Tax season just ended, so I thought I'd talk about something specific to medical marijuana patients: the sin tax on medicinal cannabis that Sacramento voters voted into office in 2010 via Measure C. In a city council session early in Summer 2010, before the midterm election, the Sacramento City Council was having discussions about the medical marijuana ordinance. They were discussing making dispensaries licensed and legal in Sacramento City, when a city council member thought it would be prudent if they put a marijuana tax on the ballot. The idea behind it was that if Prop 19 made it legal for the recreational use of cannabis, they would need a tax structure in place in order to make

Spring has sprung and the time has come for everyone to plant their gardens. If you live in a residential zone in Sacramento, you most likely won't be legally employing the sunshine to nourish your marijuana plants. It has been totally illegal for a few years now to plant any cannabis outdoors or indoors in the County of Sacramento, This was all due to a ban passed by the County Board of Supervisors in 2010. No law prohibiting cultivation of cannabis existed in the City of Sacramento until November 2012 when the Sacramento City Council passed it’s own ban on growing marijuana outdoors. The City Council pushed it through quickly and it now exists in the form of Ordinance 2012-045. This l

HIV/AIDS cycling fundraiser NorCal AIDS Cycle (NCAC) will be recognized by the Sacramento City Council at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 9, for the organization’s fundraising support for HIV/AIDS services in Greater Sacramento and Northern California. The presentation will take place in City Council Chambers, Sacramento City Hall, 915 I Street. District 5 Sacramento City Councilmember Jay Schenirer will present organization leaders with an official resolution in recognition of the event’s role in raising awareness about HIV/AIDS and the more than $1.25 million for HIV/AIDS services the annual event has raised since its founding in 2005. Schenirer was a cyclist in the 2012 ride, and both he and

For the first decade of its nearly 17-year history, Two Rivers Cider was close to a one-man show, with founder and owner Vincent Sterne at center stage. While building his hard cider business, Stern worked behind the bar at Rubicon Brewery, rubbed elbows with those in the homebrewing community and sought advice from wine and beer makers. Back in the mid-’90s, there really wasn't much ado about cider. The bubbly, alcoholic apple drink was in its infancy when Stern broke into the industry, and mostly big brewing companies made fermented fruit suds. "It was mainly large companies I was in competition with, and they weren't giving away their secrets," Sterne said. "When I started there wasn't

Have you ever heard of “drugged driving?” Well, the proponents of Senate Bill 289 are making it their job to bring this new phraseology into the vernacular of the California electorate. What precisely is "drugged driving?" On the surface this law seems to make sense – nobody wants someone who is incapacitated behind the wheel of heavy machinery. However, closer scrutiny reveals that anyone who has consumed cannabis in the last few weeks could test positive. While the law will allow for prescription drugs to be exempt, this exemption does not apply to those who choose marijuana as medicine because they can only get it through a doctors recommendation - which is not the same, legally, as a

Since its formation in 1970, the nonprofit known as the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws aka NORML has not had a presence in the Sacramento area. Originally formed by Keith Stroup on a mere $5,000 donation from the Playboy Foundation, the Washington, D.C.-based group has grown to have 12 chapters in California and more than 100 in other American cities and abroad. Bob “Adman” Bowerman took it upon himself to change all that. Newly retired at 61 from his multimillion-dollar ad agency Concepts, Bowerman became familiar with medical cannabis due to personal illness. “I got my medical cannabis card in 2002,” he told me in a recent interview. "Cannabis has helped me thro

Try to imagine you are in jail charged with a marijuana crime. You’ve been lead to believe that all your friends believe the exaggerated claims made about you by the media. You enter a courtroom, but are in a cage to protect the room from you. Feeling humiliated, subjugated and demoralized you look up to see a courtroom full of people wearing green ribbons to show their support.. You are elated! You can see your community has not turned its back on you – you have friends who care enough to support you. This is the power of court support. On March 9, over 30 supporters of medical marijuana filled up a courtroom in Yuba County for the case of Eric Salerno. The group was organized by Winagai

If you pay attention to medical marijuana politics, you may know some of the big California activists like Ed Rosenthal, Dennis Peron, and the DeAngelo Brothers. Not a lot of people know the folks behind-the-scenes and fighting locally for patients’ rights to access cannabis free of harm. Since I’ll be writing about these folks regularly, I thought I’d take a minute to introduce you to them. I have to start with Joy Cole, a local activist and founder of “SacPatients” a Sacramento based patient advocacy group that hosted a lot of the rallies and educational events early on in our movement. who passed away on April 29th 2012. She was a cancer survivor living in Del Paso Heights. In spite o

If time really is money, then a government watchdog group is hoping the Sacramento City Council will become a bit more generous.  Eye on Sacramento on Tuesday announced its plans to request that the council extend the time limit that members of the public are allotted when addressing the council. And in the process, improve the quality of public discourse that the group argues has eroded over the years. "The bottom line is this is a real test for how democratic our city government really wants to be," said Craig Powell, president of Eye on Sacramento on Tuesday. "This is about the purest form of contact the citizen has to their government, to speak to them directly at meetings." Specifi

The city council chambers will likely be packed tonight with supporters of two different breeds – those rallying to keep the Kings in Sacramento, and those fighting to keep medical marijuana dispensaries in the central city. Catch our live coverge below:  On tap is a public hearing to amend the city's zoning code as it relates to medical marijuana dispensaries. In keeping with federal law, Councilman Darrell Fong wants to extend the distance dispensaries can operate from schools and parks, from the current requirement of 600 feet, to 1,000 feet.  This new requirement would force the roughly 10 remaining dispensaries located in the central city to move, said Councilman Steve Cohn. The

