Troy Holden

Yet, in L.A., the weed game has clearly become about money and entrepreneurship, so much so that the likes of District Attorney Steve Cooley and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich have repeatedly noted this fact in their sometimes futile crusades against the medical cannabis trade.

Now, one of the authors of a landmark medical marijuana law in California says it was never meant to prohibit profit-taking by pot shops:

The Wow Report

Dennis Peron.

Some pro-medical marijuana folks actually want the state to regulate the industry better: It might save dispensaries from cities that want to ban them outright. So they're working on putting the Medical Marijuana Regulation, Control, and Taxation Act before voters. It would create statewide pot shop police. Really.

Even stranger? The guy who's known as "the father of medical marijuana" is against it:

Fast Times

Free marijuana floating in the ocean was just there for the taking. Unfortunately, Sheriff's deputies got to it before any of the guys at Venice Pier could.

Damn it:

We

After all, she readily portrays herself as the ultimate red-carpet Nazi, able to destroy superstar sartorial choices that mere mortal observers can only fawn over.

But what we really want to know is: Will the city of Los Angeles follow through on its threat to shut down all the marijuana dispensaries in town, thus taking away valued medicine from senior citizens like her?

psycho with a heart

The department has, almost single-handed, closed down all the collectives in Chatsworth, according to City News Service.

The latest victim?

Andrew Hecht

The prospect of seeing our town lose its 500 or so medical dispensaries has inspired the Union of Medical Marijuana Patients to present City Hall with alternatives.

This morning the group will ...

Joseph Leonardo

The people who want to decriminalize marijuana are bringing the issue to President Obama this morning.

A retired LAPD deputy chief, Stephen Downing, submitted a video to the White House in which he asks what the president would say to those who want "more changes to drug policy" -- changes that would favor legalization and regulation.

It was the top video clip in a vote-based contest to see what the most popular questions would be for the president; he vowed to answer some of the winners today.

You know what Sacramento's about.

But the reality of politics in Sacramento often has little to do with your will. Business lobbyists and police organizations are trying to block two such bills in the state legislature.

And time is running out:

But they sure do seem to attract occasional violence. A RAND study last year was retracted after claiming that crime actually went down around dispensaries. Not so said the LAPD.

And not to blame the victims: The valuable drugs and cash-and-carry nature of the business seems to attract bad guys with guns. Sometimes.

In our latest edition of pot shop violence we have ...

NJ Weedman.

The raid last month happened at his Liberty Bell Temple II dispensary on Hollywood Bouelvard. DEA officials wouldn't tell us why the hit the collective. They'd only say that the search and seizure was part of an ongoing investigation.

It has us on the edge of our seats.

Score one for the pro-cannabis nation: The California Supreme Court will take up the very state court ruling that has jeopardized cannabis stores in this pot shop capital of the nation.

Good times.

According to a statement, the feds today filed "asset forfeiture" lawsuits against ...

Mikey Wally

... Beyonce and Jay Z's newborn baby girl, Blue Ivy Carter.

Ah, yes, this will get us all to realize the pot dispensary game is really about making granny's bad back better:

Dank Depot

Boy have we got an investment opportunity for you. It's called legal weed, and it could soon be a very limited commodity in the Los Angeles area.

That's because L.A. Councilman Jose Huizar has proposed banning all medical marijuana dispensaries within city limits.

The day of reckoning could come sooner than you thought, as the council's Public Safety Committee will begin hashing out the details today:

Behold the terroir.

High Times magazine's Cannabis Cup, the world's most prestigious (only?) marijuana judging competition is finally coming to Los Angeles after decades in Amsterdam and years in San Francisco.

What took them so long?

We asked associate publisher Rick Cusick:

Torben Hansen

Not bad, apparently.

Often cited are the ridiculous stats claiming that 53,800 people die each year from exposure to secondhand smoke. (Coughs: bullshit).

Perhaps, then, there is a safer, greener way to put hot air in your lungs without putting your kind neighbors in the grave.

It turns out maybe there is:

roboppy

But a practice advocated by Dr. William Courtney, an M.D. from Willits, California seems to be gaining traction in 2012:

He wants you to juice your marijuana. That's right, put that valuable green stuff in a blender and drink it up like a banana milkshake. Mmm.

And the best benefit (allegedly)?

He once shook the hand of a Marine, which is outside protocol, and you just know that he plays it cool.

But Snoop Dogg's recent suggestion is beyond the bounds of even Obama's loosened-up mores:

psycho with a heart

A study analyzing the MRI scans of a small sample of weed users unleashed this week concludes that "THC significantly increased the severity of psychotic symptoms ... "

Maybe that's not enough of a warning to get you to stay away from the dispensaries, but ...

NJ Weedman

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration played The Grinch when it raided a Hollywood dispensary popular with celebs in the days before Christmas, its owner, NJ Weedman, tells LA Weekly.

The DEA cleared the place out, seized marijuana, drained his bank accounts and shuttered his South L.A. grow operation, says the man also known as Ed Forchion.

We tried to get a comment from the DEA but were unsuccessful. Weedman says it all went down ...