Ministry to use cannabis are clients of this store, located on Tel Aviv's Ibn Gvirol Street.

haaretz.com
jpost.com

28 years ago a Florida patient began receiving prerolled and packaged cannabis cigarettes from a United States federal government program run by the FDA. The cigarettes, produced for the government at the University of Mississippi are supplied to Irv Rosenfeld at a dosage of seven cured ounces every 25 days.

“Without therapeutic cannabis to alleviate my medical condition I would not be a productive member of society; with my medicine I am a able husband, good neighbor, working stockbroker and volunteer at Shake-A-Leg, a sailing therapy agency for the handicapped.”

Irv and three other federal patients were thoroughly examined by medical professionals in 2001 over a three day period and found in excellent condition for their age and ailment.

Irv is positive the cannabis is his salvation. He should know.

On November 24, 2010 Irv smoked his 120,000th medical cannabis cigarette.

southfloridagaynews.com

This was as predictable as the sunrise — Michigan voters overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure to legalize medical marijuana, and two years later, no one can seem to decide who's a patient and who's a pothead.

More than 60,000 residents have applied for medical marijuana certificates, the ticket to being able to use pot legally, and even grow small amounts at home; roughly half have received them. Wow, that's a lot of suffering in our state.

detnews.com

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors took a major step Tuesday toward banning medical marijuana dispensaries in the county's unincorporated areas.

A proposal for the ban in unicorporated areas was unanimously endorsed by the county supervisors and is scheduled to be formally adopted on December 7, officials said. The ordinance would then take effect 30 days later, officials said.

cnn.com
latimes.com