On February 26 2013, the Sacramento City Council will likely vote on altering Ordinance 2010-037, the law that governs the medical marijuana dispensaries and their permitting process. The council will be deciding whether to alter the sensitive-use requirements from 600 feet away from schools and parks to 1,000 feet away. The medical cannabis community has been lobbying for weeks now in an attempt to make the city council understand how negatively this will impact our community. The common justification for modifying city law to match federal law is that children need to be protected. There’s a fear of minors walking past dispensaries and smelling cannabis, or being harassed or harmed by l

Sacramento may join 60 other California jurisdictions in banning plastic bags, making it the first major inland city in the state to do away with them, if Davis and Chico don't beat it to the punch. "There is a leadership role for the city to play," said Councilman Steve Cohn, who asked staff to research the regulation of single-use plastic bags in the city. "It's time for Sacramento to do this." A movement to ban such bags is making its way through city hall, and was a topic of discussion at Tuesday's law and legislation committee meeting. Such a ban would eliminate most plastic bags used at retailers, with the exception of take-out food, produce and meat, and pharmaceuticals. Doing so

Throngs of Kings supporters flooded the city council chambers Tuesday evening, supporting a downtown arena and to keep the Kings in the city.  Councilman Allen Warren reported there are 25 locals who have pleged $1 million each to keep the team. At one point, a member of Crown Downtown presented the group's white T-shirt to the newest councilmen – Allen Warren and Steve Hansen – and even included a onesie for Vice Mayor Angelique Ashby's expected baby.  Mike Barnbaum, of Think Big Sacramento and Crown Downtown, said entertainment options need to be kept in Sacramento, that are not only accessible to people in cars. He went on to say that Seattle wants this prize in their city, and "my th

After hearing the arguments of 18 impassioned medical marijuana advocates and a few foes, a decision on whether to toughen the zoning restrictions on medical marijuana dispensaries was pushed back Tuesday night by the City Council. The council was poised to pass an ordinance amendment which would have increased the distance dispensaries are required to be from schools from 600 to 1,000 feet, but the item was pushed back three weeks after some council members spoke against the proposal and directed staff to do further research. "My concern is we've created an outright ban," said District 3 Councilman Steve Cohn. "What we're talking about here is medical marijuana, not recreational marijua

The city council is expected to tackle a slew of hot items Tuesday night, including a marijuana dispensary ordinance, the mid-year budget adjustments and a report on city employees' credit card purchases.  The mid-year budget report – which makes recommendations on which city departments' budgets should be cut or bolstered – does not include any more money for the police department, much to the ire of some Midtowners.  Midtown resident George Raya said money from Measure U should be used now to help the police department, given the crime in the neighborhood. “We passed Measure U to restore cuts made to law enforcement, to fire, parks and rec,” he said. “So why are we going to wait until

The City Council of Sacramento is planning to address amending Ordinance No. 2010-038, adopted by the Sacramento City Council on Nov. 9, 2010. Part D, section iii, currently reads, "No medical marijuana dispensary shall be established or located within 600 feet, measured from the nearest property lines of each of the affected parcels, of any park, school (public or private K-12), child care center, child care-family day care home (large or small), youth-oriented facility, church/faith congregation, substance abuse center, movie theater/cinema, or tobacco store.” Though I’m not privy to the new language, the gist of what the City Council plans is to extend restrictions on parks, schools (pu

Sacramento's vice mayor is expecting a baby girl in early May. Vice Mayor Angelique Ashby made the announcement Friday on her blog. Already a mother of two boys – ages 17 and 8 – Ashby's newest addition will make a family of five. "So this is my third little one," she said in an interview Friday. "I'm pretty familiar with the process I"ll have to go through with my body, and what it takes to get through those first few weeks going with the baby." Ashby has a cesarean section scheduled for the first week of May and will be unavailable the following two weeks, she said. She will be available on a limited basis the remainder of the month, but "back into the full swing of things" by the end

     A couple of years back around the 4th of July, a Sacramento Bee article touted the virtues of voting and participating in government: it blasted Americans for a lack of civic engagement.  I agree that too many Americans foolishly ignore the privilege of voting, lazily observe what government is doing and blatantly fail to get involved.  But the article, like many people do, failed to address a very real and dangerous aspect of this predicament.  The problem is unofficial efforts to suppress citizen involvement and then minimizing their actions when they do engage in the political process.      Governing officials use a variety of strategies to achieve outcomes they want and the concer

The following are issues that Sacramento residents have brought to the city council’s attention during the public comment session. From getting a handle on gun violence in Sacramento’s crime-ridden neighborhoods, to finding long-term ways to help the mentally ill, the public always have something to say to the city. Below are some highlights (and video clips linked) from Tuesday’s meeting: Ben Bradley on mental illness  A lifelong Sacramento resident who's been living downtown recently – Ben Bradley – spoke on mental illness and how it affects those in the area. Specifically, on Monday, two women returning from yoga class on S and 19th Street, were attacked and assaulted randomly by

With nearly $2 billion in long-term debt, the city can’t afford to borrow any more money. This is the message that the city treasurer will deliver to the Sacramento City Council at Tuesday’s meeting. "The city's tapped out," said City Treasurer Russell Fehr, who will be presenting an hour-long report on the topic. "We have very large, long-term liabilities and we have to be very cautious about assuming any new ones. That's the essence of the message." According to the report, the long-term debt and interest must be paid over the next 30 years, which passes the financial burden onto future generations. However, the debt is at a fixed rate, so it won't increase and there are "no time bombs