The Argonaut, 11 Oct 2012 – Hoping to study the potential effects of medical marijuana dispensaries and the best way to regulate their operations, the Santa Monica City Council has approved a 45-day moratorium on issuing licenses for the businesses. The City Council voted unanimously Oct. 2 to pass the moratorium after the city has received four over-the-counter inquiries and 11 telephone inquiries over the last three months to establish medical pot dispensaries in Santa Monica. Staff had recommended the 45-day freeze on licenses because the city’s zoning ordinance does not contain regulations governing the establishment, location and operation of such businesses. Additionally, the law on enforcing the regulation of pot collectives currently has uncertainties, staff noted.

The Tribune, 10 Oct 2012 – About 10 people urged the Arroyo Grande City Council on Tuesday evening to allow mobile medical marijuana dispensaries to operate in the city, saying the cannabis eases ill people’s pain and gives them a safer alternative to prescription medications. The council, though, voted unanimously to prohibit such dispensaries from operating within the city.

Record Searchlight, 06 Oct 2012 – Authorities around California have been raiding medical marijuana gardens on private lands, saying the "excessive" size of the grows show they’re not medicinal. Investigators say the use of smaller, private illegal gardens are growing here in the north state, too.

New York Times, 08 Oct 2012 – LOS ANGELES – One year after federal law enforcement officials began cracking down on California’s medical marijuana industry with a series of high-profile arrests around the state, they finally moved into Los Angeles last month, giving 71 dispensaries until Tuesday to shut down. At the same time, because of a well-organized push by a new coalition of medical marijuana supporters, the City Council last week repealed a ban on the dispensaries that it had passed only a couple of months earlier. Despite years of trying fruitlessly to regulate medical marijuana, California again finds itself in a marijuana-laced chaos over a booming and divisive industry.

DrugSense

Tahoe Daily Tribune, 05 Oct 2012 – Although the former Third Street site of the City of Angels 2 medical marijuana collective sat shuttered Friday, the fight over the marijuana dispensary appears far from over. On Wednesday, attorneys representing the collective filed suit against the South Lake Tahoe City Council and former City Manager Tony O’Rourke, challenging the city’s July denial of a proposed relocation of the pot club.

Santa Monica Mirror, 05 Oct 2012 – A 45-day moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries was officially put into effect Tuesday after the Santa Monica City Council approved an interim ordinance to place into a holding pattern the issuing of business licenses, entitlements, or permits to companies seeking to issue the substance for medicinal purposes. Council members unanimously approved the moratorium with the intention of determining how Santa Monica could possibly have medical marijuana dispensaries within city limits once the 45-day suspension comes to an end.

Hesperia Star, 05 Oct 2012 – HESPERIA – The doors to one of the last remaining medical marijuana dispensaries in Hesperia are permanently locked, after owners of the High Desert Compassionate Collective were evicted. Owners of the collective, located in the four-unit strip mall in the Mesa area, on the corner of Danbury Road and "I" Avenue, were served papers on Wednesday morning – one day short of HDCC’s five-month anniversary.

Daily Press, 05 Oct 2012 – HESPERIA * The doors to one of the last remaining medical marijuana dispensaries in Hesperia are permanently locked, after owners of the High Desert Compassionate Collective were evicted. Owners of the collective, located in the four-unit strip mall in the Mesa area, on the corner of Danbury Road and "I" Avenue, were served papers on Wednesday morning – one day short of HDCC’s five-month anniversary.

East Bay Express, 03 Oct 2012 – Newly Released Police Records Prove That the Medical Pot Institutions Are Not Menaces to Society. Newly released records from the Oakland Police Department provide conclusive evidence that the world’s largest medical pot dispensary, Harborside Health Center, and the famed cannabis college, Oaksterdam University, do not attract crime – thereby refuting allegations that such places are menaces to society. According to records of OPD calls, incidents, and arrests, Harborside, which sees 700 to 1,000 patients a day, was the site of just one arrest in almost four years – – and that involved a non-patient who tried to get into the club.