Steve Klassen spearheaded the right to open medical marijuana dispensaries in the Town of Mammoth Lakes. It was a lengthy process, including a vote of the people. Now, following news that a U.S.
Green Mammoth was located at 94 Laurel Mt. Road in Mammoth Lakes.
Attorney would meet with the Mono DA’s office over dispensary operations, Klassen has closed the doors of his outlet, Green Mammoth.
On Tuesday, Klassen told the Sierra Wave that he had made the decision to close Green Mammoth. He said he called the Mammoth Lakes Police Department and withdrew his application for permit renewal. While there has been no direct effort to close Mammoth’s dispensaries, the broader news looks threatening. Klassen said, “Because of conflicting information I can’t continue. I can’t risk imminent closure.”
News reports have indicated that multiple letters are being sent out, threatening landlords with property seizure and prosecution if dispensaries are not booted out. Faced with “a letter or a possible raid, I am not comfortable remaining open,” said Klassen. He called it disheartening. A crusader for individual rights, Klassen said, “It’s a baseline of human rights to use the medicine you know will help you.”
Earlier, Assistant Mono District Attorney Tim Kendall had said that all 34 counties that are represented in the Eastern District of California have been invited to a sit down with the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District. That includes Mono County. Kendall said this invitation has been extended to the DA’s in the other Districts as well. The topic of discussion is medical marijuana dispensary operation.
There has been no current news about Mammoth’s other dispensary, Mammoth Lakes Wellness, owned by Robert Calvert.
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sierragrl….I’m guessing something more sinister……See post # 2……
Medical Marijuana. The poster child for the term oxymoron. The easy gateway for kids to obtain marijuana.
What’s with this crap of posts being “hidden due to low reader comment reading”? I thought liberals were pro free speech………..
I’m guessing the profit margin wasn’t what he was hoping for…otherwise he’d still be open. maybe mammoth only has enough potheads for one dispensary. But hey people, pot is way less harmful then alcohol no ifs ands or buts…the major risk with pot is becoming a pothead…ie. losing your drive to do things in life. If you work at vons, carl’s jr., MMSA and have no other plans with your life, what the heck, smoke pot
I think people smoke pot for the same reason they go skiing. They enjoy it.
Wayne-it gets old having to pull all your comments out of the hidden column. Save us the time will ya?
Awesome!
Why can I envision a room full of “guy-guys” all sitting around a cramped one bedroom apartment in the low-rent district of town,where one of the roommates has a job,and all the other 6 or 7 are unemployed,playing video games all day,eating,lazing around,passing around the bong….and one of the “guys”gets on the computer,sees a comment on the Sierra-Wave website they don’t agree with,and each one,laughing and giggleing as they do it,voting down the comment?
Roy-
I sat outside my bank for 10 minutes and 5 people with dresses went in. They must have been women. Wow. Looks like I have a future in law enforcement!
Roy……THANK YOU….
Yesterday in my city I had to take something into a shop for a minor repair. 2 doors down from the business was a recently opened pot shop….I sat in my vehicle for about a hour waiting for my item to be fixed. I watched about 10-12 people walk into the pot shop, everyone was 18-25 and none appeared to have any physical problems….No one will ever be able to convince me that the majority of the card holders actually have a medical problem where MJ would help their ailment…..
Having spent 30 years in law enforcement I’m pretty darn good at spotting dopers and every person I watched going into the pot shop I classified as a doper not someone with a verified medical problem..
Anyone can do the same thing at the shop located in the outlet mall…..just sit in the parking lot for a while and watch who goes inside….I don’t do this for sport….just waiting on a friend to finish shopping the other day….a very eye-opening experience.
“I classified as a doper”
Not that that’s profiling or anything.
30 years in law enforcement and you report that you are really good at judging, classifying and profiling people? Ever heard of probable cause? If you have x-ray medical vision you should be worth millions. Since you don’t have a medical degree of any sort you should be ashamed of yourself! Your job as law enforcement is to enforce the law! Not judge people for appearances. Many conditions are not visible to the naked eye and once again, unless you resume’ has- PHD (With x-ray medical vision) on it, then you, ROY, are part of what is wrong with America today! If you were able to sum all of those folks up as “dopers” purely based on appearance, I wonder how many good people’s rights you stepped on or ignored in your 30 years on the job? What makes you so qualified to pass judgement on others from the convenience of your vehicle? No where in your post was there 1 single instance of any actual investigation, let alone intellect. Thank god they retired a dust ol fart, dinosaur cop like yourself.
