The advantage of the Volcano [...]]]> What is the difference between the Volcano Classic and the Volcano Digit?

The most important aspect is, whichever Volcano you decide on, there is no difference in the overall effect. The precision and quality with which you are familiar from our Volcano Classic is stepped up a notch in the Volcano Digit.

The advantage of the Volcano Digit lies in its large LED displays, which immediately and precisely informs the user of the operating status. The Volcano Digit communicates better with the user and its electronic control system works even more precisely than the bi-metal regulator on the Volcano Classic.

Volcano Digit

• Vaporization temperature can be set
  between 40° and 230°C (104° and 446°F)
• Temperature accuracy ± 1,5°C (± 2,7°F)
• Two year warranty
• Precise electronic control
• Extra large, digital LED display with
  set and actual temperature
• Display changeover between
  °Celsius and °Fahrenheit
• Automatic switch off

Volcano Classic

Retired Orange County Judge Jim Gray, a Libertarian, is saying yes to pot.

How about you?

I checked in with Gray to get his thoughts on the initiative that appears to have enough votes to make the November ballot. Gray is not a smoker, but he has [...]]]> From the LA TIMES “Talk Back to Steve Lopez” column:

Retired Orange County Judge Jim Gray, a Libertarian, is saying yes to pot.

How about you?

I checked in with Gray to get his thoughts on the initiative that appears to have enough votes to make the November ballot. Gray is not a smoker, but he has long preached that it’s time to stop wasting so many resources on investigation, prosecution and incarceration.

“The only thing I have a quarrel with,” Gray said of the initiative, is calling it “legalization” of pot. “It’s really regulated control, like alcohol.”

Cities and counties could allow the cultivation and sale of marijuana and tax it under the initiative, which would also make it legal for anyone 21 and up to possess an ounce and grow pot for personal use. Backers claim about $1.3 billion in tax revenue could be raised each year.

It’s practically legal already, judging by how easy it was for me to get a marijuana “recommendation” from a doctor.

Gray said he has been asked to be a spokesman for the initiative, and he’ll be debating L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley on various marijuana issues Jan. 19 at the California Club.

A poll taken early this year found that 56% of Californians favor legalization, and Gray said he thinks it will pass, but that’s no certainty because “law enforcement and others are going to take their hatchets out.”

Let’s put it to a vote right now. Leave yours in the comments below.

Here’s video of Charlie speaking with reporters before this morning’s hearing.

From the New York Times:

A federal judge here Monday postponed the sentencing of a man convicted of running a [...]]]> Exclusive footage of Charles Lynch from this morning’s sentencing hearing in Los Angeles. The hearing was postponed by Judge George H. Wu until April 30, 2009.

Here’s video of Charlie speaking with reporters before this morning’s hearing.

From the New York Times:

A federal judge here Monday postponed the sentencing of a man convicted of running a medical marijuana dispensary and asked the Department of Justice to clarify its revised position on such cases.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said last week that federal authorities would not seek to prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries if the operations complied with state and local laws, a departure from the Bush administration policy that federal narcotics laws held sway. California is one of 13 states that allow the growth and sales of medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation.

“The judge said this statement raises more questions than it answers,” said Reuven Cohen, a lawyer for the defendant, Charles Lynch. “He said he needed an explanation, and he needed it from the Department of Justice, not the local prosecutor.”

Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the United States attorney in Los Angeles, said that he could not comment on the specifics of the request by Judge George H. Wu, but that prosecutors “do believe that Mr. Lynch violated state law.”

Charles C. Lynch is the former owner and managing Caregiver for Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers in Morro Bay.

The dispensary opened on April 1 2006 with the blessing of the city [...]]]> Court Support Needed for

Federal Sentencing of Charles C. Lynch

March 23, 2009 at 10:30am

312 Spring Street, Los Angeles CA

From the Friends of Charles C. Lynch website:

Charles C. Lynch is the former owner and managing Caregiver for Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers in Morro Bay.

The dispensary opened on April 1 2006 with the blessing of the city and even joined the Chamber of Commerce.  In July 2006 the dispensary was granted a Conditional Use Permit from the City of Morro Bay to include a Medical Cannabis Nursery at the dispensary.

