Wildomar's first medical marijuana collective, open for just three days, has closed its doors after being ordered by the city to shut down.

A cease and desist order was delivered to the collective on Mission Trail on Monday by a Wildomar code enforcement officer.

Zoning rules, inherited from Riverside County when Wildomar became a city in 2008, ban marijuana facilities from the city. Advocates argue that such regulations are overruled by state laws allowing for medical marijuana.

General Manager William Sump said the collective closed on Monday, when it was so ordered. He said he believes the ban is not allowed by state law, but wanted to maintain an amicable relationship with the city in hopes of working out an agreement to reopen.

REXBURG — The Fremont County prosecutor says a drug bust in Island Park illustrates that claiming a medical use of marijuana with a certificate from another state won't help you in Idaho.

Aurora M. Hathor-Rainmenti, 35 , of Garberville, Calif., was arrested Friday after she was stopped for speeding near Mack's Inn. Fremont County deputies found a baggy containing marijuana in her car with the help of a drug dog.

Hathor-Rainmenti was charged with one count of possession of marijuana and two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia, all misdemeanors.

Fremont County Prosecutor Joette Lookabaugh said Hathor-Rainmenti said she had a certificate from the state of California allowing for medical use of marijuana.

"We want the public to know that medical marijuana certificates, even if they're from surrounding states, are not honored in Idaho," Lookabaugh said.

13WMAZ Macon, Georgia
By Candace Hollingshed

AP - A Los Angeles judge has ordered that 60 pounds of pot confiscated by the California Highway Patrol during an arrest be returned to the defendant.

Superior Court Judge William Sterling on Friday ordered the marijuana returned to Saguro Doven. The 33-year-old's attorneys successfully argued that he had the legal right to transport it under medical marijuana guidelines issued by state Attorney General Jerry Brown.

Doven's attorney says his client was a member of a Venice-based medical marijuana collective. According to court records, a California Highway Patrol officer arrested Doven after discovering the marijuana during a traffic stop.

Doven initially was charged with possession of marijuana for sale and transportation of the drug. The charges have been dropped.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Journal Sentinel
March 7, 2009
By Jim Stingl

Marijuana Pepsi Sawyer overcame a difficult youth, exacerbated by her name, and now is an educator. .

Police years ago pulled over a young woman who rushed through an amber traffic light. "I'm about to arrest this person right now," the irritated officer radioed to a dispatcher. "She's telling me her name is Marijuana Pepsi Jackson."

It's the truth. Marijuana and Pepsi are her legal first and middle names, and the Beloit woman embraces them as a symbol of her struggle to succeed and to help other children overcome obstacles.

No Mary or Mary Jane or Mary Wanda for her. It's Marijuana, thank you, she's told bosses, co-workers and friends over the years, and even wore it on nametags at work.

This tall, striking, self-assured, motorcycle-riding woman is a schoolteacher with a master's degree in higher education administration. Soon, she'll start work on her doctorate.

All of her achievement came despite that smoky, carbonated name. And partly because of it. No one named Marijuana Pepsi gets lost in the crowd.

www.alibi.com
By Christie Chisholm

Scott Van Rixel's career in food started the day following his 12th birthday, with a dishwashing job at a Serbian fish fryery. "My mom and my dad would pick me up Friday night and make me strip down to my underwear outside because I stunk so bad of fish," he recalls. "It was miserable, but I loved it."

There are plenty of qualities that separate smoking marijuana from eating marijuana, but one of the most significant is public perception.

Since that first title of dishwasher, Van Rixel has collected a few more for his résumé, including European certified chef de cuisine and master chocolatier. His primary business, Chocolate Cartel, started as an outdoor confection stand on Taos Plaza. Eight years and a move to Albuquerque later, his chocolates are shipped all over the world, to places as far as Japan and the Middle East.

Van Rixel, who seems to have a knack for entrepreneurship, began pursuing another ambition this March in light of recent legislative shifts. He's developing medical marijuana chocolates that he hopes to distribute in California and,eventually, New Mexico.

Van Rixel's partner in the project is Robert Martin, a 25-year veteran of the food industry with a Ph.D. in botany.

