If you are looking to open a medical cannabis dispensary in California - don't delay as under a recent California decision, City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patients, et al, cities now have the legal authority to completely ban dispensaries within their borders.  City of Eureka's moratorium recently expired with 2 dispensary permits now available.  Contact CBD Professionals (www.cbdpros.com) to find out which CA cities are accepting permits for dispensaries.  For a full copy of the Riverside opinion, click here:
http://scocal.stanford.edu/opinion/city-riverside-v-inland-empire-patients-etc-34210

The City of Vallejo is being sued by Greenwell Collective, a medical cannabis dispensary that was located in the downtown area and raided by law enforcement in February 2012.   Matt Shotwell, Greenwell’s Director, is suing on a number of claims including violation of his civil rights because the City of Vallejo targeted Greenwell for closure due to his political activism in support of a local measure to tax medical cannabis. In an effort to thwart public support for safe distribution of medical cannabis in Vallejo, the City timed the February 2012 raids shortly after a 10% tax on sales of medical cannabis was overwhelmingly passed by the citizens of Vallejo.  In his complaint, Shotwell alleges that the city “selectively targeted the most outspoken” dispensary directors as some of Vallejo’s quieter dispensaries were allowed to remain open with business as usual.   As
a further waste of public resources, the DA proceeded to criminally charge the dispensary directors raided including Shotwell with the very Health & Safety Code violations that are exempted under California's medical cannabis laws.  The City’s tactic to force closure of the dispensaries has failed thus far, as no judge has found that any of the dispensaries raided were in violation of state law, and therefore any associated criminal charges have been dropped.  CBD Attorney Thurston is serving as co-counsel with civil rights attorneys Dan Siegel and Kevin Brunner in bringing this action against the City to force the City to answer for its wrongful actions against legitimate, state-authorized medical cannabis dispensaries operating within its borders.  Greenwell is the second dispensary to sue after a series of medical cannabis dispensary raids in Vallejo last year.  For the full article click on the link:
http://www.timesheraldonline.com/news/ci_24489215/medical-marijuana-advocate-sues-vallejo?IADID=Search-www.timesheraldonline.com-www.timesheraldonline.com

As many medical cannabis collectives are painfully aware, federal raids have chilled the banking industry serving medical cannabis collectives with threatened federal action against banking institutions.  Over the past few years, this chilling effect has caused banking institutions to both close existing collective’s  accounts and refuse to open new accounts for collectives. Collectives, just as any small business, need to pay bills including state taxes, and therefore this disruption in
service has made it difficult for some collectives to operate.  As the political climate moves towards federal legalization of cannabis, new legislation was introduced this week to resolve conflicts between state and federal laws and allow collectives access to banking services.  For more information and to support the legislation, visit NORML’s website:
http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/51046/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=12332

Krish Singh, a 44 year old man from Sonoma County, attempted to sell a pound of cannabis on craigslist for $2,700, but ended up selling it to an undercover cop in a Target parking lot. The policeman arrested Singh even though he possessed a valid doctor's recommendation to use cannabis alleging he was trying to make a profit and slapped him with a felony possession for sale. Singh represented himself in court and got all of his criminal charges dropped but the judge would not release his pound of cannabis.
For more on this story check out the article in the Press Democrat: ttp://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20131024/articles/131029752#.Um_wa63djnw.email

The United States FDA has approved a drug made by GW pharmaceuticals that is comprised of CBD (Cannabidiol). The drug is called “Epidiolex™” and was designed to treat seizures and conditions such as epilepsy. CBD is a non psychoactive component found in small amounts in most
cannabis strains (although with an increased demand the market is responding with more strains high in CBD). Physicians will investigate the affects of the medication on patients with approval from the FDA. The program is being carried out under the FDA’s informal so-called “compassionate” IND program that made federally-grown medical cannabis available to a fortunate few starting in the 70’s. Here is a great write-up with much more information: http://www.beyondthc.com/comes-now-epidiolex-fda-approves-ind-studies-of-cbd/