The Dispensary operated for almost one year without any major problems or complaints to the owner. On March 29, 2007 the Local Sheriff and DEA agents raided the Dispensary and Home of Charles Lynch. Lynch was not arrested at the time and reopened the dispensary on April 7 2007 with the blessing of the City of Morro Bay. A week after reopening the dispensary the DEA called the Landlord and threatened him with Forfeiture of his property unless he evicted the Dispensary from the building.  On May 16, 2007 the Dispensary closed permanently.

On July 17, 2007 Lynch was arrested at his home and charged with Federal Marijuana Distribution. Lynch pleaded not guilty and went on trial July 22, 2008 in Los Angeles. Lynch was not allowed to discuss state law or mention ‘medical marijuana’ during the trial. Also large amounts of evidence including Lynch’s compliance with State and Local laws could not be considered as factual by the jury. Before opening the dispensary Lynch called the DEA and asked about thier policy regarding medical marijuana dispensaries. The DEA told Lynch it was up to the Cities and Counties to decide how to handle the matter. This was Lynch’s only defense in Federal Court and is called entrapment by estopell when a government agent says something is ok when in fact it might not be. Click here for more information.

On August 5, 2008 Lynch was convicted in Federal Court for operating the Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers. On January 6, 2009 Lynch appeared before Judge Wu to request a new trial on the grounds that he was not allowed to get his defense before the jury and other new evidence. The request was denied. Charles has been out on a $400,000 bail posted by his loving and trusting family and was under house arrest for over nine months.

During March 2009 United States Policy regarding Medical Marijuana changed in favor of states as long as the dispensary complied with state law. Lynch’s dispensary complied with all state and local laws during the time it was open. Click here to read the San Francisco Chronicles report of the new policy. On Friday March 13, 2009 John Stossel and ABC News 2020 aired he story of Lynch on National Television. On Sunday March 15 Al Roker did a documentary entitled Marijuana Inc. Al Roker reporting and focused in on the case of Charles C. Lynch.

Despite the recent policy changes Charles C. Lynch will be sentenced on March 23, 2009 at the Federal Court House in Los Angeles.

The city of Palm Springs is poised to become the first and only place in Riverside County to allow medical marijuana collectives and cooperatives.

Palm Springs City Council members voted 3-2 Wednesday to create a draft ordinance allowing medical marijuana collectives and operatives.

Councilwoman Ginny Foat and Councilman Lee Weigel voted [...]]]> From The Desert Sun in Palm Springs:

The city of Palm Springs is poised to become the first and only place in Riverside County to allow medical marijuana collectives and cooperatives.

Palm Springs City Council members voted 3-2 Wednesday to create a draft ordinance allowing medical marijuana collectives and operatives.

Councilwoman Ginny Foat and Councilman Lee Weigel voted no, saying they disagree with some of some ordinance details.

The law would:

• Allow only two collectives in the city’s industrial areas.
• Prohibit the establishments within 1,000 feet of each other and within 500 feet of schools, churches, public playgrounds or parks, youth centers and residential areas.
• Allow collectives and cooperatives to grow medical marijuana on the premises.

The council will consider the new ordinance, and if approved, will take effect 30 after the vote. The city has six dispensaries operating illegally and another was waiting for the council’s vote.

The LAPCG is a not-for-profit medical cannabis(marijuana) dispensing collective serving legally-qualified patients since 2004. We provide a community-based solution for the need to safe access to medicine for patients [...]]]> The LAPCG is committed to protecting and providing safe and affordable access to medical cannabis for those qualified under California Health and Safety Code §11362.5 (Proposition 215).

The LAPCG is a not-for-profit medical cannabis(marijuana) dispensing collective serving legally-qualified patients since 2004. We provide a community-based solution for the need to safe access to medicine for patients suffering from HIV/AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, and other serious illness.

LAPCG is organized to serve patients in the Greater Los Angeles area.

Click here for the LAPCG website

May 9, 2008

Sometimes I [...]]]> The LA Times website recently launched their “Best of 2008″ section.

This piece below by Joel Stein was the #4 most read column for 2008 on LA Times.com!

This bud’s for you, and you, and you too

Joel Stein

May 9, 2008

Sometimes I can’t believe how Californian California is. Women walk around half-naked, waiters call patrons “dude,” and medical marijuana is legal. But I wondered just how legal. Could anyone buy it? Even me, who doesn’t have cancer, AIDS, arthritis, glaucoma or even any previous pot-smoking experience?

Medical marijuana isn’t really legal — in 2005, the Supreme Court said federal anti-drug laws trump state laws — but California and 11 other hippie states have been flipping off Washington for years.