GEORGETOWN, Colo. — A Colorado man who says marijuana is a sacrament in his religion has been convicted of misdemeanor drug charges.

A Clear Creek County judge found Trevor Douglas of Avon guilty Tuesday of possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and driving an unregistered vehicle.

Douglas says he will appeal. He says he's standing up for his First Amendment right to religious freedom.

He argued he shouldn't be convicted on drug charges because marijuana serves the same role in his religion as communion wine in Christianity. He's a member of the Hilo, Hawaii-based THC Ministry.

The judge said Douglas' beliefs don't rise to the level of a religion.

Douglas was ordered to pay $450 in fines and costs and serve 15 hours of community service.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Nurse practitioners and physicians' assistants may also authorize medical cannabis.
Marijuana

(OLYMPIA, Wash.) - A bill to expand Washington State's medical marijuana law cleared the state legislature today, and is headed to the governor's desk.

SB 5798 allows naturopathic doctors, nurse practitioners, and advanced physicians' assistants to recommend the medical use of cannabis to their patients.

The new law will increase patient access to health care professionals willing to authorize medical cannabis. Because of the conflict between state and federal pot laws, many doctors fear retribution from the federal government and are reluctant to sign medical cannabis paperwork.

By Brian Rogers
Houston Chronicle
May 6, 2008

Harris County Sheriff's Office - Judge Sherman Ross tried to assemble a jury of peers for a woman accused of possession of a marijuana on trial Tuesday.

But authorities say prospective juror Cornelia Mayo might have taken that concept a bit too far after she was caught smoking a joint outside the courthouse during a break.

The 49-year-old Houston woman was one of 20 people in a jury pool in Criminal Court at Law No. 10.

Ross said he realized something was wrong when juror No. 2, Mayo, didn't return from a 45-minute break. Before the judge could file a bench warrant for the missing juror, his bailiff got a call from police notifying him that Mayo was being booked on a charge of smoking marijuana outside the criminal courthouse.

"I've had prospective jurors get lost before, but it never occurred to me that they might be getting ready for a marijuana trial by, allegedly, smoking marijuana," Ross said.

He also said it was a strange coincidence for a court that also sees trials for DWI's, family violence and many other misdemeanors.

"It's the first weed case I've tried in years," Ross said. "People usually plead out."

The former juror was charged with possession of marijuana. She is scheduled to be arraigned next week in Criminal Court at Law No. 11 —across the hall from Ross' courtroom.

Mayo remained in the Harris County Jail on a $500 bail Tuesday night and could not be reached for comment.

Sacramento Bee
By Andy Furillo
Dec. 25, 2009

Kyle Kelly had just paid $45 for an eighth of an ounce of pot at a Sacramento medical marijuana dispensary when a California Highway Patrol officer pulled him over on a routine traffic stop.

The officer noticed Kelly had a copy of the West Coast Leaf – "The Cannabis Community Newspaper of Record" – in the car and asked the 25-year-old Sacramento man if he had any weed on him.

Kelly admitted that he did. But he didn't have his doctor's certificate of approval as well, so the CHP officer confiscated the pot and wrote him a ticket for misdemeanor marijuana possession.

When Kelly showed up in court a couple months later with his medical marijuana papers in hand, a Sacramento Superior Court judge dismissed the case. Kelly, however, still wanted his dope back, and when the CHP failed to return him his eighth, he went to court again – this time as a plaintiff.

Sacramento - --
California can legalize and regulate recreational marijuana use under state law, but doing so would not change the drug's illicit status under federal law, proponents and opponents agreed at a hearing Wednesday at the state Capitol on a measure to legalize marijuana.

State financial experts testified that imposing taxes and regulations could bring in hundreds of millions to more than a billion dollars to state coffers, but several law enforcement officials also told the Assembly Public Safety Committee that legalizing marijuana under state law likely would lead to an increase in violence.

AB390 would allow possession, sale and cultivation of marijuana for people 21 years and older. The bill, introduced by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, says the state would wait for the repeal of the decades-old federal ban on marijuana to create a regulatory system and impose a $50-an-ounce sales tax on marijuana, much like taxes on tobacco and alcohol.