Roy…..What “Monet” is trying to say is it was probably obvious that these 12 eighteen year olds you saw entering,and purchasing their “medicine” from the marijuana quick stop accually were all disabled citizens with terrible diseases,or going through painful treatments for their conditions….and you just did not see it that way…Kinda like the guy that I mentioned in a previous post…..pulling the “triple whammy”….fake illness,not only to obtain an MMJ card,but at the same time, with his “illness”,able to get on SSI….. AND a reason not to work… with free money coming in from the State.
Courts require probable cause, the rest of us can go with profiling and common sense.
Trouble falling asleep is all that is required to become legal under prop 215. After a little medical mj you’ll fall asleep right after you eat that bowl of ice cream.
Problem is,usually it’s after a night out getting high and stoned with their friends……and the problem being able to sleep is their parents yelling and getting upset with their 38 year old for not getting out and finding a job….instead of napping all day in their basement.
Wayne – The people I know who have MMJ cards are 50 years old business owners who provided health benifits to their employees, own 2nd homes with garages full of toys and they’re sitting behind their desk by 6 a.m. each morning. I’m not saying there isn’t people around like you describe, but I think you’d be shocked to really know who uses medical mj.
How long we gonna beat this dead horse?
Rob….The people I know that have MMJ cards….or just regular marijuana users… are guys that do very little work,have girlfriends,or wives that more or less support the household,being more like a Mother than a spouse or girlfriend with them,when they do get a job,or have some money in their pocket,they either spend it on more drugs,or on their group of “guy friends” partying…Now just maybe,in some instances,what you say is,and can, be true…. But do you and others REALLY believe the majority of marijuana users are successful business men,with good stable homes,nice cars,and lots of $$$ to spend,happy wives and children,with 2 or more homes…..or are the majority(a BIG majority of them)useless,lazy,immature bums?
Wayne – I know there are people out there like you speak of, but I sure don’t cross paths with them. I suppose we could start making excuses for their actions, but they are probably lazy freeloaders regardless of their medical mj use or not.
I’ll stand by my post and my 30 years of dealing with people, 10 of which I worked narcotics, some of it in a undercover capacity. I have forgotten more about the drug world and the people in it than you will ever know…
In my 30 year career I never had one internal investigation for my police work and I worked for one of the largest depts. in the country…
Roy,
Could you sit outside a Doctors office and advise which of the people going in were going in for this illness as opposed for another? Which are currently sick or just in need of herpie cream? You and your 30 years of LEO experience have a future on Dionne Warwick’s “Pyschic Friends Network”. Thank god, I assume, you are retired.
Steve….One of my New Year’s resolution’s is to not comment on “marijuana issues” anymore on the Sierra Wave web-site,so this could be my last.With your statements,certain things should not be put to the vote of the people…Prop.8 is a good example…another is allowing legal drug use,and legal selling of drugs.And,in my opinion,and the opinion of lots of others,that is what the MMJ prop has allowed.And,with what it has turned into,with all the loop-holes allowed,if it were put to a vote AGAIN I don’t think it would pass like it did in 1996.I voted yes on that prop back then,because of the way it was written…a compassionate thing to do for those with serious illnesses’,and a way to deal with pain from treatments.Not the way it turned out to be.Throwing myself under the bus here,but I know of young adults with a MMJ card because of their parents personally knowing a doctor,and joking about getting one because of fake “disabilities”.I know of one guy on SSI …that works under the table,making more $ than I do,with an MMJ card…that suppliments his income by legally growing and selling his dope to whoever wants to buy…MMJ card or not.As far as the town of Mammoth voting on and passing legal MMJ shops,if legally drinking and driving a vehicle,or allowing taverns up there to legally stay open 24/7 serving alcohol to 18 year olds and over were put to a vote UP THERE,a good chance it would pass,not only because it would allow people to party all the time,but would also bring in more money to the business’that serve alcohol.And let everyone to do as they please with no laws,or safety concerns for others.People try to say you can drive,and function fine when under the influence of pot…when they know that is not true.People try to say weed is not addictive.Maybe for some,it’s not…but for others it is.Especially for those that are long time pot smokers in their 40’s or 50’s.Even though having an MMJ card makes it legal to get high,it still causes restrictions on those looking for work in this time of high unemployment.My bosses’ aren’t required to hire someone that openly admits to having a legal right to smoke pot,or fails a drug test….and they won’t.And when they used to,it was ALWAYS a short term employment for them…once for losing the job because of a DUI(driving under the influence of marijuana,and thinking it was OK and legal to do)…another because of customer complaints because of smelling like weed and obviously being high on the job,in a customers home trying to do work.If they re-wrote the law,allowing MMJ to patients that accually benifited from it’s use,I’d vote in favor of it again.It wasn’t intended to allow people that don’t need it to legally smoke it…or allow people to legally grow and then sell it.When it was put to a vote back in 1996,does anyone really think it would have passed if they thought a 19 year old with anger problems,or a 22 year old with arthritis in his elbow would be able to get a med.card? I doubt it….That’s it….gotta go to work…..