Finding a medical marijuana distributor is shockingly easy, as Times columnist Sandy Banks noted in her recent columns on getting pot to treat arthritis. Sprinkled innocuously around L.A. County are more than 200 dispensaries that look like health food stores or pharmacies — including three just at the intersection of Fairfax and Santa Monica. To shop at these places, though, you need a doctor’s recommendation on an official form. Once you have that, no California cop can arrest you for holding up to eight ounces. That amount, I’m guessing, was based on conservative medical estimates of how much Snoop Dogg would need if he came down with glaucoma at the same time Animal Planet aired a “Meerkat Manor” marathon.

I made an appointment at a medical office recommended by Shirley Halperin, the coauthor of the new book, “Pot Culture: The A-Z to Stoner Language & Life.” Halperin chose our particular clinic less for its medical expertise than the fact that it shared a parking lot with a pot dispensary. Stoners are very clearheaded when it comes to avoiding extra effort.

As I sat in the tiny waiting room, filling out my medical history and getting nervous, Halperin assured me that no one she knows had been rejected, which seemed convincing because the only people sitting near me were two healthy looking guys in their 20s. When I got called in, I entered a doctor’s office different from any I’d ever been in. It contained only a tiny desk, two chairs, a small TV and two cans of Glade. Also, the doctor wore a Hawaiian shirt.

He took my blood pressure and asked what I was suffering from. “Anxiety,” I said. And then “occasional insomnia.” And even though he seemed to be moving on, I blurted something about headaches. The only malady that would have made me more similar to every human being throughout history would have been “these painful little pieces of skin that peel up next to my fingernails.”

The doctor followed up on my insomnia, however, and asked if I was having work problems or relationship issues as he handed me a photocopy of a handwritten list of psychiatrists. He’d give me a recommendation for medical marijuana for six months, he said, and would extend it to one year if I saw a therapist. The whole thing took about four minutes.

I paid the receptionist $80 — cash only — and she gave me a filled-out form that states I am under medical care and supervision for the treatment of a “medical problem.” I felt touched that the doctor hadn’t just written I was suffering from “stuff.”

At the dispensary, a Harley-riding bouncer checked my newly minted medical forms and driver’s license and let us inside. The dispensary was like a really nice coffee shop, with paintings on the wall for sale, couches and a drum kit upstairs for live jazz.

A pretty woman behind the counter — kind of a pot sommelier — brought out a huge menu, divided into sativa (uppers) and indica (the downers all dealers sell) varieties, with names such as Bluedot Popcorn, Hindu Skunk and Purple Urkel. Like a high-end tea shop, she used chopsticks to procure the buds from glass jars — all organic and grown in California — which she had me smell and look at under a microscope. I settled on a gram of Sugar Kush, which sounded appealing until I wondered what kind of breakfast cereal would cure Sugar Kush munchies. Honey Bunches of Fudge? Frosted Mini Frosted Minis? Count Plaqula?

Next, I took the advice of a fellow patient and went to buy some “edibles” at the Farmacy. This is the most famous of the L.A. dispensaries, with three locations, only two of which are right next to a Whole Foods. The Westwood branch is a sleek health food store that also sells vitamins and lots of Goji berries, and, unlike at the doctor’s office, all the salespeople wear white lab coats. As a first-timer, I got to spin a wheel to determine my free gift medicine, which was a pot-infused lollipop. I also bought a vegan chocolate-chip cookie medicine and a chocolate bar medicine, and deeply considered the gelato medicine.

Wondering if I had an unusually easy time, I called High Times magazine’s 2006 Stoner of the Year, Doug Benson, a comedian who just released “Super High Me,” a documentary in which he stops smoking pot for 30 days and then, for his next month, is high every waking minute. As part of the documentary, he got his medical marijuana certificate. “I told my doctor I had a weak back. And when he said, ‘How long?’ I said, ‘About a week back.’ ” He did not get rejected. As a patient or a comedian.

In fact, Benson buys all his pot from a dispensary now. Even with the sales tax, he pays the same price and, he said, gets more consistent quality than he did from a dealer. “I had a dealer who came by my house, but this is more convenient,” he said. When I asked him how that could be, he explained: “I used to have to sit there and listen to his stories. Because dealers like to hang out.”

I always wondered what would happen if marijuana were legalized for anyone over 18. It seems it already has been, and nothing happened.

jstein@latimescolumnists.com