I thought we lived in a democracy, the State of California voted for it; IT PASSED. Then Mammoth Lakes voted for it “IT PASSED.” I’m not for medical marijuana, but when the majority have spoken then I really don’t think the government should have a right to stop it.
I guess the term “for the people by the people” no longer applies in the country anymore.
The same goes for the Gay Marriage ban. The people voted for it (twice) but the California Courts don’t care about the vote of California Voters. I am not a supporter of legalizing marijuana but the American Voters don’t matter anymore.
Steve, there’s a difference between a state ignoring what its own voters passed (e.g., the gay marriage ban) and the feds exercising their authority under the Supremacy Clause. A state can’t vote to institute a law that conflicts with federal law. Maybe the feds should not be in the drug regulation business and should leave it to the states, but that horse left the barn years ago.
Medical marijuana probably is a sham in many instances, but then, looking at the wreck Mexico has become fueled by American drug demand, and the wreck too many Americans have become because of their drug addictions, it’s tough to characterize the War on Drugs as anything better than a sham. Because of this massive failure of money and effort, conservatives such as William F. Buckley and liberals alike have advocated drug legalization for many years, but the feds aren’t listening, and when the most liberal Administration in history insists on cracking down on medical marijuana, it’s a safe bet that legalization at the federal level will not happen in our lifetimes. And as long as that state of affairs remains, local votes for legalization are just whistling Dixie.
OH NO!!!!!…OH MY GOSH!!!!!!…Like a poster said going by the name”oh my gosh” on another post….”Stay calm,folks……in the face of adversity!”. give me a break!!!..Seems to me the “magic bullet” in Mr.Klassen’s decision to close down his pot shop just might be the Fed’s saying they were going to look into the “legal guide-lines” of operation into these marijuana quick stops….and making sure these “pharmasists”are legally despencing their “medicine” to legitimate “patients”…and if that is not how things were being done,big trouble was soon to follow…..from the Feds.Mr.Klassen,if you were indeed operating within the legal guide-lines,and kept records of doing so,there should be no fear of a raid,arrest,or risk of closure.And if you really are a crusader of individual rights,by closing your shop,what it does is make you not much of a martyr for the “cause”…..Now if you weren’t operating within the legal guide-lines,with threats from the feds of checking into things, closing your shop..BEFORE you get that knock on the door….smart move.
Wayne,
Reports indicate that the Feds are at work to close down any dispensary (letters to landlords).
BK
Bennett,
The letters to landlords only went to a handful of them. The Feds once again only targeted a few dispensaries they thought were outside the state guidlines!
Some reports also indicate that very few of these dispensaries operate within the legal guide-lines.
Wayne,
We all know where you pull your reports out of!
Yeah,and it’s not out of one of those pro-drug legalization web sites the pot heads,trying to justify their drug abuse,visit on a daily basis…when they should be out looking for a job.
I hope Klassen knows there are many people here that appreciate his efforts and wish him the best. And no I don’t smoke it, but believe in my freedom of choice.